When I was a kid we had a pet budgie, shamefully held captive is a small cage. Today in my fourth visit to Australia I finally caught up with a wild budgerigar at Exmouth sewage works. Truth to tell I've been seeing flocks of up to 30 birds flying over for a day or two now, but they never seem to land until today, when I spotted this cracking female sitting on the perimeter fence.
However, just because we remember budgies with affection from our childhood doesn't mean that we should under estimate them or regard them as "plastic" or feral in anyway. I've heard budgerigars described as the hardiest of all Australian birds, they live in extreme environments in the baking heat of the arid heart of Australia and are nomadic, flocking together in huge numbers in their search for water and food. How awful to keep a bird with such a lifestyle in a tiny cage, yet pet shops still sell them and people still keep them.
What a bird this is, joint bird of the holiday so far!
Zebra finch.
Terek sandpiper.
Spinifex, but no pigeon.
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