Sparkie Williams - An Extradorniary Budgie

Think that all parakeets are alike and won't ever learn to talk like larger parrots? Well, think again as you meet Sparkie who inspired more than just one person to work with them daily. Sparkie Williams (1954–1962) was a talking budgie who has provided the inspiration for a new opera by Michael Nyman and Carsten Nicolai. The opera was performed in Berlin in March 2009. Sparkie had a repertoire of more than 500 words and eight nursery rhymes, becoming a national celebrity after fronting an advertising campaign for Capern’s bird seed, and making a record which sold 20,000 copies. After he died, he was stuffed and put on show at Newcastle’s Hancock Museum.

Born and bred in North East England, Sparkie was owned by Mrs Mattie Williams, who lived in Forest Hall, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He earned his name after Mrs Williams called him ‘A bright little spark,' and she taught him to speak, recite songs and sing nursery rhymes. Sparkie had a huge repertoire of words and sayings. By the time he was three-and-a-half, he had won the BBC International Cage Word Contest in July 1958. He was so good, in fact, that he was disqualified from taking part again.

Sparkie was courted by bird seed sellers and fronted the advertisement campaign for Capern’s bird seed for two years. He was recorded talking with budgie expert Philip Marsden on BBC radio, and appeared on the BBC Tonight programme with Cliff Michelmore. When Sparkie died, he was stuffed by the best taxidermist in London and taken on a tour of Britain in an exhibition of his life and work, before coming back to the Hancock Museum in 1996. Sparkie Williams is acclaimed as the world’s most outstanding talking bird in the Guinness Book of Records.

He is now part of the collections owned by the Natural History Society of Northumbria.

The new opera inspired by Sparkie is based on Michael Nyman’s 1977 piece Pretty Talk. The original piece used material from a record made by Capern’s bird-food company to help customers teach their pet birds to talk. The 7-inch flexi disc played short sentences spoken by Sparkie’s owner, Mrs Williams, to encourage her pet to speak - followed by replies from Sparkie himself. The new opera, Sparkie: Cage and Beyond, features further recordings from the ‘Sparkie’ archives of the Natural History Society of Northumbria. A CD of Sparkie talking has already been released.

Work on a £26 million extension and refurbishing of the Hancock Museum in Newcastle will see it re-open in May 2009 as part of the Great North Museum. Sparkie will be among the exhibits on show to visitors.

So if you think that a little parakeet won't be enough to keep you happy, or that they aren't quiet as smart as other, larger parrots - think again and take another look at them the next time you head to the pet store. One of them could just be your "Sparkie".