3 Great Birds For Kids

Since children are often fascinated by birds, which makes them want to own one as a pet. Of course, as parents, it can be hard to determine which bird species are the best pets for your child, especially if it is a first pet. So, to help you out a bit, here are the top three birds that make exceppent pets for children:

1. Budgies/Parakeets: There is a reason that these are the most popular pet bird species out there. Not only are they extremely colorful and fun, but they can also tolerate being handled very well. They are also very easy to care for and they can even learn to talk. Since they do have very gentle personalities, they do bond very strongly with their owners, which makes them excellent pets for kids.

2. Cockatiels: This is the largest bird on this list and do very will with older children that will devote a lot of time interacting with them. Since Cockatiels can easily learn to talk, whistle, and do tons of other tricks, it makes them a delightful pet for children to have. They do require time out of their cages and they do require a bit more care than budgies or our next bird on the list. So, you want to make sure that you learn a lot about them before buying one for your child.

3. Finches & Canaries: These are by far the easiest to care for as they don't require a lot of interaction by you or your child. They are very pretty birds, which make them great for young children, and they sing a lot, which gives your child some wonderful "music" to listen to. Finches don't care too much for interaction with humans, so if you decide to get one, make sure that you get at least a pair so they won't get lonely. Now, you cannot take them out of their cage and handle them, as they can easily get hurt, so these are not the right pet for your child if they want a bird that they can interact with.

Overall, any of these three species make excellent pets for beginners or children. Just make sure that you do read up on the care, diet, and overall health concerns for each one before you head out to the pet store to get a new friend.

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".

Budgerigar Color Mutations

The exact science of budgie color genetics deals with the different mutations and how hereditary they are. These mutations cause the different feahters to change color in the birds when they breed. For example, in the wild, Budgies are normally called "lightgreen" as they contain a black type melanin called eumelanin as well as a basic yellow pigment called psittacofulvin. Other parrot species produce different advanced-psittacin that gives them the ability to produce different colors such as oranges, pinks, reds, and even peaches. But, when these feathers are explosed to sunlight, only the blue part of the spectrum is reflected by their eumelanin granules. Since the blue light passes through the yellow layer of their pigmentations, it results in the lightgreen coloration that we know and love in parakeets.

Of course, there are tons of color mutations that have been bred into them in captivity. All of these fall into four major groups:

Albinism: this is where the eumelanin is partially or completely reduced in the body tissues and structures of the bird

Dilution: this is where the eumelanin is reduced only in their feathers

Leucism: this is where the eumelanin is completely reduced from total or localized feather patches

Melanism: this is where the eumelanin is increased in the feathers

Some of the more popular mutations of budgies colors include:

Dark: this is where they turn a dark green and cobalt blue or olive and mauve

Goldenfaced: this is where they have a golden sheen to their faces

Violet: this is where their feathers are a beautiful purple or violet color

Dilute: this is where they can be any different shade of yellow or white, or a suffused white

There are tons of different colors in between all of these different mutations and you will notice that the chicks you breed will all look different from each other, and normally different from the parents as well. So, don't get discouraged if your first brood doesn't have much in the way of looks or doesn't have any of the different mutations that you were hoping for. Each budgie is special in their own way and you will find that they will all grow up to be beautiful birds.

Birds of Birdland: The Budgie (or Parakeet)

The common parakeets that you will see in pet stores are actually a parrot and are called a budgerigar, or shell parakeet. You'll hear these referred to as budgies or parakeets, and they are a very small parrot species and the only species in the Australian genus Melopsittacus. They are predominantly green and yellow with black markings, but you will find that they have been bred extensively so that there are so many different color variations today. Some of these beautiful variations include: blue and white, yellow and blue, all white, all yellow, and every mix in between. The closests related parrot species to them is the lories and fig parrots.

In the wild, budgies are mainly nomadic birds that are found in open habitats, normally in Australian scrublands, woodlands, and grasslands. They do keep to small flocks but if needed, they can form a very large, noisy flock. They move wherever water and food can easily be found and drought can drive them into more of the coastal or wooded areas that they would not normally be found it. They love seeds of spinifex, grass weeds, and even ripening wheat.

The budgerigar is only one of two different parrot species that are genuinely domecticated, the other being the peach-faced lovebirds. They are widely regarded as being the most common pet parrot in the world and probably the most common caged bird as well. They have been bred in captivity since the 1850's and throughout the years, breeders have worked to produce an endless variety of different colors, patterns, and mutations in their feathers - some of the more unique ones include solid blue, albinos, cinnamon-ino, clearwinged, crested, dark, opaline, pieds, spangled, and even violet.

When compared to the wild budgerigars, the English (or show) budgies are about twice their size. But, this is a combination of both breeding and the size of their feathers, as English budgies have large, puffy head feathers that exaggerate their looks. These can get so large that their eyes and bead can almost be totally covered by these larger feathers. Of course, those that raise English budgies usually do so for show and they normally live between 7-9 years. Most of the budgies that you will find in pet stores are the "wild type" budgies, meaning that they are more similar to those found in the wild instead of the English ones.

But just because they are small doesn't mean that they are not smart! Parakeets, or budgies, can easily be talk to speak, whistle, and play and love interactions with other budgies and humans. Both sexes can learn to sing and mimic sounds as well as do a few tricks. Of course, the singing and mimicing are more prounounced and easier to perfect in males, as females normally will only learn about a dozen words or so. Males have been known to learn between a dozen and hundreds of words. But, those that talk to and work with their budgies the most will see the most interaction with them as they learn more and more words and tricks. You'll easily notice the differences in personalities that different budgies have, and the more that you work with your bird, the more their personality will show.

Budgies love to chew on just about anything that they can get their little beaks on, and will chew on anything in their cages. Females are the worst at this, as they are used to gnaw around the interior of other wild bird nests. It's a great idea to have mineral blocks and cuttlebones as well as soft wooden pieces that they can chew on.

They love whole cereals and whole grains, such as barley, flax, oats, quinoa, wild rice, and whole rices and these are good for them. You can also feel them edible blossoms, such as carnations, chamomille, chives, dandelion, day lillies, hibiscus, honeysuckle, lilacs, pansies, passion flowers, roses, sunflowers, tulips, and violets. But, you can only feed them the flowers themselves as some of the leaves are poisonous to them. Of course, you'll find a wide variety of fruits and other greens that they will fall in love with as well.

As long as you take good care of your budiges, they can live between 9-20 years, depending on their breeding, health conditions, and overall care that they recieve from you. Don't count these small parrots out if you're looking for a smart bird to own, as they can easily become a great friend to everyone in your home.