I was curious about something.

Growing up, I had budgies. At the time, I was noowhere as knowledgable as I am now. As I got older, I would here of English Budgies. I know their a tad bigger, and they say they are more likely to talk.

What exactly is the difference? Are they from different parts of the world?

I hope this isnt a silly question.

I knew nothing about them at all until last spring.
I was trying to decide about this Albino 'hen' that was available so I joined a European Budgerigar site run by Show Budgie breeders. They very kindly answered many of my questions about them.

The English or Show Budgie is larger. It was developed in Europe & primarily in England I guess. You know people - always working on developing some new thing. Budgies were very popular. I guess they kind of took over from the excitemnet of having a Canary - look how many types there are of them.

Not only is the English Budgie larger - it is mostly longer feathers the make it look so different.

Now we have at least 3 members here who have them so you can see the difference.
Here are some photos I've snatched from their site -that I just love.
1) Barrie Shutt's mature Spangle 2) Tritchpritch's Grey Spangle Cock 3) Mark Hawk's breeding pairs 4) Bonesy's Mika [cock]

Now Bonesy's cock looks not a lot different in this photo, from a standard, but he's all slicked down in this shot. He is actually a very handsome bird. Mark [Aussie] & Barrie [Brit]are Show breeders.

Attached Images

	budgies12thjuly07006 matured Spanle - Barrie.jpg (70.7 KB, 0 views)
	Titchpritch - grey spangle Cock DJ2-01-3.jpg (47.1 KB, 33 views)
	2007-BreedingPairs1to24023 - Mark Hawke.jpg (47.4 KB, 32 views)
	Bonesy - Mika cock.jpg (80.3 KB, 32 views)

Here is something that I wrote awhile ago that describes the differences:

Standard Budgies vs. English/Show Budgies

That's very informative Sarah. I remember that, when pressed, Barrie revealed he had even paid over $1000 for a bird.

Wow, I've never heard of anyone paying that much for a budgie! But I'll bet that some of the rare color mutations go for big money.

Overall I'm head over heels for Winston, but that could be more his personality and not specifically that he's English. But I'm a sucker for the English budgie looks - I like Winston's look over some of the really shaggy looking English budgies I've seen.

It does amaze me how much longer all of Winston's feathers are in comparison to Jerry's feathers. Especially around the face, I think that the longer feathers give him different facial expressions from Jerry - and he has the cutest face when his crest is up and his cheeks are puffed up huge, I just melt. When Winston shakes his tail it looks like a dog wagging his tail And when he's all skinny and his crest is completely flat he kinda looks like he has a comb-over and he reminds me of Donald Trump - he had that look the other day and I chuckled to myself that I really need to get a picture of that.

When people talk about the differences between the 2 types I think it is purely cosmetic.

If they buy a Show Budgie just too look at & keep it in a small cage it will be like Winston was when you got him. Not even strong enough to sit properly on a perch. Not socialised & not strong enough to fly well. Of course the same can be said for the Standard Budgie if kept like that.

From what we've seen so far with Winston & Jerry & Sugar & Spice - they are great Budgies with their own personalities. I imagine that our other Sarah [Merton] can add to this as she has both in abundance + mixed.

I think I will be tempted to get one the next time around.
I'm a sucker for the beauty of all birds. It can't be denied that the Show Budgie is pretty wonderful. Now that I'm really into the Budgie I look forward to the Budgie shows & hope I have the strength of character to go & see them without bringing home a handful.

I was at the Parrot store today and they had little english budgies. The colors they had were not all that attractive, but what cute little feathered faces. I love the way the feathers over their eyes look

I have to admit that I have really grown to love the look of an English budgie. When I went to the bird show I was looking for a standard budgie as a friend for Sugar. They only had English budgies and it was love at first sight. I love how Spice so often has a scowl on his face but will chatter away for hours. He is such a good buddy to Sugar and I couldn't have asked for a better companion for my shy little Sugar.

What I remember from what I've read about budgerigars and the exhibition budgerigar hobby, is that the exhibition budgerigar was pretty much like today's birds fifty years ago. Even then, a bigger, bold-looking bird with nice big spots would win at a bird show. After WWII, among the budgerigars which survived the war in Britain was stud of birds with enormously long wings and tail. These birds were called the 'longflight' mutation. Besides long wings and tail, they also had long feathers everywhere else. So, some British breeders decided to breed 'longflights' into their studs and try to keep the long feathers on the head and face and eliminate the extra-long wings and tail. A 'longflight' budgie was penalized on the show bench, maybe even disqualified by the Budgerigar Society in the UK.

The breeders who bred the 'longflight' into their budgies were clever enough to pull it off; and birds started coming to shows with bigger, browy heads and normal-sized wings and tail. These birds won the top prizes in the shows. One particular breeder, Harry Bryan, in the UK, was the master of breeding this kind of budgie and was top champion until someone stole all his birds in the 1990's.

Europeans bought the big, fluffy UK budgies and bred them one better. A certain Mr. Jo Mannes in Germany bred the biggest, fluffiest-headed birds, ever, in about the 1980's. These birds could barely fly but bred many fluffy-headed birds for those people from all over the world who bought them from the Mannes stud. Thus, the exaggerated looks of today's exhibition budgerigar were developed. Now, almost every country where there are lots of budgie shows have lots of very good exhibition budgerigars. Good meaning according to the World Budgerigar Society's standards, which calls for a nine-inch minimum bird shaped like a carrot; standing almost upright; and the bigger the head, the better.

The big, massive birds can hardly breed at all and are basically bred from smaller birds which can breed and throw out a few chicks which are bigger than themselves. So the big show studs seem to have hundreds of birds in order to breed the elusive 'winner'.

A man named Frank Silva came to the UK from Sri Lanka and, starting about fifteen years ago, began to breed exhibition budgies and did the Englishmen one better. He managed to build a stud in which the birds were not only winning every show but also could breed well. He recently sold-up to his fancier friends to be able to spend more time with his family.

The exhibition budgerigar hobby is very big in the USA, Europe, and South Africa. Since the big exhibitors breed so many birds to get a show specimen, there are lots of 'smaller', very-nice-looking, exhibition budgies available for pets and hobbyists.

Sarah
(and Merton, who would get last place at any exhibition budgie show because he is 'too small' but is, nevertheless, completely adorable).

That was wonderful - thanks!