age and coloring???

05-02-2007, 02:58 PM

Okay, my husband found this parakeet last week, you may have read my thread on the found parakeet. Someone called me today thinking it was their bird. She came to see it and brought a picture from January 7; they haven't had it all that long. We're not sure if this could be the same bird or not. The photo shows a neutral color cere and the markings on the wings are quite dark but scattered markings. The photo also shows white cheek patches and the bird we have has blue cheek patches and a very blue cere. The markings on the wings are very faded of the bird we found but could possibly be the same as the bird in the photo.

Now for the questions...is it possible in the almost 4 month old photo for the bird to have the coloring come in on the cere and cheeks and have the dark markings on the wings fade? She didn't know if he molted or not.
She isn't sure if it's their bird because it's her sons and she didn't handle it. She wants to send her husband to look at it which is fine with me but he doesn't want to pay the $547 medical bill that comes along with him. He may just say it's not their bird based on the dollar amount. She is going to call me back tonight after she gives it some thought. They went out a bought the son another parakeet because he was so upset they lost "crazy Daisey" but when he saw it he told her he didn't want another bird and he misses his bird. The mother isn't going to say anything to the kids about this bird because she doesn't want to get their hopes up.

Thanks!

05-02-2007, 03:46 PM

The cere may well have become darker, and turned blue. The other markings on the wings and the budgie necklace(the black dots), and cheek patches also gets darker as the bird becomes adult. The cheek patches can go from white to violet blue. The lines on the head however recede as the budgie gets older. A very young bird has lines all the way down to the cere. They sort of look like balding men the way the lines go backwards. Eventually the budgie has a pure color either white or yellow head.

05-02-2007, 04:24 PM

I'd personally say that it is unlikely that the wings would go from dark to light or change their pattern in any way.... I thought if the cheek patches [the bright coloured patch just below the eye] were white or light they'd stay that way. Some are blue or violet.

The cere of course will change. If the cere was really tan - i'd have thought it would be a female.

here is the site that covers colours in Budgies pretty well - check it out:
Budgie / Parakeet Colors and Mutations Guide

05-02-2007, 04:46 PM

Can this budgie have been a baby at about 2-3 months when the pic was taken and then be almost adult at 7 months now?

Sleepy - about 3 months old

Sleepy - about 6 months old

Although the second pic is in different lighting, note how the head lines, necklace and cere has changed. This budgie was bred in my aviary. DOH 9 Oct 2006

05-02-2007, 07:51 PM

I agree with Jac in that I would doubt the wing color would fade or change that drastically. The cere color being neutral, and your guy having a bright blue cere also sounds a bit suspicious, but not entirely out of the question I suppose...

05-03-2007, 06:47 AM

2horse Angie ~ You can kind of see they're the same bird - boy what are the chances of 2 blurry photos of the same bird! The necklace is not completely developed of course when he was a baby - but the cheek patches stay blue, just bigger later. & as a baby - his cere was blue.

Just5398 Sally ~ it's really next to impossible for us to make a good comment without good photo back-up. Even then, i've taken photos of Laker where he looked Sky Blue & then Cobalt Blue in another photo. However his markings are consistent - even the baby Budgie I'm getting seems to be consistent from week to week in his markings.

Here are some photos of my baby & his sibling - these photos were taken a week apart. The darker bird may be a female.