Simply stunning.

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The Bourkes if the bird that had me back into birds, after giving up so many years ago about ever thinking of having one of my own. There was a regular Bourkes - i think a female - all alone in a cage at the nursing home my mother was in. She was so regal - the face reminded me of a small hawk. Even the dark almost sparrow like colouring was fascinating. They had lots of Budgies & Tiels as well but only the one Bourkes. I visited her every time i saw my Mom. I desperately wanted to smuggle her out of there as no one paid any attention to her. I started to do research on them & then got carried away with all parrots!

When i was looking for my first bird the Bourkes was always at the top of my list. Laker simply needed a home & I'm not sorry at all but if he's been a Bourkes it would have been just as perfect.

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I will take more pictures of her for everyone She has such a cute, sweet personality. She seems to be more bonded to my husband but she also lets me hold her too. She has a very large cage but she is quite active so we let her fly around the house for exercise and do take the precautions to make it safe for her to do so. She is actually friends with our lovebird Peanut and they spend quite a bit of time preening each other however they are housed in seperate cages but side by side for company. I really like the vocalizations on the bourke's keets. I'm glad everyone enjoyed the pictures and I will take more and post them soon for you

I think I've had a bit of a mis-perception about them being more of an "aviary bird". Great to hear that I'm wrong about that! She's a real beauty, that's for sure.

Mrs. Cheeps was handfed from two weeks of age and she was always very tame with us, she is a bit flightly around strangers even though she was socialized as a baby. I believe alot of breeders don't handfeed them which of course would lead to a rather nervous bird around people but I have met parent raised bourke's before and even though they are flighty around people they are still very gentle birds. She will fly through the house and follow my husband as he walks, she absolutely adores him and will run up and give him a kiss on the lips and then start making cheeping sounds, it's so cute to see. I will take some new pics and post them this weekend for everyone

In case you don't know - not an expert - only my opinion being stated here.....

I think a lot of people end up with aviary birds for lots of reasons - especially smaller birds. To give the birds lots of space & in the end just enjoy them flying about. I'd love to have an aviary for my guys [& add some Bourkes as well]. I know a woman who has a Bourkes that was a house pet & is now in her aviary - apparently he still flies to her for some one on one.

I've never heard that they're 'hyper' or 'flighty'. In fact they use the Bourkes [like the Society Finch with other Finches] to raise other harder to breed Grass Parakeets.

I've also been deterred from getting a lot of the Grass Parakeets - because they are often called Aviary birds. It is so hard to make that call. Thinking back I'd still like to try the Swift Parakeet - the one at the pet store was very tame - same as your Bourkes - very socialized & the breeder is near my parent's.

Then there are the Rosellas - some people do get lucky & have a very tame one[s] - but i think they never get as tame as the larger birds & who spends that much time socialising their birds so they're that tame??? Budgies are quite easy to tame but in reality i spend long hours hanging out with my guys to acheive that tameness. When i hear that people have Budgies that are 'wild' [like my Rio - who is coming along quite nicely now] - sure some are very high strung & probably are poor pet material, but in the end i think it is 'how much time are you willing to spend to become a pal/non-threatening?'

I wonder if the time required to tame/train is the same for larger birds - i'd have to think so. No offense to anyone - but when you tame even a dog you have to spend long hours & dedicated time to that end - birds would be similar if not harder.

Wow! He's beautiful!

I made it a point to socialize Mrs. Cheeps as much as possible especially being they are known for being more of an aviary type of bird. If as she aged she would have become a more hands off type of bird that would have been fine too as we both love our birds for who they are. I would say they require about the same amount of taming as would an untamed cockatiel would. I have been around many, many species of birds as I used to be a breeder for 15 yrs. and I actually tamed down some scarlet chested parakeets that weren't handfed as babies, it took quite awhile but over time they learned to trust me and appreciate my company, were they are tame as Mrs. Cheeps.... no but they enjoyed it when I spoke to them and interacted with me in their own way. I really think it basically depends on the individual bird and the amount of time you are willing to spend trying to tame it. I'm sure some bourkes and other species never fully tame down and then you have others that our like our mrs. cheeps. I sometimes wish certain species such as the bourke's weren't classified as aviary birds as I believe that term puts alot of people off as they feel they won't ever make good pets but I can say without a doubt that Mrs. Cheeps is a wonderful pet and we really do love and enjoy her. I hope in the future people will give the bourke's and other species listed as aviary birds a chance as they really can be fantastic friends. Thanks for the replies everyone!!!!

I have hand raised budgies and suns. Some of the budgies have not remained "tame" I find them more bird like and self sufficient than the bigger parrots. Also it is a little harder to interact with a budgie the same way you interact with a larger bird. A budgie attention span is really short, they scare easier but are also more forgiving and have less temper tantrums than the suns. The weaning time is so much shorter that they get less chance to imprint. Peewee a budgie is the only one that can go on outings like the suns do, although she is more flighty and not as brave. The colony of budgies are tamer than the breeding suns but only on their terms, I may not touch them but some of them will come very close or land on you.

Ohhhhhh scarlet chested parakeets! - lovely.

That was pretty cool - both of your responses. I would easily agree that some species & individuals are not suited to be pets. It is very interesting to see people compare species - this way I get have a more 3D critical view - it helps me at any rate. I know so little about Suns or the Grass Parakeets - outside of reading about them.

Are your Suns aviary birds as well? Or are the Budgies the only ones that live like this? I would agree that the Budgies lucky enough to live in a flock will be 'wilder' in their actions. -like a gang. Were any of the Budgies ever as tame as a pet Budgie? My gang is too small but they can be hilarious, in their dive-bombing & circling of the human or flying under my hands and then over my head, as i walk.

Budgies are not brave - that's true. Would a larger bird hang around if it was free flighted & something startles it? If we all had sanctuaries - we could offer larger birds aviary space & see if their nature was = to the smaller birds. once they live like them. This sounds dumb as i write it - it's not going to happen - to compare.