Parrot Species
If you keep your birds in the house, budgies and cockatiels
(Nymphicus hollandicus) will become close friends (except during the
breeding period). In their wild Australian home, these two species
share the same habitat.
There are other Australian birds who can be kept together with budgies: the grass parrots (neophema). In aviaries, those nice guys will live in harmony with your budgies. But during the breeding period, it is advised to separate the different species! I once saw how aggressive for example turquoise parrots (Neophema pulchella) could become while hatching their chicks!
The following species belong to the genus neophema: bourke's parrot (N. bourkii), elegant parrot (N. elegans), blue-winged parrot (N. chrysostoma), rock parrot (N. petrophila, I have never seen them being sold in Germany so far), orange-bellied parrot (N. chrysogaster, same as rock parrot), turquoise parrot (N. pulchella) and scarlet-chested parrot (N. splendida).
Beside the above named parakeets, you can also keep rosellas
(platycercus) in one aviary together with your budgies. But please bear
in mind that they will only live peacefully together if the aviary is large
enough - what means it has to be really large! Rosellas are bigger than budgies. Therefore it is very
important to plan enough room as a refuge for the weaker species in
case of a fight. Well known members of the colourful rosella family are:
adelaide rosella (P. adelaidae), pale-headed rosella
(P. adscitus), crimson rosella (P. elegans), eastern
rosella (P. eximius, see photo in this paragraph), yellow rosella (P. flaveolus) and
western rosella (P. icterotis).
But please keep in mind that there still is a risk even if you provide enough space for your birds. Sometimes, Rosellas tend to become aggressive even though there is room enough for them and the budgies. The photo below shows a budgie who has been attacked by a Rosella. The upper beak was torn off and the budgie suffered from severe injuries. There was no way to save his life, the bird has been put to sleep. A staff member of the vet took the photo just before the budgie was euthanized.
Budgie with severe injury after an attack of a Rosella
As I know from by my own experience, the everyday life of
Barred Parakeets and budgies is full of harmony, they get along
with each other very well. Since a while, two Barred Parakeets
share the bird room with my budgies. Those parakeets originally
come from South America. They are nearly as tall as budgies,
and they behave friendly. The photo shows Merlin, my male
Barred Parakeet, his wife Bianca and their friend
Max.
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Please note:
It is no good idea keeping together lovebirds (agapornis) and budgies in the same aviary! The more bulky lovebirds tend to make use of their very powerful beak as a weapon, which could cause deadly wounds to the budgies. Usually these two species do not get along well with each other, they start to fight real fast and the budgies get hurt or die. In case you are still willing to start the extremely dangerous experiment to socialise two completely incompatible bird species despite all warnings, please provide a very large aviary - at minimum ten squaremeters! This would offer the budgies a small chance to escape when the lovebirds attack them. |
Lovebirds originally come from Africa/Madagascar and the following species can be found in European pet shops: grey-headed lovebird (Agapornis canus), fischer's lovebird (A. fischeri), nyasa lovebird (A. lilianae), black-cheeked lovebird (A. nigrigenis), masked lovebird (A. personata), red-faced lovebird (A. pullaria) and peach-faced lovebird (A. roseicollis).
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Please note:
All bigger parrots should never be kept together with budgies, because they often misunderstand the body language and behavior of the smaller birds. It only takes one hit with their enormous beak to kill a budgie immediately! |
Other bird species
Without any troubles, you can keep together budgies and zebra finches
(Taeniopygia guttata) who share the same habitat in the
Australian savannah. The nimble zebra finches bring a lot of life
into a flock of budgies and their cute calls surely are an interesting
acoustic extension in your bird room.
The following finch species can be kept together with budgies: nutmeg mannikin (Lonchura punctulata), white-backed munia (Lonchura striata), java sparrow (Padda oryzivora), double-barred finch (Stizoptera bichenovii) and cordon-bleus (Uraeginthus spec.).
Less suitable are island canaries (Serinus canaria), because they are physically inferior to budgerigars. During a fight, they could be wounded very badly and in many cases I heard that the dainty island canaries were killed by the keets.
A huge aviary in your garden is an ideal place for keeping together budgies and quails. Those nice ground inhabitants help you keep the aviary clean, because they feed on insects like ants.
If anybody has experiences with keeping together budgies and a bird species that is not mentioned above, please feel free to contact me via e-mail. Thank you!
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