Budgies are very sociable birds in their natural surroundings in Australia. They live together in huge flocks and lead a nomadic life. Each day, they fly several kilometers to find food and water. The outback is a hard place to live - and a dangerous one, too. As long as there is no danger ahead, roosting budgies do what you know from our pet birds: they chirp and sing happily. So, listening to other budgies chirping and tweeting is essentially important for a budgie's wellbeing. This is because the voices of other budgies give the bird comfort and the feeling to be in a safe place. Budgies know instinctively: As long as other birds sing, there is no predator around and there is no need to worry.

If you want to make your birds feel happy and give them an idea about how a large flock sounds, you should listen to "Happy budgies" - of course together with your birds. It's a recording by Andrew Skeoch right from Australia where the wild budgies live. Together with the talented photographer Sarah Koschak, he went to Macdonnel Ranges, central Australia, to record the voices of wild budgies and other birds sharing this habitat. Sarah took some lovely pictures which show us where the ancestors of our pet birds come from.

On Listening Earth, you can learn more about the recording which has a brilliant quality. My birds really enjoy it and start singing immediately whenever they hear it. It's easy to see how much they appreciate hearing the songs of other birds, and it's also amazing that wild budgies and captive ones sound slightly different. You can buy an mp3-download of the album "Happy Budgies " on-line and pay per credit card or via PayPal. It costs 12 AU$ which is a very fair price, I think. There are also some other fantastic recordings you can listen to on the web-site.