At the beginning of May 2005 a young bird fought itself out of its egg at a breeders' home which is located in the Rhine area of Germany. The birds' fate was already sealed when it hatched: its brothers and sisters were all healthy but the tiny bird developed no intact plumage while it was in the nest. Nearly on the entire body the poor budgie remained naked. The breeder sorted the young female bird out because there was no chance he could sell her to a pet shop or private bird owner. Who wants to buy a naked bird who is incapable of flight and will most probably remain handicapped for the rest of its life? Regrettably a few breeders (they are the bad exceptions) "solve" their problems with naked or disabled birds in a way which is forbidden by law: They kill those poor birds by breaking their necks with their own hands.

Regrettably the young bird from the Rhine area was lucky and the breeder didn't harm the chick. Instead of selling the bird, he contacted a budgie-lover who had offered to him before to take in handicapped birds in order do find new homes for them which are suitable for their special needs. Thus it came that the young budgie lady was entrusted in the budgie-lover's care. By the way, this woman is a member of the Club of German Budgie-Friends like I was some time ago. First the handicapped bird moved into a new home where it couldn't stay. After a few weeks it turned out not to be safe enough for flightless birds. The tiny budgie suffered an injury after it fell off a branch. Therefore Hühnchen (=chicken, that was its former name) had to move into another home, a safe home this time. On 8/10/2005 the small budgie arrived at my home and moved into the bird room, it also got its new names: Tara.

Before Tara arrived here she had been examined by a vet who is specialised in treating birds. He found out that Tara is not infected with the French Molt and PBFD, that's why she could move into my bird room immediately. Regrettably the vet didn't find out why the healthy young budgie lady has no intact plumage. As I found out a few weeks later, a hormonal disturbance caused this nakedness. Tara has been treated with some homoeopathic medicine and I didn't dare to hope that her plumage would improve - but it did. After a few months she looked so much better and turned to a beautiful turquoise budgie lady. Here you can see how Tara's plumage is improving.

When Tara arrived in the bird room I could see how happy she was about this large space and the many twigs and stuff she could use for climbing around. In fact she is a very skilled climber as you can see in the photo on the right. Sometimes she seems to think that she's a bat. Immediately after her arrival the curious young budgie explored the bird room and the other birds - well, some of them welcomed her with a small fight... Especially the likewise nearly naked Medea wasn't very glad to see Tara at first. But the introduction of the new bird all in all took place very peacefully and without any problem.

Shortly after her arrival Tara started making friends with the much taller English Show budgie Folara. The two females became very close friends and Tara often caressed Folara. And sometimes she even snuggled against her friend and covered herself with Folara's long and fluffy feathers. Their friendship lasted until the day Folara died. Since then Tara often flirted with the charming Nik. They became a couple in 2006 and were happy until the day he died in November 2009.

Tara's colour mutation is called light blue Yellowface type 2 in Opaline. There is a slight touch of yellow covering her light blue feathers, therefore budgies who belong to the colour mutation "Yellowface type 2" seem to be coloured turquoise.

Meaning of the name
I wanted to continue the tradition to name my budgies after astronomical objects also in this case. But the name should also sound really beautiful - at least after my taste. Thus I decided to name the bird Tara. In Sanskrit, an ancient language which was (and still is) spoken in India, Tara means "star". In addition, Tara in the Hindi mythology is an important person, because this is one of the names of Shiva's wife. Also in the Tibetan Buddhism Tara plays an important role since she is the mother goddess.