In his first living years, Umbriel used to be the biggest gigolo of my little flock who maintained liaisons with several budgie ladies at the same time. In the end of '97 he became extremely short-sighted on his right eye and therefore he became much calmer. In fact, he turned away from all his beloved ladies and used to be on his own most of the time. But he was not unhappy, he was leading a good life having a lot of fun on his own or with his male friends. There were so many things he enjoyed e. g. playing the "cage harp" by making noise with his beak plucking the bars of the cage.

He was singing very often but most of the time he perched a little bit apart from the other flock members. Unfortunately his closest friend Titan died in May 2000. Afterwards, his daughter Sirius became his best friend, but she also died too young and left him alone within the flock. But in the summer of '03, Umbriel finally found a new close friend in Jupiter. Regrettably, this wonderful friendship was over when Jupiter died in December 2004. So one can say that Umbriel saw many friends die but he always kept his joy of living. That impressed me very much.

He was a charming anf friendly bird. And he didn't only get along well with the other flock members. Umbriel also liked my company, and especially in the evenings he wanted me to caress him. I could touch him with my hand and he liked it very much which is uncommon for birds. In spring 2005 he became seriously ill. A tumor grew in his belly, and when Umbriel started to feel uncomfortable suffering from shortness of breath I brought him to my vet to stop his suffering. It was a hard decision because Umbriel was somebody very special for me. I loved this fluffy featherball so much and he accompanied me for more than one third of my life! Thank you for everything my beloved friend. You will never be forgotten.

His colour mutation carried the complicated name "European Yellowface type 2 mauve Opaline". The special thing about that variety is that the colour of type 2 birds changes after their first molt. Before molting, the young budgies seem to be grey yellowfaces (see picture on the right). After losing their grey feathers, their plumage regenerates with a yellow touch on the grey parts. This makes birds like Umbriel look olive when they become mature. Umbriel arrived in my bird room when he was only a few weeks old. That was on 11/24/1993. He was born exactly four weeks before that day.

Meaning of the name
There is something special about Umbriel's name. It does not originate from the Greek mythology like most other astronomical names do. My little budgie is named after a moon of the planet Uranus that got its name from a novel character. The writer Alexander Pope (England, 1688 to 1744) introduced it as an earth spirit into his story "The Rape of the Lock". With its diameter of 1110 km, the moon is only the fourth largest of Uranus' satellites.