Budgie Buddies
Join the Flock
Fluttering, twittering, chattering – step into our Budgie Buddies aviary and be surrounded by a flock of colorful little Australian birds! Our budgies – or budgerigars – will fly over and around you, and even eat from a seed stick.
Closed for winter.
Discover the Budgies
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Seeing super-color
It's all in the UV.
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Like all parrots, budgerigars can see in UV light!
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In this spectrum, their already-colorful plumage is even brighter.
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Fluffy chicks
So cute.
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Budgies are monogamous and breed in large colonies year-round, depending on location. Nesting in fence posts, logs or gum trees, they lay clutches of 4-6 eggs which they incubate for 18-21 days.
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Chicks are born bald, then grow downy gray fluff before fledging blue, green or yellow feathers. Many are hatched here at the Zoo over winter!
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The sound of 25,000 budgies
(Pretty noisy.)
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Highly social birds, budgies can form flocks of up to 25,000 birds. They forage in the morning and can be very noisy!
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Pet budgies (usually males) can mimic human speech and other sounds they hear often.
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Protecting birds
THE THREAT: Budgerigars aren’t threatened in the wild in Australia – there are many of them! But in America many species of small birds are declining, due to disappearing habitat, domestic cats and even climate change.
TAKE ACTION: Make a bird-friendly yard. Plant perennials for hummingbirds and keep tall trees. Put stickers on glass windows and keep your cat inside. And help preserve wild habitat for migrating birds.
Animal Stories
We’re all feeling the cold right about now in the Pacific Northwest – and the rest of the country too. But here at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, our animals have some pretty cool ways to deal with it. From fur coats to heated hammocks, here are five ways our animals beat the winter cold. … Continued
Rainy day? Here in the Pacific Northwest we get a lot of them. But that’s actually one of the best times to visit the Zoo! Fewer crowds, cool animals and plenty of places to stay dry. Here are 10 ways to do it. 1. Gaze at sea turtles Our new Pacific Seas Aquarium is the … Continued
At age 33, Boris is very likely the oldest male polar bear on the planet. We know he’s the oldest male of his species in zoo-related databases that keep track of polar bears worldwide. And since polar bears live longer under human care than they do in the wild, we think he is the champ. … Continued