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
How does it feel to be the oldest siamang – probably – in North America? Well, for Cho Cho, snuggled up with his companion Dudlee on a crisp fall morning at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, it seemed pretty cozy. This year Cho Cho is celebrating his 51st birthday – which makes him the oldest … Continued
Endangered Malayan tapirs Yuna and Baku strolled around one of the Asian Forest Sanctuary exhibits on Wednesday afternoon, grazing on grasses – and keeping a secret. Not even the birds perched in the nearby trees would tweet the news. But we can let you in on this uber-exciting development today. Hooray! Hooray! A baby tapir … Continued
Animal care aide Jordan Jirik lies flat on her stomach, her head hanging over the top of Baja Bay’s 280,000-gallon habitat. Below her, five hungry spotted eagle rays swim eagerly up to a large black sign with a big white X emblazoned on it. It’s their feeding-station target. And when it appears in the water, … Continued