I can remember a time when every budgie I looked at seemed to be a special, and totally random, mix of colors. However as I learnt more I realised there was a pattern to those beautiful mixes. So, with a little bit of effort you too can identify the different budgie colors and varieties that make each of them look unique. And from there you are just a hop, skip and a jump away from being able to breed the specific ones you want! But that’s another story… for another page…
So how did we end up with so many different budgie colors in captivity? Well, in all living things the process of mutation occurs. So if a mutation occurs in the sex cell of a budgie (the cell that is past on during breeding to form the next generation) it can have an effect on the forming of the chick. Now this is likely to cause its death, as many genes are vital exactly as they are, but occasionally you get a mutation that alters something non life threatening, like the color of the feathers. And in captivity we are able to protect these birds and breed more of them, leading to much more variation than you could get in the wild.
Below you will find a link to information on the basic body colors present in budgies. I will add another page with the varieties that have altered wing markings and body color distribution in the near future.
Basic Body Colors
The best place to start is with the body color of your budgie. By this I mean the colour from its chest down to its vent and around under the wings. I am sure you have noticed that there are many shades of green blue and grey available,
so lets start with them.
What causes feather colors?
Now that you have a grasp of the basic body colors I thought it might be interesting to know why feathers actually look the color they do!
