Ask Lafeber

Can two species of budgie breed

Well, I have a male English budgie and a female Australian budgie. Can they breed?

Hi,

There is only one species of Budgerigar Parakeet, or Budgie. This is a green bird from Australia. When they became popular in captivity, breeders discovered that they could breed birds with certain mutations to get different colors. In the USA, breeders bred for color and volume. This was done through a lot of inbreeding – the breeding of related birds – and resulted in colorful birds that were smaller than the natural Australian budgie, but with a shorter lifespan due to poor genetics. The English bred their budgies for conformation – seeking a larger bird with specific traits and strong genetics. Related birds were not bred, but this meant that English Budgies were almost all the normal green color of the wild budgie for decades. They only started getting different colors in English budgies without sacrificing the physical size in the last 20-25 years.

While that was much more than you asked, it is to help you understand that both birds you have are the same species of bird, so yes, they can be bred. However, the strongest genetics will show in the offspring, yet any inferior gene will be passed along, too, and weaken the genetics of the offspring. If the bird you say is Australian is literally a normal green budgie, it may have stronger genetics, so you may not get chicks that are large like the English. If the bird was a US bred budgie, then you are breeding a bird with weaker genes to a better-bred English Budgie. Depending on what you are breeding for – such as if you are trying to breed quality birds – you may want to seek out another English budgie to breed with your male.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda