What Is a Rare Parakeet?

User Question
Thank you so much for your wonderfully informative website. We recently purchased a "Rare Parakeet" but have not been able to find any information about the breed. I too grew up with Parakeets and thought they would make a great addition to our family and teach our boys responsibility. But our bird doesn't seem to fit the bill when it comes to his looks. He's almost entirely yellow with only a tinge of green here and there. And also just a few black bands/stipes near his head and wing area.

Could he just be lacking pigment or is this what "Rare Parakeets look like. Although all the other ones in the cage looked like the typical markings I've come to know. He was the only yellow one.

Please help us if you can.

Lisa's Answer
I think you need to understand marketing :) All parakeets are parakeets. They are exactly the same species and so on. The birds they call "English Budgies" are just parakeets that have been bred to be a bit larger. Sort of like how some families of humans are tall and other families are small. They're all still humans and can intermarry and so on.

So the different colors of budgies are just like different hair colors in humans. If two blue budgies breed they'll probably have blue kids. If two red-headed humans have kids they'll probably have red-headed kids.

So the only reason some parakeets are "rare" is because the colors aren't as common - just like a human with black skin and red hair would be rare. It would be an unusual combination of parents that would cause that. So yours happens to have had parents that were yellow and green. He's still a parakeet - he's just one with an unusual set of colors :)

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