Colors on Parakeets

User Question
I have a question, which I didn't an answer to on the site (sorry if I missed it somehow!) I have two parakeets-- Jackie is one of the common green and yellowish parakeets. My other parakeet, Zeke, however, does not look like any bird I have ever seen. She is mostly white, with yellowish tints around her face and on her wings. She also has some gray/black patches on her back/shoulders. Lower on her back (partly underneath her wings-- where it shows when she stretches or flaps) it is a brilliant turquoise blue. She also has touches of this blue on her chest and belly. I have been searching pictures of parakeets pretty much since I adopted her, almost a year ago, and can't find any that look like her! Do you have an idea of what kind of parakeet she might be, and where I could get more information about that type? Or is there a good website/book/etc. you can recommend that has a full list of different types of parakeets?

Lisa's Answer
I think you've got a mistaken notion here :) Parakeets come in ALL colors, they are all still "just parakeets". In the old days, when parakeets ran wild, they were all green. But breeders have developed parakeets of all colors and all mixes of colors. It just means the parents of this particular keet were mixes of colors and passed them along to their child.

It's like if you had human beings with all sorts of hair colors, and saw a person with a deep red hair color and wondered if they were not human. They are still human! Feather color is just like hair color - it's a pretty meaningless thing that depends on the parents. Yes, it looks pretty, but it's just a color :)

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