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What’s in a name? Quite a lot when it comes to parakeets. The bird’s scientific tag is Melopsittacus undulates, the first bit meaning ‘melodious parrot’, and the second referring to the undulating flight of a parakeet flock. They’re known more formally as budgerigar, shortened to budgie, but in the USA they are usually called common pet parakeet, parakeet budgerigar, plain ‘parakeet’, or the shortened form ‘keet’. In Australia, birds bred from wild stock, rather than from existing pet birds, are called shell parakeets, to differentiate them from their captive-bred cousins.
The parakeet - one bird, many names!
Other, less common names for the bird include canary parakeet, warbling canary parrot, grass parakeet, warbling grass parakeet (John Gould’s preferred name for them), zebra parrot, scallop parrot, and the wonderfully unimaginative flight bird. In their native Australia the name budgerigar has various forms in the native tongues of that continent, including betcherrygah, budgerygah and gidjirrigaa.
Parakeet in Other Languages
If you know of any translations not included in the following list, let us know!
- Africaans: Budjie
- Alemannic German: Wällesittich
- Albanian: lloj papagalli
- Arabic: الطائر الطيب
- Basque: Perikito
- Belarusian: Хвалісты папугай
- Bulgarian: Вълнист папагал
- Catalan: Periquito
- Chinese: 虎皮鸚鵡
- Croatian: Tigrica/papigica
- Czech: Andulka/Andulka vlnkovaná
- Danish: Undulat
- Dutch: Grasparkiet
- English, British and Australian: Budgie, budgerigar
- English, American: Parakeet, 'keet
- Estonian: Viirpapagoi
- Filippino: Maikling loro
- Finnish (Suomi): Undulaatti
- Flemish: Grasparkiet
- French: Perruche Ondulée
- Gaelic (Irish): Pearaicít Astrálach
- Gaelic (Scots): Buidsidh
- Galician: Periquito
- Georgian: ხუჭუჭა თუთიყუშ (Khuchucha t’ut’iqushi)
- German: Wellensittich
- Greek: παπαγαλάκι
- Gujarati: ઑસ્ટ્રેલિયન પોપટ
- Haitian Creole: Peruch
- Hebrew: תוּכִּי קָטָן
- Hindi: पशु
- Hungarian: Hullámos papagáj/törpepapagáj
- Icelandic: Gári
- Ido: Perucho
- Indonesian: Burung kesturi
- Italian: Pappagallino ondulato
- Japanese : セキセイインコ
- Kazakh: Бұйра тоты
- Korean: 잉꼬 (ingkko)
- Latvian: Pundurpapagailis
- Lithuanian: Banguotoji papūgėlė
- Macedonian: Тигрица (птица)
- Malay: Budgerigar
- Navajo (Diné bizaad): Tsídii yáłtiʼí yázhí
- Norwegian: Undulat
- Persian: مرغ عشق
- Polish: Papużka falista
- Portuguese: Periquito-australiano
- Punjabi (Western): بجریگر
- Romanian: Peruş
- Russian: Волнистый попугайчик
- Sami: Unduláhtta
- Serbian: Аустралијска тигрица (Tigrica)
- Slovak: Papagájec/Andulka
- Slovenian: Skôbčevka
- Spanish: Periquito
- Swedish: Undulat
- Tagalog: Budgerigar
- Telugu: మెలోప్సిట్టాసిని
- Thai: นกหงส์หยก
- Turkish: Muhabbet kuşu
- Ukrainian: Хвилястий папужка
- Urdu: بجریگر
- Vietnamese: Vẹt yến phụng
- Welsh: Bwji
- Western Mari: Коэлӓ пынан попугайчик
Comments
Tahmoores, 28 May 2024
In Persian (IRAN), as listed above, the birds are called "مرغ عشق" (pronounced morgh-e eşgh), which literally translates to "Love Bird." Bird: مرغ Love: عشق Obviously, lovebirds are a different species, yet "مرغ عشق" has found its place among Iranian bird owners due to the social and loving nature of budgies.
Cheryl, 28 October 2021
hi all, our beautiful green budgie was given to me, may 2020 for my 70th birthday. he had most of his feathers so was probably about3. to 4 months..? didnt say to much till about feb this year(2021) but was always happy to see us when we come inside..and responds to us all in the family. Easter 2021 come along and boy oh boy were we in in for lots of noise, acrobatics and mischief.. our quiet little bodgie,,budgie now lets rip with lots of words and sentences that he has heard over the last 18 months... he belts around his good size cage, hangs upside down anywhere. within his cage.. talks to all the native birds that hang around just in our back garden( near where his cage is inside.).loves all of us equal.. but also makes a fuss when our daughter comes home from work.. and our S.i.l also gets a rousing welcome, equal to what both hubby and i get. and in last 6 months the words are just burbling out of him he runs out of talk about 1.30 pm sleeps for about 3/4 hour then of he goes again till bedtime.. i cover him about 7.30 to 8pm and thats it till 7.am, he has definately been the bestest comfort while we have been locked down and he makes our day lots easier..doesnt like being on his own and sooks a little bit so now i move Sunny over near tv and he watchs/listens to abc channel 2 kids show and doesnt realise we have gone down town.. love him so much.he has restored our sanity..no time to think about being locked in, Our day goes very fast with Sunny in it..
Ernest, 23 May 2019
additional information: in Indonesia popular named for budgie is "parkit" nowadays people not so familiar with "kesturi"
Fina, 15 June 2018
Thank you very much, this article is very clear and detailed and provided me with lots of information I didn’t have. Great stuff, well worth the read
Abigail, 21 January 2018
good website with lots of helpful info