How the Aussie budgie became A GLOBAL SUPERSTAR!
A fascinating new book uncovers how this colourful little bird became an A-list favourite
What could the Queen, Hollywood siren Marilyn Monroe, the Dalai Lama, Western star Clint Eastwood, the Unabomber and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin possibly have in common?
The answer to this quirky question is budgies, budgies, budgies! The fascinating story of how a humble indigenous parrot became one of our best-known exports is revealed in the book Budgerigar: How A Brave, Chatty And Colourful Little Aussie Bird Stole The World’s Heart.
It was 180 years ago that the great birdman John Gould landed the first live pair of budgies on English soil.
The pretty green and yellow parrots were an immediate hit in the great drawing rooms of London, earning John entry to the highest echelons of society, including a special audience with Queen Victoria.
It was the beginning of the royal family’s long love affair with the budgie, which continues to this day.
Queen Elizabeth II maintains a special flock of more than 100 liberty budgies, which have been trained to home like pigeons and boast their own designated keeper of the royal budgerigars!
The birds were credited with helping Her Majesty relieve the boredom of her long days of social isolation at Windsor Castle during the coronavirus lockdown.
PRIVILEGED POSITIONS
Budgie fanciers have included many other famous and infamous people.
Sir Winston Churchill’s budgie Toby used to perch on his pen as he wrote and was privy to the innermost secrets of his cabinet, including the first British nuclear tests at Maralinga in South Australia.
Richard Branson recorded his first entrepreneurial success breeding budgies as a teenager, while playboy and racing car driver James Hunt admitted budgies were the only “birds” he was ever truly loyal to.
By the 1950s and 1960s, budgies could be found perched in every fifth household in Australia, the UK and Canada.
In the US they threatened to edge the dog out of its place as the number one household pet, and even found their way into the White House.
When Jackie Kennedy and her children Caroline and John Jr left the presidential residence after the assassination of US leader John F Kennedy in 1963,
Butch would often announce, ‘I’m Marilyn’s bird’
budgies Bluebell and Maybelle were the first members of the family to be placed in their new home in Georgetown, Washington DC.
Other celebrity budgie owners have included Clint Eastwood, Jayne Mansfield, Tallulah Bankhead and the world’s most enduring sex symbol, Marilyn Monroe.
Marilyn taught her two parakeets Butch and Bobo to talk and they frequently accompanied her as she shuttled between Connecticut, New York and Los Angeles.
Butch, the more voluble of the budgies, was keen that everyone should know where his heart lay and to the delight of fellow passengers would often announce, “I’m Marilyn’s bird, I’m Marilyn’s bird.”
Gwen Stefani, Britney Spears and Ashton Kutcher are among a new generation of celebrities helping push the budgie back into the limelight.
PARAKEET PAIRINGS
Britney was the first to fall for the pocket-sized parrots, known in the US as parakeets, buying her first pair of birds when her sons Sean and Jayden were children.
A budgie named Tigerlily was the breakthrough bird for Gwen, who went on to invest in a flight of larger, more exotic parrots, including a caique named Dodo who enjoys peanut butter toast for breakfast. Most recently Ashton presented his wife Mila Kunis with a pair of parakeets for Valentine’s Day last year, but it seems he was well and truly punked. Mila revealed to talk show host Ellen Degeneres that the star of That ’70s Show bought the tiny pair as a romantic gesture, believing they were lovebirds, until an expert put him straight.