BK> I gotta ask this.  What's the difference between a Budgie and a
  BK> Parakeet?  Is it that one's Brittish and the other is American?  What?
 
Budgie is short for budgeriegar, the little green or blue creature we usually 
think of as a parakeet.
Parakeet is actually a much broader term, encompassing lots of small, 
long-tailed parrots.  I actually read something recently suggesting that it 
was proper to call my conure a parakeet.  I'll pass, thanks.
The budgie has been bred in aviculture for a long, long time, enough so that 
there are size differences between the ones bred in England (mostly for show) 
and in the US (for the pet market).  The English budgie is larger and more 
placid than the scrappy US budgie.  Both are probably a good bit larger than 
a wild budgie.  And, of course, wild budgies are green, with the occasional 
blue.  The other colors are strictly the result of breeding to enhance color 
mutations.
--- MacWoof 1.5.3
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