Which birds make better pets, budgerigars/parakeets or cockatiels?
Quoting various sources (mainly Wikipedia)= BUDGERIGARS: Budgerigars are intelligent and social animals and enjoy the stimulation of toys and interaction with humans as well as with other budgerigars. A common behavior is the chewing of material such as wood, especially for female budgerigars. A budgerigar in captivity. Tame budgerigars can be taught to speak, whistle tunes, and play with humans. Both males and females sing and can learn to mimic sounds and words and do simple tricks. Both singing and mimicry are more pronounced and much more perfected in males. As a whole, females rarely if ever learn to mimic more than a dozen words or so. Males can very easily acquire vocabularies ranging between a few dozen to a hundred words. Generally speaking, it is mostly pet budgerigars (and even more so lone pets) and thus, receiving the most attention which talk the best and the most. In captivity, budgerigars live an average of five to eight years, but are reported to occasionally live to 1
