Head to head
Cockatiel vs Budgerigar
A cockatiel and a budgerigar both roam the arid Australian interior in wild nomadic flocks chasing unpredictable rainfall, and both have gone on to become two of the most widely kept pet birds anywhere in the world.
| Cockatiel | Budgerigar | |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific name | Nymphicus hollandicus | Melopsittacus undulatus |
| Family group | Cockatoo family | True parakeet |
| Distinctive feature | Mobile head crest | Extensive colour mutations in captivity |
| Vocal specialty | Whistling tunes | Mimicking spoken words |
| Relative size | Slightly larger | Smaller |
| Wild colouration | Grey with orange cheek patches | Green and yellow |
| Wild lifestyle | Nomadic, rainfall-following | Nomadic, rainfall-following |
| Conservation status | Least Concern | Least Concern |
Cockatiel vs Budgerigar: common questions
Is the cockatiel a type of budgerigar or a separate bird entirely?
The cockatiel and budgerigar are entirely separate species from different branches of the parrot family, with the cockatiel belonging to the cockatoo family and the budgerigar classified as a true parakeet, though both happen to share a similar wild nomadic lifestyle across the Australian outback.
Which bird is better at mimicking sounds, the cockatiel or the budgerigar?
Each excels at something different: the cockatiel is particularly known for learning to whistle recognisable tunes, while the budgerigar is more commonly recognised for its ability to mimic spoken words, sometimes building a vocabulary of dozens or even hundreds of words in captivity.
Why does the budgerigar come in so many more colours than the cockatiel?
Generations of selective breeding in captivity have produced an especially enormous range of colour mutations in the budgerigar, including blue, white, and grey varieties never seen in the wild, a level of colour variation that, while present in cockatiels too, has been developed and popularised somewhat less extensively than in budgerigars.