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Mate Choice in the Budgerigar (Parakeet), Melopsittacus undulatus – opposites do not attract

May 30, 2008 Comments Off on Mate Choice in the Budgerigar (Parakeet), Melopsittacus undulatus – opposites do not attract 5315 Views

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Research conducted recently at University of California (Irvine) has revealed that female budgerigars choose males whose contact calls closely resemble their own. Males, in turn, pay more attention to similarly-sounding mates than to females whose calls differ from theirs, grooming them often and defending them vigorously. When paired with such females, male budgerigars also devote substantially more time to the care of their young. This extra care translates into an increased rate of growth and survival for the nestlings.

It has long been known that male budgerigars imitate the calls of their mates, and that doing so seems to strengthen the bond between the pair. Budgerigars have highly variable contact calls, more so than many other parrots. This may help the pair to maintain contact and to thwart competition within the huge flocks that parakeets typically form. The current research is the first to show that female mate choice is influenced by the initial sound of the male’s contact call, before he has begun to imitate her sounds.

Although budgerigars breed readily for pet keepers, this information may have important implications for hobbyists and zoos working with rare parrots that do not reproduce reliably in captivity.

 

An interesting article on the natural and captive history of the budgerigar is posted at:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/davehansen/hist.html

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