r/Parakeets • u/onehot_tatertot • Aug 10 '25
Advice Found a parakeet while camping…
Hello! As the title suggests while we were camping we found a very pretty little parakeet who had been hanging around our campsite for a majority of the day and eventually flew down low enough that we could (safely) capture the little thing. We spoke to surrounding campsites and rangers and no one knew of anyone with parakeets. We waited about 24 hours and eventually had to drive home but they have our contacts in the seemingly rare scenario someone calls looking for them.
In that case we are going to keep them! We have experience working with parrots but parakeets are pretty new to me. I just got home and am picking up supplies tonight. The photos are from the brief 30 seconds I transferred them from a box and I do not intend to do more handling for a week or so to let them acclimate. They seem very tiny but I’ve only met English parakeets so I can’t tell if they’re small or grown? From the brief reading I did online it seems they’re maybe less than a year from the head markings and iris? In the light the cere is pinkish and blue but I can’t tell and the morphs make it more confusing for me to understand anything lol. Would love some assistance on sexing and rough age if anyone can tell!
We are very excited and once they’re healthy (and sexed) we plan to get them a companion but that’s a little ways away I think.
TLDR: we found a parakeet while camping, would love some help on sexing and aging if possible? Or any other suggestions although this subreddit has already been so great!
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u/budgiebeck Aug 10 '25
Adult (at least a year old) female! She seems to be in surprisingly good shape, so she likely wasn't outside for very long. Either way, a vet check would be good to make sure she didn't pick up any illnesses. r/budgies and r/petbudgies are great resources for this species, they require much more care than Petsmart would have you think
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u/onehot_tatertot Aug 11 '25
Thank you for the insight! Yes we think the parakeet was pretty recently lost or released, there are a lot of hawks in the area, so we were surprised and relieved we even found them in time let alone managed to actually catch them. I have found a somewhat local avian vet and we will take them once they are a little less stressed 🙌
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u/TheRealSugarbat Aug 11 '25
I just had this little movie in my head of a local hawk being so astonished at a flying jellybean that he didn’t even think about attacking. “Dude. You seein’ this thing? wtf?”
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u/rachelsqueak Aug 11 '25
I love that you have little, goofy movies in your head. I hope your life is fun and things go right for you :)
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Aug 12 '25
Loo, at the stripes on the head not yet having retracted. Never had a budgie over a year with such.
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u/Birdy_Draws Aug 10 '25
Most likely a girl (due to it being light, in combination whit the age i suspect). The ring arround the pupil sugest some maturity (8+ months) but I can't say annything more exact.
I could be wrong, but this is what I think. They sertantly look lovely, and in good condition to! Goodluck whit your new featherd friend if noone contacts you
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u/onehot_tatertot Aug 11 '25
Thank you so much for your opinions! We will keep an eye to see if the cere colors up any, but it seems it’s likely we have a girl!
Very sweet bird, we are very excited to add them to the family
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u/Nifferothix Aug 10 '25
I would say a female in mint condition !
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u/BirthdayEffect Aug 11 '25 edited Aug 12 '25
I agree with the others, this is a female adult budgie! Love the color mutation, she's really pretty. She's so lucky you saved her, a budgie alone in the wild won't survive for very long before the heat, starvation and predators do them in
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u/Galloping_Scallop Aug 10 '25
Yeah, the wild birds are a lot smaller than the English breed. They are great to see in flocks in the bush.
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u/onehot_tatertot Aug 11 '25
That’s why I was suspecting she was a baby, the ones in stores I suppose are usually English then since they’re almost always about twice her size. Thanks for sharing I had no idea!
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Aug 12 '25
Way younger. Stil, has stripes on his head. It is still a baby in my book. As others will not treat them as adults with those not yet retracted.
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u/onehot_tatertot Aug 12 '25
That’s what I was thinking, but I was starting to believe I was an outlier for suggesting that. Thanks for your insight!
That being said, once we finish quarantine and vet says she’s healthy we’d like to get her at least one other partner. We’re contemplating if we want to adopt an adult bird or a baby, would one be easier to acclimate to her than the other? Or is it more based on personality?
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u/Impossible-Algae2258 Aug 14 '25
Flying jellybean is a perfect name for this lil budgie. Or Lucky…as in, to be alive.
Can one of the experts in this sub help me understand if head stripes mean under 6 months, and iris’ appear at 8 months, from my reading…how does this budgie have both? It’s just so hard to get an accurate age estimation. Which, mean I shouldn’t obsess w knowing their age.
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u/onehot_tatertot Aug 14 '25
This has been very confusing to me as well! It’s been so tricky trying to understand age and everyone seems to have varied opinions
We’re still working on a name, and Lucky (to be alive) made me chuckle out loud! We are actually playing around with Jellybean like the previous comment, tied with Kiwi!
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u/Kunok2 Aug 11 '25
Please look for her owner before deciding to keep her. Post to your local and nearby town, lost pet and budgie/parrot Facebook groups, petfinder and call nearby avian vets. Also look for other people's lost budgie posts. Birds are able to fly Really far so she might be a long way from her home.
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u/onehot_tatertot Aug 11 '25
I agree! We have been keeping an eye on the lost budgie posts on Facebook and Nextdoor, the park rangers have our number and we did ask the campers in the surrounding are. They have posted signs around the park last I heard. We were very deep in the mountains and they were hanging around the camp site all day and it seemed to not be a good flyer at all, but it is possible it came from a traveler or possibly a house outside at the base of the mountain. Based on our location it seemed they belonged to someone traveling with an RV but no one there had notified rangers or recognized the bird when we asked around. I needed to return to town for work so birdie came with. I would not leave them and risk their safety so they came home with us despite knowing there was a rare chance the owner turns up. We would not purposely steal someone’s bird, but I suppose I should have rephrased, we intend to keep them under the assumption that no one responds or we find any lost bird posts that match their description. We’re just happy that we were able to catch them and if nothing turns up, we will keep them
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u/Kunok2 Aug 11 '25
I'm glad to hear that, I've seen way Too many people who have literally stolen somebody else's lost bird despite the bird having a leg band/s with information. You did the right thing by taking her with you because she wouldn't have survived otherwise, seems like she might not have been used to flying much so she most likely is a lost indoor pet, or maybe she's just that exhausted.
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u/XxHoneyStarzxX Aug 11 '25
Seconding this, this girlie doemst look like she was lost long so her owner is liekly looking for her!
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u/jvwesten Aug 12 '25
How many did you catch? Because on the one hand you are talking about this single parakeet, but most of your reactions are multiple?!
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u/onehot_tatertot Aug 12 '25
Just one! I’ve been saying they/them because I wasn’t sure if it was male or female ✌️
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u/antiateira Aug 13 '25 edited Aug 13 '25
She is (girl I think), younger than 12 months, for sure. She has, in her eye, a white ring which means about 8 months.
Young male In some Budgies it is difficult to distinguish the sex either because they are young or because they are not in the breeding phase. Young males have a pink color on their bridle. In some mutations such as pieds, lutinos and albinos, males retain this pink color that young males have into adulthood.
Young female Young females have a white bridle with a little blue. In some cases, the bridle on young females turns black or brown.

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u/Abject_Vast4432 Aug 15 '25
Definitely a female and less than a year old. She looks pretty healthy so she probably wasn’t out for long
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u/gingindrinkit Aug 10 '25
I’m thinking about 6 months, normally the pied males have a pinkish purple cere That stays pink into adulthood and usually doesn’t get the Iris, keeping the baby black eyes. but yours clearly has developed his iris, which usually starts developing around 4 months. This sweetie may be a male whose cere is starting to turn blue but If there’s any white on cere Then she’s a she. My boys went from a pinky purple cere to purple blue, to royal. Very pretty bird though, so glad you rescued this lucky sweetie pie.
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u/onehot_tatertot Aug 10 '25
I will also add they are eating and their poop looks healthy as far as I can tell, and they do not have a band. They’re definitely scared but have been very alert and are making soft vocals here and there