A budgie is a small, brightly coloured bird that people keep as a pet. It is the short, friendly name for a budgerigar, a kind of small parrot that first came from Australia. In British and Australian English this is the normal word at home; American speakers say it too, though some say parakeet for the same sort of cage bird. Budgies chatter, they hop onto a finger, and they are much smaller and cheaper than the big talking parrots. In ordinary homes almost nobody uses the long word.