Anyone own any birds?

[Corea]

I've been reading a few posts saying how people despise parakeets--also known as budgies, short for budgerigars. I, on the other hand, actually really want a budgie for a pet.

Mind you, I do not want anything to do with one from a "bin'o'budgies," the infamous pet store cases filled with scores of them. If you do some research into budgies, you'll learn that they're actually very intelligent and that the world record holding bird with the largest vocabulary is a budgie.

I have actually found a budgie breeder in my area that hand feeds budgies since they are babies. After doing some research, I've learned that such budgies are very sociable and intelligent. They have the potential to be trained in numerous ways. I can't wait to purchase one of these budgies; the breeder tells me budgies like these hardly chirp at all as they grow older but instead make cooing noises that try to mimic the language used at home.

Sorry if I seem like a budgie fanatic, but I just thought I'd dispel some negative ideas about budgies. I only know this information because I, too, have looked into owning a bird and a budgie has ended up as my bird of choice.