Talk:Whipper (budgerigar)

Untitled

I have attempted to clarify this article by removing general comments about bird mutations and whether mother birds will reject their babies for human scent and the like, which were sourced to articles that had nothing to do with Whipper. The article still needs improvement. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 01:38, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

The "comments" noted above are referenced facts about "Whipper" and his Mutations. The removed links to notability are necessary for documenting his public life.

Whipper was rejected as a baby, this is referenced audio interview and many internet articles; the single article referencing this was establishing fact about baby bird rejections, and therefore it is valid in this encyclopedia entry. If you find a better article, to clarify the validity of his story, please add that reference.

The "01:36, 6 December 2008 Metropolitan90" version is less clear by its vagueness. That edit has taken away valuable material to the Whipper (The Budgie) article. Accordingly, I am reverting the last version change.

--Hasbrook (talk to Hasbrook) 13:51 6 December 2008 (EST) (CC Metropolitan90)

I severely question the wisdom of that. The article is up for deletion; Metropolitan90 cleaned some of it up - and you undid the changes that might just save the article. So now we're back to the clipped sentences, the terrible prose, etc. BTW - Whipper was never a "baby" - the young of birds are known as chicks. Ros0709 (talk) 19:28, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

I emphatically assure you Metropolitan90's edit took away necessary material, and to undo his version was more wise than your misunderstanding of "baby" and "chick". Chick is defined as a "child" along with other meanings. Professional breeders will call them baby birds. Those semantics would be minor edits. While I think it would be tasteless, I would not have undone that sort of edit. Your mention of "prose" is rather unwitting; this should be common speech.---Hasbrook (talk) 23:10, 6 December 2008 (EST)

The article currently states, "Mother birds sometimes reject their young. Whipper's life story started with this sort of tragic rejection. Professional opinion state they are not rejected because of human scent." This is cited to an article which states, "If you find a nestling on the ground, it is best to locate the nest and put the bird back. No one can care for a baby bird like a mother bird can. Don’t worry, birds do not reject a baby if they detect your scent on it." [1] I guess that means that Whipper was not rejected by his mother due to human scent on him, if indeed he did have human scent on him, which has not been ascertained. But this Wikipedia article should try to explain why he was rejected, not just to reject reasons that could not be why he was rejected. Maybe he was rejected by his mother due to his unusual appearance, but it would be helpful to provide a source that states that birds sometimes do reject their young if the young have a mutation causing an unusal appearance.

The article also states, "Bird mutations are well documented. Mutations can raise the price above the normal sale for a given breed." However, there is nothing in this article that says that Whipper was ever offered for sale to anyone, so I don't know what that has to do with him.

Finally, I would suggest a different way of identifying Whipper's species in the introduction. Currently the article begins:

Whipper is a mutated budgie. "Budgie" is short for "budgerigar", the Australian term for the U.S. English word "Parakeet".

As explained at Wikipedia:Proper names#Biological common names, the specific name of a bird species is to be capitalized, but not a general term. "Budgerigar" is the specific name of Melopsittacus undulatus, whereas "parakeet" refers to several different and unrelated species of parrot. So I do not think we should imply that Parakeet is the standard term for Whipper's species. Furthermore, Budgie is a disambiguation page; it is fine to use the term budgie in the article, but there is no point in linking it when we can link Budgerigar first. That is why I changed the lead to say:

Whipper is a Budgerigar ("budgie") from New Zealand who received media attention for his unusual appearance.

This should help explain some of the edits I made. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 02:17, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

I thought about looking for another reference of mother-birds rejecting their hatchings. The Radio Interview tells how his owner tried returning him, so I felt that should be referenced. I'll get a verified reference on that as soon as possible.

His breed of bird has extensive documentation on color mutations. Mentions of cost and health were in all the material I read about pet mutations, it seemed necessary. You have a valid point though; I understand it seems out-of-place. I'll clean that portion up if another doesn't first.

I wouldn't use wikipedia as a reference, but these species names are quite mixed up. From all I've read it appears "Budgerigar" is not an American (US English) term; the term Parakeet seems to be nearly absent from use in the United Kingdom. Parakeet is a more broad term, however Whipper would be refereed to as a Parakeet by most of the United States. Mention of the term "Parakeet" would not be necessary for other language versions, but it is valid in America. Thank you for tactfully mentioning the capitalization; I should have capitalized the proper name.

Whipper was referred to as a Budgie by media and his owner. Budgie is the more common name from my reading. They both seem valid to the article and proper to link. However, this is another minor edit I would not object to.

Sections are a valuable feature of wikipedia. There was additional information lost by the undone version. Your mentions here are very intelligent and respectable. I would be happy to make these mentioned minor edits. Thank you for your time and work on here.

--Hasbrook (talk) 23:10, 6 December 2008 (EST)

It is true that many, probably most, people in the United States call Budgerigars "parakeets". However, Worldbirdnames.org's compilation of the International Ornithological Congress's list of English names and scientific names for birds shows the Budgerigar as the English name of only one particular species, whereas there are over 80 different species with the word "parakeet" in their English names. Therefore, I would recommend identifying Whipper as a Budgerigar on first reference to make it clear what species he belongs to, and later as a "budgie" since that would be the more common term for him in his home country. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 05:23, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

That is what you call US English, and most budgerigar/parakeet sites I find online, including references from the Budgeriar wikipedia article that establishes the interchangeable name. I'm not going to dispute such semantics, it works as you put it. Thank you for your work on the page and wikipedia. Hasbrook (talk) 00:06, 19 December 2008 (EST)

Tidy

I've done an extensive tidy on this article to address the following;

• Tone. It was written as a "fancy that!", "feel-good" story. Fine if you're writing magazine filler, but not an encyclopaedia article. Primarily; a budgerigar is not a 'he', nor is a bird a person. I'd be surprised if the sex of the bird was even known anyway.
• Repetitions. There were a number of these.
• Pop Star claims. No cite for this, and undoubtedly overstated. If the bird has been recorded for a record then it can be re-addded with cite.
• Spelling. New Zealand spelling applies.
• Disjointed sentences. Tried to make things flow better.
• Budgie. This is an informal title. Budgerigar is the correct term to use on a encyclopaedia.

--Escape Orbit ^(Talk) 13:56, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

But when does this story happen?

There is not even one date or year.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.203.92.42 (talk) 13:12, 4 October 2018 (UTC) 

Update page

I would assume that Whipper is dead now and has been so for several years now. Unfortunately, feather duster budgies suffer from a harmful mutation and therefore only live for a very short time. However, I cannot find any recent news about this bird. Amadeus1928 (talk) 00:41, 8 August 2021 (UTC)