I'd love to rescue one! But we have a whole of one parrot rescue in Aus! And majority of the birds are suns and cockatoos ): I always watch it when I'm looking for a bird. And budgies seem to just be passed from friend to friend. Rehomed birds seem rather few and far between around here, particularly tiels and budgies. Handraised budgies are even harder come by -_-
Speaking of such, I considered a tiel (and still am - I plan to put A LOT of thought into this as we need to push the correct species, she will go simply by looks, as I said, not big on research) but she loves watching the comical antics of my conure. She likes Smokie too who is much more tiel like but she prefers to play with Yoshi. I'm not teeeerribly worried about biting as Yoshi bites a lot being a conure and she plays with him all the time. All this said, she actually could enjoy the talking aspect of a budgie! Not being a bird person though, I'd worry she would think of a budgie like a goldfish.
Ah! A bird would definitely suit her, it's just a matter of what sort. I have to put consideration into the way she perceives birds too - I mean, when she nearly got another dog a while back, it had to be a small dog but it had to be a 'dog-dog' (no maltese, yorkies, poodles, ect) and it couldn't be a prissy dog (beagle, pug, corgi, ect.) and no terriers; she tends to judge animals by who owns them typically. So when choosing an animal for her, you have to choose carefully!! Haha. She loves animals, she's just an odd woman. We are hoping a bird will stop her from getting another dog for a while as she needs to take a break! She doesn't have the strength or energy to walk them or train them, she let's the kelpie x have run of the house so it is quite aggressive, she just needs to have a different pet of her own she could handle better and she absolutely adores the birds. She knows decent care and training from me caring for my guys and she will direct questions to us more often than not so she has pretty good skills with them compared to the dogs who she likes to think she 'knows all about'. I just try to remember she tries, she does what she believes is best for them, she just doesn't like listening to other opinions when she thinks she knows better.
SO yeah, bit of background there so you can see why I went for the lesser-known small birds. Just a matter of balancing her strange outlook and what would suit her! I think a linnie would actually be ideal but again, not in Australia! Unless I'm willing to part with $600!