The common parakeet is called a budgie. You will want a handraised one or at least one joint human and parent raised if you have limited experience handling birds. Budgies do not tame as easily as something like a cockatiel if they aren't handled from a very young age and consistently throughout their lives. Your typical pet store budgie may or may not become tame enough for a lot of touching. If you know nothing about birds or don't have the time to spend they may never become tame enough to handle beyond moving them around using a perch between you and them. It's a risk of pet store birds compared to spending the time and money to find a good breeder raised bird.
You should buy parakeet specific seed or pellets from a pet store or the pet section of a feed store. You can also get some very high quality mixes from a variety of companies online but the price can really go up quickly. If your budgie is used to seed you will need to start with seed and decide if you want to put in the work to switch to or at least add in some pellets. A diet that includes some pellets tends to be more complete and adjusting them to fresh fruits, vegetables, and sprouts is also very good for their health. Seed addicts that are fed only dry seed and never forced to experience other food will have a shorter lifespan and be at more risk of getting overweight. Buying a breeder bird that has been fed a varied diet will be the easiest and healthiest instead of a seed addict pet store bird. A mineral chew (this can be a perch) and plain cuttlebone are good to leave in the cage. Especially for hens. Hens may lay eggs even without a male around and if they don't have enough calcium it can cause direct and indirect health problems. Parakeets, cockatiels, and parrots do not need grit and may over ingest it if provided which can cause complications. Grit is used by softbills like doves who cannot remove the shell of their seeds with their beak before swallowing.
I like to get the 30" long breeder cages for the small parakeet species. They are the most bang for your buck and parakeets like to fly from one end to the other as much as their wings allow. Many people keep them clipped for safety so they can't get much upward lift.
http://www.amazon.com/Parakeet-Canary-C ... eder+cages
If you can afford it one of the taller versions is even better and you can find some in various colors. I had a blue one for my lineolated parakeet. Linnies are a little smaller and less active than budgies but tend to tame better. Small bird oval cages or cages with weird shapes across the top are usually very small or the space is hard to use so a plain rectangle or square cage (depending on it's dimensions) is better even if it looks less fancy.
Wooden dowel perches should be replaced by a variety of shapes and types. All birds need to be able to exercise their feet and have them rest in different positions. Most birds are on their feet 24/7 for their entire lives unless sitting on eggs so think of it as providing a variety of chairs, couches, and beds for your birds to use as they feel like. Do not use perches with sand paper covers. There are some safe concrete rough perches and similar that can be used for beak and nail wear. A good old natural branch perch is often enjoyed even more for beak rubbing by budgies than the rough stuff. There are a few people who dislike rope perches but overall they are highly suggested and come in bendable versions that attach to the sides of the cage or springy hanging versions to use up the middle. You can also get calcium and mixed mineral chew perches in various shapes for gnawing and ingesting needed calcium. I have a smooth curved pepper mineral perch/chew that is only a few inches long and a yellow cholla cactus shape mineral perch that is about 8" long.
I prefer a cockatiel as a first bird to a parakeet. They are a little calmer, often easier to handle, and overall more forgiving but they will need about twice the cage space, particularly in height. There are the linnies like I mentioned. They tend to be a bit shy and are quieter birds but provided you are gentle with them they are easy to handle if they are tame when you get them. They are not particularly difficult to tame but may take awhile due to how shy some individuals are. Linnies will sometimes become what they call hand shy. Hand shy birds will interact with you a lot and love to be on you with constant attention and vocal calls but they are difficult to approach with your hands directly. Parrotlets are a bolder, louder, similar sized bird to the parakeets. They come in all sorts of colors. They are amusing clowns and often very affectionate without the shyness of the linnies or the jittery, high energy behavior of the budgies but they can be frustrating little terrors when they throw temper tantrums about things and they try harder to outsmart you when they don't want to listen. Unlike other small birds they may be quicker to nip rather than run away when mistakes are made during handling.
While there are more big parrot owners than the little species you can find overall bird info and many different sections for each species group on avian avenue
http://forums.avianavenue.com/index.php
I've always wanted one!
