Abstract
The biblical quotation "In my father's house there are many mansions" certainly applies to aviculture in that it encompasses so many different facets. The poultry and pigeon fancier feels he has little in common with the collector of psittacines, finches or softbills; budgie and canary breeders are a complete fancy of their own and do not feel threatened by the proposed federal regulations; gamebird and waterfowl breeders encounter problems totally unfamiliar to the cagebird breeder. There are purists who eschew fostering and bold experimenters who seek new mutations. Each is interested in his own particular fancy, yet all are aviculturists. And if we are to be truly a federation of aviculturists, it behooves us to view each other's fancy without prejudice.
One whose pursuit of aviculture has taken a different tack is Mrs. Alba Ballard of Huntington Station, Long Island, N. Y. whose penchant for dressing her psittacines in costumes has given her considerable media exposure and aroused a flurry of controversy as well.
I admit to a great deal of skepticism when I first read of Mrs. Ballard's endeavors with birds but seeing her work with her Moluccan cockatoo, Galaxy, at the AFA national convention quickly dispelled my doubts. The handsome cockatoo whistled and danced, posed in costume and generally hammed it up to the delight of the audience. The bird - steady as a rock in both the exhibit area prior to the banquet and during her act - obviously enjoyed the performance and responded positively to audience applause. There was no doubt that a fine rapport exists between the bird and its owner. Mrs. Ballard and Galaxy received a standing ovation from the banquet guests after their performance and later large groups clustered around the Telescreen to watch the video tape of her TV appearance on "Saturday Night Live".
I had an opportunity to speak at length with Mrs. Ballard after the convention and found her to be a warm and voluble woman, aware of - and sensitive to - criticism of her act. Most of all, she wants people to know she is not cruel. The props and costumes in her birds' act are all carefully handcrafted by Mrs. Ballard of very lightweight materials and each
costume is tailored to a specific bird. The costumes enclose the bird from front to back and neither wings nor legs are moved when the costume is put on. Velcro fasteners permit rapid and easy dressing and undressing. At the banquet performance, the bird appeared in each costume for about 45 to 60 seconds and exhibited no discomfort whatsoever.
Mrs. Ballard was born in Italy near Milan and grew up in a world of animals as relatives there had a zoo. She has been interested in birds for as long as she can remember and recalls watching with great interest the German veterinarians who treated the animals at the zoo. She had some exposure to the theater as a child and learned stagecraft and costuming while watching rehearsals. She had always felt that parrots were great natural performers and saw human foibles mirrored in their ludricrous antics. In 1963 she dressed her first bird, a white-breasted caique, for her own pleasure and later devised an act to reach the attention of people who were not familiar with birds.
She states that her birds undergo no real "training" and that she does not try to impose her will on the birds. Instead she relies on patience and encouragement of the
birds' natural proclivity and disdains both rewards and deprivation in her method. She spends a great deal of time with her birds and maintains close physical contact with them; she holds them and strokes them, talks to them, sings .to them and coos to them and when you observe her it is easy to believe her when she says that she teaches her birds with "love". She has great sensitivity to the bird's needs and birds seem to respond to her. She insists that birds thus taught are relaxed and dependable performers who enjoy the attention they receive. Certainly Galaxy, a 5-yearold Moluccan hen, is a splendid testament to Mrs. Ballard's concern for her birds. The bird was in superb condition and I overheard a knowledgeable aviculturist tell his companion "Now that's what a Moluccan is supposed to look like". The bird exhibited both poise and pleasure when stroked by numerous guests. Yet Mrs. Ballard says the bird was nervous and frightened when she acquired it and that it took three years before the bird's confidence was restored.
Although she maintains that it is difficult for her to face a large audience for a performance with her birds, she feels she can be a goodwill ambassador to those
people who are unfamiliar with the delight of keeping a bird and has the dream of raising funds for an avian clinic on Long Island staffed by veterinarians experienced in bird care.
Although Mrs. Ballard has made numerous appearances in public and on television she felt her appearance at the AFA convention was "coming home". She was delighted with the response her performance elicited and rejoiced in the company of so many bird people. "I felt I was not alone" she stated, "those people greeted me from their hearts". She has appeared at the Bronx Zoo, at schools and children's groups and on television programs such as PM Magazine, Manimals, the Today Show and Saturday Night Live.
Nor is Mrs. Ballard alone in her avian hobby; her husband and 21-year-old son are very supportive in the efforts needed to maintain a menagerie that includes a dog and cat, a ferret and a pair of chinchillas, a blue-eyed triton, two toucans, a toucanette, lories and lori keets, blackheaded caique, mitered conure, macaws including a black palm, grand eclectus, bare-eyed cockatoos, Bee-Bees and a variety of finches as well as golden pheasant, brown-eared pheasant, wood ducks,
mandarin ducks, Egyptian geese peacocks and numbers of bantams. Of all these animals, only a few are used in the dressing in costume, most are simply pets.
There is no doubt that the public exposure Mrs. Ballard and her birds have received has focused attention on the desirability of birds as pets and has generated considerable interest among those unfamiliar with birds. It is regrettable that she has been criticized by those within aviculture simply because her interest differs from their own.