Abstract
The breeding and exhibiting of budgerigars has always been a challenge to the serious fancier, the not-so-serious being content with the colour production and the breeding of numbers. The challenge the budgie gives, enables the fancier to select the good qualities in his stock and to reject the faults. When one takes up the hobby of budgerigar breeding, the initial feeling is to breed as many as possible, the more serious aspect of selection comes at a later date.
When the times comes to programme your thoughts towards a breeding season, there are important facts to consider with your stock. The quality of the youngsters to be bred is the foremost thought in the breeder's mind; to plan the pairings is vital many weeks before actual putting up of the birds. Taking into consideration the quality of the stock's background, we must now make visual assessment of the bird's good points and its bad, omitting in our mind the most serious faults that will do our stud no good. The most significant area to work from is the size and style of the birds. Size is paramount in the show world, style brings that judge's eye a little nearer to your bird. The problem with exhibiting budgerigars is that not everyone sees the bird in the same kind of light. This may be a good thing to give variety, but we must stick to an "Ideal" model to base our lines upon.
The majority of budgerigars have inbred faults. This can be observed when judging because some birds show a combination of good and bad faults. To explain to the fancier how to get rid of the faults, can only be discussed along the lines of experience in both fanciers. To tell a newcomer to the fancy the same points, sometimes proves very difficult because of the lack of breeding experience. To this fancier it is vital that he has a picture of the Ideal bird before him at all times to work from and to study. The side view of the Ideal as printed by the Budgerigar Society, shows the grace and style, yet has a boldness in its facial expression. This view
shows that the back line of the bird must be straight with no curves or bumps, the wings must be clear with solid lacings and the body colour even and rich.
When I worked on this painting of the Ideal bird I had to bear in mind that this bird must be that little bit out of reach. Many fanciers say they have a bird approaching the Ideal, but on close examination the faults are in evidence in the bird. In the United Kingdom we have many superb show budgerigars which come from different parts of the country. There are definite lines of breeding coupling up these birds because this is where size comes in. The main winners in the U .K. are bold big budgies which stem back from years of concentrated breeding. When we see a one-off winner this usually can be traced back to a large line of birds.
In the exhibiting of budgerigars we will always have the problem of clear saddles on opalines and slight ticking on the head. These must be bred out of the birds by selective breeding over the years. In the saddle problem of the opaline, this has come about by the density of the melanine in the variety and the breeding of visual bad quality birds. Sometimes when we get a clear saddle on the bird, we get what is known as "thumb markings" on the wings. This is where the lacings of the body colour washes in to the black. The more serious problem of ticking has found its predominance in the opalines, but more normals are now showing ticking. To make it perfectly clear, the crown of the bird must be clear of any marks from the cere to the cap end just behind the eye, as seen in the Ideal.
A good front, along with the side, is a must in the exhibition bird. To show this I have shown a very good light green cock bred by Jim Moffatt of Scotland. You will see in this picture that the crown, when viewed from the front, shows a nice circle of yellow on the head. As the bird was photographed it turned its head slightly, this tends to show a split in the mask. Never judge a bird's qualities by a photo-
graph. See the bird in the flesh to make correct observations.
One of the guide lines for size in an exhibition bird is to look at the bird on eye level. That is, at the end of the perch in the show cage, see where the slope of the back line cuts through the bird. In the picture you will see the bird's head is a good way above the line, many birds have the line cut through the eye or even above.
When we are breeding budgerigars we can sometimes assess the qualities of young birds in the nest. The picture of the young opaline grey green was taken at eight weeks old. This bird was bred by me in 1977. It won the first "Champion" bird in North Wales, taking best in show at the age of eleven weeks. As this bird was an outstanding baby it grew to be a big bird as an adult. The photograph shows the width of head this bird had, this is very important in the breeding of good budgies. The width of head comes from background qualities in the family, rarely does it appear from the birds showing narrow heads. We also want good depth of mask to carry the spots. Too big spots are an eyesore on a short masked bird, therefore it is important to have the depth of mask in the family as well as the width of head.
Having judged nearly all the top shows in the U .K. I was delighted to accept a judging engagement in America in May of 1981. Along with the judging, I gave talks to societies and showed slides of the the main winners in the U .K. My overall impression of the birds that I saw and judged in the states is that they were of high quality, many birds out of the cards were there for either condition faults or not corning up to the standard. The show at Delaware was a well run event with some very enthusiastic people in charge. Birds came from a wide area, from Florida to Ohio. The judging system, being totally different from ours, took a while to get used to but having mastered it, I soon got down to the selection of the birds before me.
The champion section provided some excellent exhibits, the most successful fancier being Don Langell of Massachusetts. His birds were powerful and showed very well. They also had good size in both cocks and hens. There was a stamp of uniformity in them which, of course, is the trade mark of a good stud. Bob Mello had some good birds in the intermediate section, he won the special for best. The birds in the intermediate were good but slightly below their U .K. cousins. Novice birds were level with our average beginners section in the U .K. We have some good birds in beginner sections in England which is due to the fact that we have more shows and more people keep budgies per square mile.