Champion Bird Breeder and his Albino Budgerigar

 

Bruce Schuster is from Cairns, Australia, and has had birds since he was a teenager.

His budgerigars are probably in a lot better condition than many people.

The avian enthusiast feeds his beloved birds a complex handmade food mix, adds vitamins to keep them healthy, regularly washes them and keeps their home exceptionally clean.

But there is method in the supposed madness — Bruce is a champion bird breeder.

The Whifield man works as a property manager at Felix Grasso Real Estate alongside wife Sylvia. The couple own the business so regularly put in lengthy hours. But in the early morning hours and again at dusk, it is all about his beloved birds.

“Ever since I was about 16 I’ve had birds and I’m 69 now,” he says.

“It’s my mental outlet from real estate. This is a job (real estate) that’s full on all the time.

“It (his birds) started as a hobby that I could have with my kids but they’ve all grown up and moved away now.”

Not only has his hobby continued but it has won him some serious cred in the competition bird world.

Last month his albino budgerigar won the Australian National Budgerigar Council Championships for albino birds held in Hobart. What started as a competition with 500,000 entries all over the country was whittled down to 567 birds in the national finals from which 27 budgerigars — of which Bruce’s entry placed — of the very best in the country were announced. In total, the five birds he entered placed in the top 10.

According to Bruce, the national competition has a worldwide following, with a particular interest from English audiences.

The work that goes into preparing the birds is extensive.

“You’ve got to know how to prepare them — shampoo them and spray them,” he says.

“They come up really well if you groom them and spend the time on them. I put a bowl of water in the aviary so they can bath and carry on for about four weeks. Then I spray them one a week for a couple of weeks before the competition.”

That spray is made of sun-warmed tank water, which cleans and tightens their feathers. The birds also get iodine and calcium supplements twice a week alongside a special soft food mix Bruce makes containing oats, boiled egg, biscuit, carrot, barley green and sometimes kale.

Bruce says good budgies are all about the bloodline they descend from.

“It’s like race horses,” he says. “It took three years breeding them here.

“The first one was a Bundaberg blend of English and Australian budgerigar.”

Among his aviary of budgerigar varieties are normals, clearwings, spangles, cinnamon wings, opal wings, dominant pied, albinos and lutinos.

This is the third time he has won a national championship, having won the 2009 competition in Tasmania and the 2015 event in Mandurah, Western Australia.

He’s also a member of the Cairns and District Budgerigar Club, whose members regularly travel the region for meetings and table shows.

In the meantime, his prize-winning budgie is in post-competition mode, fattening up a little on the sweet potato Bruce is feeding him.

“I’m just a little backyard breeder with a little aviary taking on the big boys,” Bruce says. “I spoke to the judge after the competition and he said ‘what a bird’.

Reported by Lauren Dor in The Cairns Post