Winners at the Budgerigar Club’s Bird Show
The male and female winners at the annual bird show in Orange, New South Wales, Australia.
Budgies of every colour abounded at the Mid-state Budgerigar Club’s annual bird show on Saturday.
With 37 entrants bringing a total of 330 entries, it represented an increase on last year.
While the champion budgie was a male double-factor spangle with vivid canola-coloured plumage (pictured at left and right below), club publicity officer Mark Hawke took the top female award for his grey spangle (pictured above).
The two-year-old hen had previously won a national title.
He said breeders looked for certain characteristic in their show budgies.
“It’s their size and deportment, the width of their head,” he said.
“Their stance is really important and you can see she stands really proud.”
Mr Hawke said the record for the most expensive budgie was set in 2013 at $8000 and competiti
on was what kept him interested in breeding.
“There’s probably 500 members in NSW and it’s a worldwide hobby,” he said.
At 29, Simon Woods was the youngest exhibitor and he started breeding budgies with the help of his dad.
He said the main challenge was making the knowledge more widely available but the trick was to separate the birds prior to breeding.
“So it’s the first time they see another bird,” he said.
By danielle.cetinski@fairfaxmedia.com.au
