Full details are shown below (click to enlarge).

Results and reports from previous shows (back to 2001) may be viewed at the end of this article.

UK Specialist & Rare Variety Open Show Reports

2001 to 2002 & 2004 to 2010 courtesy of Budgerigar World:

• 2001 Report (PDF 223Kb)
• 2002 Report (PDF 857Kb)
• 2004 Report (PDF 486Kb)
• 2005 Report (PDF 458Kb)
• 2006 Report (PDF 525Kb)
• 2007 Report (PDF 258Kb)
• 2008 Report (PDF 95Kb)
• 2009 Report (PDF 421Kb)
• 2010 Report (PDF 516Kb)

2011 Show report on Budgerigar.co.uk:

• 2011 Report

The show was held in Oberwangen (3173), a few miles south west of Bern in the west of Switzerland.

Results

The major results were as follows:

• Best in Show & Best Any Age – Daniel Lütolf
• Best Young Bird – Daniel Lütolf
• Best Any Age Opposite Sex – Daniel Lütolf
• Best Young Bird Opposite Sex – Bühler & Pearce

The full results can be viewed here.

Judges

The judges were:

• Jan van Meeteren, Holland (NGC-DBS)
• Han Schrijver, Holland (NGC-DBS)

Photographs

All photographs below were taken & kindly supplied to us by Marcel Bühler.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Best in Show
Daniel Lütolf

Best Opp. Sex Any Age
Daniel Lütolf

Best Young Bird
Daniel Lütolf

Best Opp. Sex Young Bird
Bühler & Pearce

Buckton’s Sponsorship Ceases

It is with regret that the sponsorship with Bucktons will cease as from end of April.

This sponsorship deal, going back to 2000, has been fruitful to the Budgerigar Society as well as its members.

The Society has purchased pop-up banners to pass on to its General Council members to take to shows, together with question boxes to promote the Society and consult the general membership.

Long Service Awards

National Council for Aviculture (NCA) Long Service Badges were awarded to:

• Gold (25 years service)
  • Roger Carr
  • Bob Francis
  • Dave Herring
• Silver (20 years service)
  • Ghalib Al-Nasser
  • Gren Norris
  • Dave Whittaker
• Bronze (15 years service)
  • Janice Al-Nasser
  • George Booth
  • Grant Findlay
  • Donald McCallum
  • Alex Woan

Roger Carr was also installed on the NCA Roll of Honour for his long and outstanding services to the fancy.

UK Breeders at World Show

Four UK budgerigar fanciers recently entered their birds at the World Show in Spain.

Geoff Capes & Roger Carr won Gold Medals and Roy Aplin won a Silver & two Bronze medals.

Birds in Team Classes to be included in Benched Figures

After receiving correspondence from Land O’Burns BS, it was agreed that correctly entered birds in team classes will count towards the benched figure at shows.

This means that the number of birds rather than the number of teams will count towards the final benched figures.

All paper work related to patronage returns have been amended to take this into consideration.

Anthracite Variety Recognised / Rare Varieties Class Changes

The Rare Variety & Colour BS submitted a request to recognise the Anthracite variety, having met all the criteria for recognition of a new mutation, and also a Colour Standard for the variety.

They also requested that the variety to be exhibited in the Rare Variety classes.

The Council accepted both recommendations and decided that, to give the varieties grouped in the Rare Variety classes a chance of competing on an equal footing, the Clearbody variety (both Texas & Easley) will now be exhibited in the Any Other Classes.

All these changes to take immediate effect.

Biosecurity & Cleaning Changes

Some amendments were made to the Biosecurity Guidelines so that cage covers can now be removed inside the hall at a designated area before checking in and checking out.

Both the top and slope of the show cages now need to be cleaned.

It was also agreed that designated treated areas of the floor may be used as well if necessary.

Judges Panel Changes

Both Miranda Humphreys & Graham Turner were admitted to the Subsidiary Judges Panel.

The following were admitted to the Retired Judges Panel:

• John Grubb
• Horace Holland
• Robert McLean
• John Mason
• Frank Punchard
• Les Stanley

The following were removed from the Judges Panel either for failure to pay subscription or failure to complete the Judges Return Form:

• Duncan Folley
• Steve Speed
• Rodney Harris

Both John Bowie & Derek Hardie resigned from the Judges Panel.

The Budgerigar

All members of the society receive a full colour magazine (“The Budgerigar”) which is published bi-monthly.

The March issue of “The Budgerigar” has been sent to all paid up members containing the ballot forms to elect the new General Council from 20 candidates.

There are also nine resolutions put forward for members to vote on.

BS 2012 Spring Event & AGM

Plans are well ahead with the next Spring Event to be held on 11th – 13th May 2012 at Seaton Burn within the Northern BS area.

The speakers are:

• Gerd Bleicher (Germany)
• Carlos Ramôa (Portugal)
• Ghalib & Janice Al-Nasser (Guidelines)

The judges booked are:

• Dave Cottrell
• Terry & Linda Jukes
• Ron Pearce
• Fred Wright

The format will be similar to the event held in Woking last spring.

The Society’s AGM will be held on Saturday 12th May.

BS Club Show 2012

The Club Show this year is going back to its old date on 17th & 18th November.

The committee accepted a trophy donated by Joe Nevin for Best Yellowface Any Age and have also decided to accept birds on the Saturday morning as well as on Friday.

Judges booked for this year are:

• Maurice Roberts (President)
• Ian Clarke (Trainee Judge of the Year)
• Marcel Buhler & Carlos Ramôa (overseas judges)
• Linda Jukes
• Robert Ellis
• Pete Hutchinson
• Dave Wall
• Kevin Shillings
• Dave Guppy
• Adrian Terheege
• Ron Pearce
• Phil Reaney
• Colin Parsons

Section judges will be:

• Bob McCabe
• Doug Pringle
• Geoff Tuplin
• Clifton Wixon

Dr. Marcellus Bürkle, a specialist bird vet from Germany, will be the speaker at the morning seminar.

Judges for 2013 were also nominated and selected.

The exhibitor’s package of free entry to the show on Sunday for benching 15 or more birds (excluding sales) will still be in operation. First time exhibitors at the Club Show will be given a voucher for a free catalogue when checking in their birds.

Subscriptions

The 2012 subscription fees are:

• Single – £25
• Partnership same address – £37.50
• Senior member & OAP – £20
• Junior – £16.25

The veterinary diagnostic service fee is £10 per annum.

More information can be obtained from the society’s website (www.budgerigarsociety.com) or by contacting the Budgerigar Society office.

The show took place in the Bernie Mullane Sports Complex in Kellyville – a northern suburb of Sydney, Australia.

410 birds were benched from 46 exhibitors.

Results

The major results were as follows:

• Best in Show & Best Any Age – I Hanington
• Best Young Bird – A & C Druery
• Best Any Age Opposite Sex – A & C Druery
• Best Young Bird Opposite Sex – Welshman Family

The full results can be viewed here.

Judges

The judges were:

• Terry Bevan
• Craig Buckingham
• Andrew Plunket
• Allan Reid

Photographs

All photographs below were taken by Nola Bradford & kindly supplied to us by Santo Calabrese.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Best in Show

Jean Painter & Ian Hanington

Jean Painter & Alan Druery

Jean Painter & Ray Welshman

Judges in action

Show Manager, Kathy Manton and
Assistant Show Manager,
James Matthews

The next Spangle Day and AGM will be held on Sunday 22nd April at the Loddington Village Hall, High Street, near Kettering, Northants NN14 1LE. The morning session will be allocated to a guest speaker. Birds will be accepted between 10.00 and 10.30 am and will be judged by the President Bob Allen. All members, fanciers and guests are welcome. The afternoon session will be allocated to the AGM commencing at 2.30 pm.

The spangles fared well at the Association’s 2011 club show, which was held in conjunction with the Budgerigar Society Club Show, when two of the major awards were won by spangles. This was the Best Young Bird in Show (where Geoff Bowley won the award with a superb Spangle Light Green cock) and it was another spangle hen of the same colour that won the Best Opposite Sex in Show for Geoff & Anne Moore.

The total entry of 214 was slightly higher than in the previous year, with Philip Dye judging the Spangle Greens and Terry Tuxford judging the Spangle Blues. Our congratulations are extended to all our members who did well with their spangles at this prestigious show.

The honour of staging the Best Spangle in Show and Best Spangle Blue by a member went to Geoff & Anne Moore, who benched a nice Spangle Grey cock to win the young bird challenge certificate. The Best Spangle Green in Show went to Jerry Donovan with a Spangle Light Green cock. The Best Double Factor Spangle in Show went to Brian Wilson with a Yellow cock.

Once again winning members were treated to some wonderfully designed certificates. The Best Spangle in Show and four major winners also received special certificates enclosed in glass frames, which added a further special touch to the awards. Our special thanks are extended to John Cosby for producing those wonderful certificates.

John Cosby, as always, manned our stand throughout the weekend and we extend our thanks to him as well as to Rod and Sue Clarke for dealing with our patronage and trophies, assisted by Cy Thorne; and to all other committee members for their assistance.

Members are reminded that subscriptions are now due as from 1st January and should be sent to the Membership Secretary John Cosby at (“Shambles”, 7 Oakwood Lane, Moston, Sandbach, Cheshire CW11 3PR). The new rates are: single £8; partnership (same address) £12; partnership (different addresses) sum of total members; juniors, registered disabled & OAP £5. The society also offers a life membership at 20 times the current subscription.

The Association has its own website, which can be visited at www.spanglebudgerigars.co.uk. For all other information other than subscriptions & patronage please contact the chairman Ghalib Al-Nasser.

Mick Widdowson will be judging the show.

The Society’s 2011 club show was held in conjunction with the Budgerigar Society Club Show and entries in the rare section had a further increase to 81 for Philip Dye to judge – while the Any Other Colour section (which caters for the Greywings and Lacewings) had an entry of 56 for John Lees to judge.

As always there were some good quality Texas Clearbodies benched and, as with the 2010 show, both challenge certificate winners of the rare sections were of this variety.

The honour for staging the Best Rare in Show by a member and Best Rare Young Bird went to the World Champion at the show, Les Martin, with his quality Texas Clearbody Skyblue hen, while the Best Rare Any Age by a member went to John Dunnell, with his Texas Clearbody Yellowface Skyblue cock. Anthracites were benched again at the Club Show thanks to Ghalib & Janice Al-Nasser, Alison Carr and A. Wood.

Other trophy winners by members at the club show were:

• Jim Mitchell, Lacewing
• David Turner, Greywing
• Ghalib & Janice Al-Nasser, English Fallow & Saddleback
• Les Martin, Texas Clearbody
• Deamonn Mullee, Slate
• Roger Day, Rainbow

Subscriptions are now due and can be sent to Bob Allen, membership secretary (14 Brockley Close, Little Stoke, Bristol BS34 6EZ). The new rates are single £8, any partnership living at same address £12, any partnership living at different addresses £16, OAP partnership £9, OAP / Disabled / Junior £6.

All communications, other than matters relating to subscription & patronage, to be sent to the chairman Ghalib Al-Nasser (Evenstar, Pinkuah Lane, Pentlow, Sudbury CO10 7JW).

Special section awards have been donated by the President, Chris Hawkins, for the Specialist & Rare Variety Show and many members are donating similar awards for our club show to be held in conjunction with the Budgerigar Society’s Club Show in November.

Special Golden Jubilee rosettes will be awarded to all patronage shows this year to reflect this special occasion as the club is the oldest of the six specialist societies formed in 1962.

The club show, staged in conjunction with the Budgerigar Society Club Show, had a further drop in entry to 35 crests for Raymond Rogerson to judge. However, the quality of the crests benched were, as always, of a high standard and congratulations to Mick Widdowson for staging the Best Crest in Show & Best Crest Any Age with a wonderful Circular Opaline Light Green cock of good size and crest.

Best Crest young Bird went to Arthur Miller with a Tufted Opaline Cobalt cock benched in good condition and sporting a good tuft. The society extends congratulations to all crested exhibitors and in particular the winners.

The Society’s Members’ Show will once again be held in conjunction with the Rare Variety & Colour BS on Sunday 20th May in Loddington Village Hall. Classes for crests will be available and will be judged by Mick Widdowson.

Subscription rates are due as from 1st January and payable to the membership secretary Janice Al-Nasser. The new rates are single £8.50, pensioner/disabled/junior £6.00, partnership at same address £12.00, partnership at different addresses £17.00, OAP partnership £12.00 and life membership is still at 20 times the single membership. The enrolment form can be downloaded from the society’s website www.crestedbcuk.webs.com

All communications, other than matters relating to subscription & patronage, to be sent to the chairman Ghalib Al-Nasser.

The next AGM will be held on Sunday 1st July at the Specialist & Rare Variety Open Show venue in Bugbrooke.

Introduction

by Gerald Binks

Confederation Ornithologique Mondiale (COM)

The “Confederation Ornithologique Mondiale” (COM) is a worldwide ornithological organisation covering all types of bird bred for exhibition purposes – e.g. European birds, exotic birds, canaries & of course budgerigars.

Formed in 1952, COM now has more than 40 countries affiliated to it – stretching as far as South Korea in the east to Chile in the west.

The COM structure has two executive committees each consisting of seven members; the COM Board of Directors and the judges’ committee called the Ordre Mondial Des Juges (OMJ). Each committee has its own president, vice president, secretary and members of the board.

The affiliated countries are divided into two groups (A & B) depending on their size and the number of OMJ judges they have.

The Annual COM Show

Each January, COM hold their World Show which usually attracts entries of more than 25,000 birds!

The show is hosted each year in a different country in Europe.

Fanciers who wish to exhibit at the World show or any other COM International show must have their birds closed rung with recognised rings with the actual exhibitor’s code on it.

COM operates a 6-year ring colour cycle and all birds shown at the World and international shows have to adhere to that colour sequence.

The 2012 COM Show

The 60th COM World Show show was hosted in January 2012 by COM Spain. The show took place in Almería – situated in southern Spain on the Mediterranean sea.

There is always an air of excitement when attending the World Show wherever it is held and those who used to attend the National Exhibition of Cage & Aviary Birds of yesteryear will understand that excitement. I have attended a number of World Shows in the past but this year’s show was with a difference as I was invited to judge the budgerigars.

The show had 105 judges invited from 13 countries – mainly from Europe but some from Argentina, Brazil & Colombia.

The show received an entry of 26,367 birds from 2971 exhibitors coming from 17 countries. It is mind boggling indeed.

As always, the host country supplied the biggest team and on this occasion Spain’s team was 11,836 (44.9%) and the Coloured Canaries, always the largest, with 48% of the total entry. Our COM-UK team was 142 (0.54% of the total entry) from 29 exhibitors.

With my fellow Italian judge, Roberto Sabatini, we commenced judging the 327 budgerigars entered on the Monday morning.

Friday to Sunday was spent at the show looking at the wonderful birds and the various mutations that you normally do not see at our shows. It was a great time meeting the 30 plus fanciers from our country who attended the event as well as some from Gibraltar, and also making new friendships with so many judges, fanciers and workers as well as renewing old friendships.

Saturday night was the gala night with over 400 attending and our table consisted of 8 British and our friend from Israel Avi Rubens. It was again a wonderful evening with the family of nations sitting together eating some wonderful Spanish food and listing to some lovely Spanish & Italian singers and flamingo dancers.

The finale of that evening was when each country was called to the stage to be presented with their national flag and singing the national anthem. I only hoped that there were more of us to get to the stage and I wished that we were as great as our name indicated – “Great Britain”.

The speaker also announced the number of medals each country has won and it was announced that we had won 5 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals. Of course Spain, as to be expected, won 44% of the total medals awarded.

COM-UK

Congratulations are extended to Geoff Capes, Roger Carr, Bernard Howlett & Louis Spiteri for winning gold medals and to Roy Aplin who won a silver and two bronze medals, as well as John Ward who won a bronze medal.

As “conveyors” for the British Team, Richard Lumley & Gary Mann collected our team from various points of delivery at home and made the long journey to the show and back again, delivering the birds to the various exhibitors on Monday & Tuesday. On behalf of COM-UK and the 29 exhibitors, I would like to record our sincere thanks to Richard & Gary for their tremendous work.

We made an appeal in the schedule for exhibitors to donate birds so that we could sell them at the show to raise funds for COM-UK. Again I would like to thank Richard Lumley, Willy McKay, Rob Bunting, Chris Smith, Gary Mann and myself for donating birds that were sold and raised some funds for next year’s show.

My final appeal is for more exhibitors and more birds for next year’s event in Hasselt, Belgium.

COM-UK Results

The COM-UK team comprised 142 birds from 29 exhibitors and won 5 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals.

These were awarded as follows:

• Bernard Howlett – 2 golds – Song Thrush & Common Blackbird
• Geoff Capes – 1 gold – Recessive Pied
• Louis Spiteri – 1 gold – Common Rosefinch
• Roger Carr – 1 gold – Team of lutinos
• Roy Aplin – 1 silver – Grey cock – 2 bronze – Skyblue cock & Opaline cinnamon green hen
• John Ward – 1 bronze – Bengalese

More Information

For further information about COM:

• COM website – www.comomj.org
• COM-UK website – www.comuk.co.uk
• Almería 2012 website – www.mundialalmeria2012.com

Photographs

All photographs below were kindly supplied to us by Ghalib Al-Nasser

Click on any image to enlarge it.

The budgerigar judges: Ghalib
Al-Nasser & Roberto Sabatini (Italy)

COM-UK officials at the stand (Richard
Lumley, Gary Mann & Ghalib Al-Nasser)

British & Irish Conveyors (l to r:
Peter Sherlock, Gary Mann, Richard Lumley,
Maurice O’Connor & Ghalib Al-Nasser)

Ernest Gracia receives his Gold
Judges Badge (15 yrs)

Louis Spiteri with his gold
medal winner Common Rosefinch

OMJ Congress

Additional photographs of the event have been posted on other websites: Website 1 and Website 2.

For example, I had no idea that among the now 140+ countries that access this site (for news and information on exhibition budgerigars) is Russia!

Imagine my surprise then, when I as contacted by Tania from Russia (she declines to reveal her surname being a relative novice by comparison to the fancier she wishes me to feature). Tania has asked me to feature her fellow Russian breeder, Svetlana Folomeeva.

Svetlana Folomeeva

Like myself, Svetlana Folomeeva became interested in our international hobby at the age of 12.

Visiting an exhibition at Karlsruhe in Germany, she witnessed super birds for the first time and became totally bitten by the challenge to breed quality budgerigars.

Her first buying venture was to buy birds in the Czech Republic (Czechia). These were modest birds so she branched out and has now visited many of the top European fanciers, among them Jo Mannes, Daniel Lütolf, Rein Dul, Florian Bock, Gyerkon Tibor and Willi Dokter. She now possesses a stud of some 150 birds!

I asked Svetlana to tell me where her main interests lay – where colour is concerned – and it proved to be broad ranging. Normals, Spangles, Yellow-faces and Red Eyes were the main favourites, but Opalines, Texas Clearbodies and Lacewings were present as well.

Breeding in Russia

I then asked how Russian breeders gained experience initially. It appears the Internet is a massive help and no doubt the Google Translation Service on this website proves of considerable assistance.

Next was the matter of foods that are available and the essential vitamins and minerals. What was the quality and availability? Again, I was surprised as there are good seed brands around, one of the best being sold under the name of “Rio”. That said, vitamins etc. are difficult to obtain as well as relevant disinfectants, both being in short supply. So these are obtained from within the EU and imported by individuals for themselves and their fellow fanciers.

Lastly the notorious Russian winters. How do they cope in such low temperatures? Yet again, no problems. All aviaries are fully equipped with heating to sustain breeding and general comfort.

A Seminar

The Moscow Budgerigar Society is called the “Apogee”.

There are currently just 14 breeders who have registered so far since 2011, so it is a young society which will undoubtedly grow.

Perhaps they will carry out some marketing to the public at large? Certainly they are spreading the word that they exist and that the challenging hobby of breeding exhibition budgerigars is now in existence in their vast country.

Three years ago, this go-ahead group, including Svetlana, organised their first seminar and invited Gyerkon Tibor to attend. Svetlana herself reciprocated by representing the Russian breeders at the Budapest Convention Meeting, where she met many well known international breeders and judges, including Ghalib Al-Nasser, the WBO Secretary.

Feeding Techniques

Because of the newness of the hobby in Russia, all outcrosses are bought in Europe – without exception.

When it comes to the seed and vitamin suppliers referred to, “Versele-Laga” features strongly as a favourite source (from a branch in Germany).

In addition to the basics, the Russian birds are fed with sprouted seeds, wheat, oats, barley, clover, lucerne, sunflower, corn, buckwheat, thistle, flax and safflower. A very broad range to say the least, but they cover collectively most of the vitamins etc. that the birds need to sustain the size and fecundity.

Welcome & Thank You

May I, on behalf of all fanciers worldwide, publicly welcome The Apogee Russian Budgerigar Society to the international fold.

Added to that is our appreciation to Tania for approaching Svetlana Folomeeva for an interview for this website.

It is a great opening for breeders outside Russia to learn of the existence of this society and may it go from strength to strength in the coming years.

Appeal

Is the breeding of exhibition budgerigars a newly growing interest in your country? If the answer is yes, then please contact us at Budgerigar.co.uk and let fanciers worldwide know of your existence.

Photographs

All photographs below of Svetlana’s aviary and birds were taken by (TBA) & kindly supplied to us by Tania.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

The aviary

The aviary

Young bird

Young bird

Young bird

 

 

 

 

 

 

The show was organised by ZOOCVIT and took place at the House of Nature in Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine (Kiev is situated in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River).

Approximately 80 birds were benched from 5 regions in Ukraine.

Results

The major results were as follows:

• Best Any Age & Best in Show – Sergiy Ustenko
• Best Young Bird in Show – Vladimir Karpenko
• Best Opposite Sex Young Bird – Aleksandr Danyliuk
• Best Opposite Sex Any Age – Sergiy Ustenko

Judges

The judge was:

• Gerd Bleicher (Germany)

Photographs

All photographs below were taken by (TBA) & kindly supplied to us by Terry Tuxford.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Best in Show & Best Any Age
S Ustenko

Best Young Bird
V Karpenko

Best Any Age Opposite Sex
A Danyliuk

Best Young Bird Opposite Sex
S Ustenko