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

These birds had a Yellow Face with no yellow in the cap.

The cap was white – in fact almost whiter than white if this could be so.

Kerle Faced Blue

On asking Kevin where these birds originated, he told me they were from Graeme Kerle of Townsville in Queensland.

In 2003, Graham produced the following from a Yellow Faced Opaline Cobalt hen (purchased at auction from Ernie Wise of New South Wales) and a Spangle Grey cock (non yellow faced, purchased from Robert Manvel also of New South Wales in one of his sale lots):

• 2 x Spangle Yellow Faced Sky cocks
• 1 x Spangle Yellow Faced Sky hen
• 1 x Spangle Sky cock

The Yellow Faced progeny were all visual “Seafoam” and were quite obviously different when viewed in the nest – the mask being yellow, the cap white and the body colour “Seafoam”.

Neither parent had any visual variations to what would be described as “normal” for their respective variety.

The initial resultant offspring from this pairing suggest that the Spangle was not a Double Factor Yellow face.

Seafoam Yellow Face

The term “Seafoam” was nominated by Jennie Liebich as soon as she sighted them.

The body colour in each resembled the colour of the sea, just below the foam of a breaking wave.

“Seafoam” does not reflect the mask and cap colouration, but the body colour only.

Realistically they could be called “Kerle Faced Blue” to reflect the origins – or “Seafoam Yellow Face” to embrace Jennie’s initial artistic interpretation.

Seafoam Pairings

The pairings at Graeme’s, resulted in nests averaging 70% visual “Seafoam” – with the non-visual still carrying the trait, as “Seafoams” were bred from these non-visual pairings.

Visual “Seafoams” to Normal Green series birds, resulted in visual Blue series (“non-Seafoam”), and Opaline Green hens. These paired back to Blue series (“non-visual Seafoam”), then gave a very high visual result in “Seafoam” of about 60% – this being Graeme’s assessment.

Jennie’s Pairings

When the first of these “Seafoam” birds were produced, Graeme, as I understand it, gave a couple to a backyard breeder not knowing what he had produced.

Kevin noticed some on a visit to Graeme’s and was fortunate enough to obtain some to breed with. Kevin then was kind enough to gift a couple to Jennie for her to work with.

The pair that arrived with Jennie back to Mount Gambier, were both visual “Seafoams” (one being Normal and the other a Spangle), and when these produced chicks she and I were overjoyed to see that a couple were “Seafoams”.

Regretably, these chicks did not seem to have a long life expectancy, thus a number of outcrosses occurred quickly, to try to ensure that the strain remained.

Note that Graeme did not have the same issue – it may have been that the birds that arrived at Mount Gambier were a little close.

On pairing non-visual to visual, there are now a couple of “out crossed” visual birds to work with.

There are others that have been paired to non-visuals with no resultant visuals as yet – thus more “proofing” will be required to fully ascertain breeding possibilities.

Further Birds

Graham and Kevin have sent down some further birds (“non-visual”) that have produced this new variety for them. Jennie and I cannot thank these two gentlemen enough for giving us the opportunity to work with these and the previous pair of birds.

One interesting occurrence, is that we now have a Green with a Yellow Mask and White cap – produced from two blues!

Sharing the News

This information is being released in order to share this new mutation with others – and to also see if changes are occurring elsewhere in the world of a similar nature.

It is a bit premature to determine the breeding habits of this variety, noting that it is Dominant but other surprises might present.

I believe the Spangle has something to do with this mutation – other aviaries that I have visited recently have changes occurring, and all of these go back to the Spangle parentage.

It is also interesting, as Roy Aplin (of the United Kingdom) painted birds similar to these some years ago – predicting such a change might occur.

Photographs

All photographs below were kindly supplied to us by Nigel Tonkin.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

"Seafoam" Opaline Light Green
front view

"Seafoam" Opaline Light Green
back view

"Seafoam" opaline baby
stage 1

"Seafoam" opaline baby
stage 2

"Seafoam" opaline baby
stage 3

"Seafoam" dam

"Seafoam" - Primary, Secondary
and Tertiary Tail Feathers
and Upper Tail Coverts

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 opinion on how best to breed them was interesting, but at times a bit heated

Why is it that breeders of these varieties are so guarded about so-called breeding rules?

Why is it that certain colours should not be used?

Yes, varieties such as clearwings or grey wings should not be paired to either opaline or cinnamon, but it doesn’t stop there – next it is colours like grey and grey-green that are regarded as bad pairings – why?

Wouldn’t the overall quality of the offspring get an increase in both size and quality?

You could always pair back into mainstream colours to re-introduce contrast. Would a judge have the courage to reward a quality clearwing if it was grey or grey-green? I would hope so, but we all know this would not happen. Imagine the flack from such a decision!

UK & Australian Versions

So how do you improve the clearwing variety?

How many dark factor birds of great quality are available? Not many, so by sticking to the rules means slow going, plenty of waste and possibly plenty of frustration.

So why not use the grey factor to your advantage? You can always breed the colour back out when the quality improves.

Let’s move on with this further. The UK versions suffer greatly from muddy wings, but do have great development in quality. Here in Australia the opposite is true – clear wings but generally poor quality! So many look small, narrow – even “mean looking” at times, they certainly look out of place on the show bench.

Ideal First, Variety Second

How do we fix this problem?

I think the standard is the fault.

Now please, you clearwing breeders don’t jump on me here, but is it wrong to be putting the bird’s markings high above it – conforming to the ideal of what an exhibition bird should look like?

Why does the grey or grey-green have to look as close to the ideal as possible then its faults will be the deciding factor in regards to winning any awards?

So on this basis why should any other variety be subject to any other system than this?

I firmly believe that any variety regardless, should conform as close as possible to the ideal first, then variety content second, and this is how all should be judged – not the reverse as is the case with many varieties.

However, it has to be said, no variety will improve until it is bred with quality first. Yes, some will always suffer from quality regression, but, without doing it this way first, they will never stand a chance to truly improve.

The Spangle Example

Let’s take the spangle.

Most of the purists advocate to breed with only those that have perfect wing markings and true bullseye spots. Under this idea we wouldn’t see too many good ones on the show bench.

Let’s face it, it will be very hard to maintain quality with perfect variety content. I do not advocate ignoring the variety markings, but it needs to be in balance – quality first, variety second.

Spangles suffered badly from indiscriminate pairing (as has been the case with opaline), so are they capable of breeding true to type anyway?

Take the black-eye yellow, many of the very best struggle to remain clear of markings. Many that win could be disputed on the question of: are they black-eyes or poorly marked suffused dilutes?

The problem here is the questionable birds are far superior in quality, another case of quality first, variety second, the way it should be.

Quality First – More Examples

I don’t profess to be an expert, but the only way forward is to use quality stock regardless of colour and then use splits from these to improve the size and quality of your variety of choice, it should never be the other way round.

I am very happy to use any colour to improve my clearwings – as I do with my dilutes. There is much to be gained from grey-greens, they are easy to buy and their feather type is so valuable.

I would like to briefly touch on Ian Hannington’s fallows.

They have breathtaking size, quality, deportment and variety content. These birds are eagerly sought-after – using top quality stock paid dividends.

Another example here is Wayne Cusack. He is well known for his success with the black-eye self (four times national champion), and his birds are again highly sought-after.

His birds maintain size and quality, then variety – his hens are as big and as good as some normals. His dedication and commitment to using quality birds paid off.

Breaking the Rules

I think you have to be a very dedicated breeder to have a go at many of the specialist varieties, as it slow going.

However, you should never limit yourself and your variety’s improvement with all sorts of restricting rules.

I break many rules with my stud – all you have to do is to keep very good records and you will never look back.

There is much to gain from looking outside of the circle, don’t weigh yourself down with rules. The primary objective is – pair your birds with quality.

Photographs

All the colour photographs below were sourced from The Challenge.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

English White-wing

English Yellow-wing

Australian Yellow-wing

Australian White-wing

Superb head quality

You read often from breeders, mostly from the UK and Europe, about how the colony instinct and the habits of wild birds are great indicators to breeding condition.

These ideas have spawned the idea of using all-wire breeding cages, especially here in Australia. They create a colony style breeding environment – but don’t get misled here, one of the real reasons for these cages are the easy to clean factor. You just take them out to the lawn area and hose them – job done.

I do have concerns about debris from adjacent cages contaminating other pairs, as very little is stopping the litter etc. falling out, but this is outside the scope of this article.

I have read about how some fanciers use the wild birds’ activities as indicators for pairing up, but, just because wild birds build nests, this does not indicate it’s time to pair-up. This to me ridiculous! I have strong doubts our birds carry enough of this kind of instinct to pair them up this way.

Wild birds have many and varied reasons to breed during different seasons.

Take the emperor penguin that breeds during the winter in the South Pole. The hen goes out to sea, feeding during the winter, while the cock balances the precious egg on his feet incubating. They gather in a huge circle taking it in turns facing the winds on the outside and taking cover in the centre. The cock has to survive on his fat reserves. Just as the chick hatches, the season changes, and the hen, full from good feeding grounds many kilometers away far out in the oceans, returns to take over, allowing the cock to go off feeding. Why do they do this?

The answer is simple – the sea will be bountiful to raise the chick during the summer months much closer to the nesting site. Breeding at any other time would miss this cycle, limiting the success rate of raising young. Would this work with budgies – not likely!

Nomadic Evolution

Over millions of years of evolution, the budgies developed into a nomadic bird that chases the rains.

They arrive to build nests just as the rains come – producing an abundance of food – allowing many clutches to be produced.

In good years they breed by the millions, but during bad times they die in the millions. I doubt this instinct works with our birds.

In only 100 years or so I believe we have removed many of the natural survival instincts from our exhibition birds. I gave this a lot of thought. Does the colony instinct really exist? Do the rains bring them into condition? Do wild birds going through their natural pairing and mating cycles stimulate our birds into action?

I tested several ideas.

First I tried artificial rain, using sprinklers on the roofs – but that didn’t stimulate anything. There must be a smell that comes with the rains that helps to trigger things. Am I right with this?

Next, I gave the wire breeding cage colony type environment theory a go. If they see others doing it, if they hear others doing it, then everybody will do it right? Wrong! It gave me nothing but trouble and poor results. So where to go from there?

I gave the colony style a little more scope. I put 3 pairs into a flight serviced with 2 nest boxes per pair, all at the same height, feeding them the same as those in the breeding cabinets.

The result was interesting. I know Doug Saddler used the flight method alongside the cabinet method – that was with one pair per cage – but I had taken this one step further.

I found the hens started to develop cere colour and increased interest in the nest boxes. Pair bonds developed normally, all going well, maybe the theory is right. But as much as the cocks tried to encourage the hens to lay they just didn’t.

The normal feeding of the hen by the cock happened, she just did not let him go any further. I thought patience and it will happen? Well it didn’t. They paired, they got the food, water, greens etc. as those in the cabinets, but no eggs. Why?

They Went to Nest

After 3 months of trying, I transferred these pairs into breeding cabinets and guess what? They went to nest and produced clutches of healthy young. What does this mean to the colony theory?

My thoughts were on a lack of colony instinct, so I purchased three pairs of commercial small pet type budgerigars. The results were far different – chicks everywhere!

So why was this? Does this mean I am right? Do my birds not like breeding outside of cabinets? I think it may pose more questions than answers.

I do have another theory. I believe hens particularly like to breed in the same type of cage and nest box to the one they where bred in. Familiar surroundings appear to be what stimulates them. Is it a case of any-old nest box won’t do?

Does this mean so-called natural wild type instincts no longer exist in our birds? Is this why sometimes purchased older hens don’t breed, because they don’t like their new environment?

Let’s face it our birds are far removed from their wild cousins. Some hens show no inclination to breed, never going into breeding condition. Some cocks appear to have homosexual tendencies – when paired to a hen they avoid any contact what-so-ever – but put them into the flight and they chase other cocks around trying to pair bond. What does all this really mean?

Still looking for the magic answer? Me to!

However, I have proved to myself that our birds have many mixed breeding instincts and it is up to us, the breeders and only the breeders, to bring their birds into breeding condition and leave nature to look after itself.

The wild budgerigar is a remarkably successful species. For over five million years it has survived in the harsh, dry conditions of inland Australia. Its success can be attributed to a nomadic lifestyle and its ability to breed “on the run”.

Breeding activity is initiated in a similar fashion as for other bird species. It is dependent upon seasonal and climatic conditions but in many ways the behaviour of budgerigars is unique amongst birds. Its breeding activity is completely dominated by the availability of water and food. These are scarce resources across the vast dry regions of inland Australia.

Survival, rather than breeding, dominates the life of wild budgerigars. Seasonal rains and temperatures dictate the breeding cycle of wild birds.

Budgerigars do not breed in the heat of summer, even after summer rains, because the high temperatures rapidly kill off most desert grasses and dry up water holes. In nature, budgerigars reserve this time for the annual moult. Similarly, exhibition budgerigars should not breed, but be allowed to moult during summer.

Winter temperatures often drop below freezing in Australian deserts causing budgerigars to abandon their nests. Exhibition budgerigars should also not be allowed to breed when it is too cold.

Budgerigars in nature breed prolifically during favorable seasonal conditions and their cousins, exhibition budgerigars, have certainly retained this ancient and strong characteristic. Sadly, many champion exhibition budgerigars have lost this fundamental trait through poor selection. The consensus of opinion is that the breeding requirements of the modern day exhibition budgerigar are more demanding than those of wild budgerigars because of the increased size of their young.

In many Australian studs poor fertility has been reversed by those holding defiantly to the wise breeding principle of “selection of the fittest”. It is agreed that modern day exhibition budgerigars are more difficult to breed and need special attention. The fancier should see improvements in breeding results when the principles of the breeding habits of wild budgerigars are applied to the somewhat difficult exhibition budgerigar.

The following facts should increase the chance of breeding success and reduce the likelihood of breeding failure.

“General Timing” Guidelines

Fertility problems (albeit not in every breeding pair) must be expected when budgerigars are paired at the wrong biological time of the year, irrespective of the presence of artificial lighting or temperature control must be given to the notion of breeding condition, good health and the natural breeding cycle of the wild budgerigar. Many breeding problems are often remedied simply by breeding at the right time of the year.

My advice is to breed at the right time of year (see chart below) and then to reassess your breeding results. If infertility persists, “cleanse” the stud with a prescribed disease treatment programme. If fertility is good and the babies develop poorly, look more closely at the feeding system being used.

By following these simple rules, breeding success is guaranteed in all pairs except those with a genetic weakness.

Moult Guideline

Understand the relationship between the moult and the breeding season. The wild budgerigar can breed at any time of the year but generally does not breed in the heat of summer, prior to the monsoon rains. It is during these hot months of December, January and February that it replaces its feathers in what is referred to as the annual moult.

It is the completion of the moult and the beginning of the autumn rains that prime the wild budgerigar into breeding condition.

The fancier must also follow this same natural process with the aviary budgerigar and wait for the completion or termination of the annual moult before starting to breed. This applies to both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and is outlined in the chart below.

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.

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