Today's Exhibition Budgerigars

By Eric Peake

The Budgerigar  (Melopsitticacus undulatus) which originated from Australia has been rated as the most popular Parrott in the U.S.A. and Europe. Long before the introduction of the exhibition bird, the budgerigar was primarily a companion for young and old alike. From the much loved pet bird to the exhibition budgerigar, the evolution of the species has been phenomenal.

In the 1800's the budgerigars were predominantly green as in the wild form. High prices were paid for the occasional blue that became available. When the budgerigar Society was formed in England in 1926 this popular pet parakeet aroused interest from many people to develop exhibition standards to aim for. Societies mushroomed all over the British Isles then spreading into Europe. Today individual societies catering for the exhibition budgerigar are found in practically every country in the world. Interestingly enough, in Australia, breeders in recent years have started to import exhibition birds from the UK to upgrade their stock.

The development particularly in style and size has been achieved by intense breeding of dedicated fanciers. If one looks at the exhibition bird of the 1930's and compares it to the exhibition bird of the 1990's one will see growth particularly in the head area and width of body. Fanciers dedicated to certain colour groups have achieved large strides in obtaining depth of colour and mutations way beyond the dreams of fanciers in the in the early days.

Style and stance

To achieve success on show bench the bird has to display a style that makes it stand out from the rest of the class. The various ideal drawings illustrating style have been similar. Most breeders and successful exhibitors maintain that style is hereditary. Once the bird has the required style intense training can develop its potential.

Stance in a bird is definitely taught through constant training. Sometimes a bird may not act for one fancier in the same way as it does in from other. Perhaps this can be related to the 'chemistry' between the fancier and the bird. No one knows for sure. Sometimes exceptional exhibition budgerigars of good background breeding will not 'stand' for the judge when being shown. This can prove frustrating for both the exhibitor and the judge.

Many people believe that we do not allow enough time for the judge to make it true evaluation of the bird. As time as an important factor in the organisation of show it is difficult to spend more than the required time on each exhibit. The training of such birds is therefore crucial prior to the show season.

Plenty of time must be given to the birds in show cages so they can become more comfortable in their show/judged environment. In the UK many shows have the birds staged the night before they are judged. In the U.S.A., I have observed birds practically judged on entering the show. Due to the changed environment this could cause stress, which affects the birds performance.

In Europe birds are judged on a points system, which is time-consuming but gives a better evaluation of the bird. Having judged in the UK, USA and Europe I personally feel that more time must be spent on quality birds and less time on the birds that show obvious faults.

Size and colour

Most of the large birds found in both Europe and the USA, come from lines of quality birds bred from generation to generation. During the process of breeding, out crosses from winning birds are purchased to add new blood to the stock. The experience fancier usually makes a purchase every two to three years whereas the novice can make many purchases in the first three years.

One of the most difficult things to eliminate is a genetic fault. This can be achieved by carefully breeding out the fault by introducing birds with the desired quality. One of the most common faults found in birds' is the size of the head. The shape and size of the head is one of the most important features in the exhibition budgerigar. Roundness and width of skull are essential ingredients. To obtain this one must either start was stock exhibiting these features or study the backgrounds of breeding out crosses to be purchased. Good shape and size of the head in the exhibition budgerigar does not ' just happen'. It is a result of careful planning, selection and breeding.

Illustrations of the ' ideal' budgerigar are depicted in profile and ¾ views. In both views the depth of mask and spot size is very important. Depth of mask is obtained in the same way as described for the head. Recently there has been a lot of concern to increase the length of feather in the mask. Unfortunately by doing this we have seen an increase in long feathered birds. This shows up as a problem in the wings and the body.

Emphasis on the spots of the bird has long been a point of concern. In the early days, spots were rounder but were quite small. During the 1960’s and 1970’s irregular shaped spots, e.g. half-moon, oval and scalloped spots, appeared as a result of trying to increase the depth of mask. Today our goal is to breed round spot in balance with the depth of mask.

The overall length of the bird has been a bone of contention worldwide. The UK stipulates an ideal length of 8½ inches whereas the U.S.A. requires a length of 9½ inches. These are considered the minimum requirements for the length of the bird. Proportion and balance are essential ingredients. A bird with length but no proportion or balance defeats the purpose.

We have seen since the beginning of the exhibition budgerigars and move from the traditional wild light green colour to various mutations in both the green and blue series.

During the 1930’s to 1940’s fanciers introduce the opaline, which is sex linked, to increase the size and pattern of the bird's feathers. Most normal coloured birds, which are split opaline, can carry hidden factors causing colour problems in the melamine area of the bird. Flecking in the head area of the bird is one of the most common faults resulting from opaline breeding. Wing markings also in the Normal and Opaline have suffered by the cross of both varieties. These examples further reinforce the necessity of knowing the background of the bird to help eliminate hidden factors, which can cause havoc in future breeding.

The specialist varieties of the dominant and recessive pieds along with the Spangles and Clearwings have provided the fancier with various avenues to experiment on colour production. The Australian dominant pied paired to a normal or opaline can produce only dominant pieds and Normal or opaline babies. No splits can be obtained from this pairing.

In the early days banded pieds were produce from the dominant variety as were the Clearflights. Both varieties have sadly, practically disappeared in today's exhibition budgerigar. Only the odd bird will make its presence on the show bench.

In observation of today's dominant pieds very little variety in body colour especially in the front area is visible. The standard requires a balance of two colours within the front body area.

The recessive pied, on the other hand, can produce splits, e.g. a recessive pied paired to a normal or opaline bird. These splits paired back to a recessive pied produce both sexes in recessive pieds. One problem observed in this variety has been the introduction of the European recessive pied, which has darker wings, thus eliminating the Harlequin pattern so desired in this variety. We see on today's show bench recessive pieds bearing practically normal wing markings. If this is not corrected, in future years the recessive pied will divert back to the normal.

The spangle is the modern mutation in budgerigars. Although birds were bred of this variety in Australia and New Zealand, the main quality of these birds became available in the UK in the early to mid 1970’s. Many fanciers have been under the impression that there is a reversal in the colour formation of the feathers. Close observation actually reveals this to be so in the primary flight feathers and the tail. The shell or scalloped feathers on the wing however have a narrow line of black behind an edge of white or yellow. The grey or centre colour of the feather is absent. The cheek patches of the spangle show two colours as in the recessive pied.

During the late 1970’s many fanciers paired the spangle to practically every colour serious. The late Alf Ormerod, who bred the bulk of the early spangles, maintained they should have been paired to only normal birds. Their phenomenal fertility and their increasing size still remain a mystery. It is very sad that in recent years multiple combinations of varieties have been incorporated with spangle. For example, a yellow faced dominant spangle pied shows great variation in colour problems. This is evident in the weak spangle patterns on the wings.

In the clearwing variety where contrast is essential between the wing and the body, the breeder must be careful to eliminate diluted birds as this weakens the body colour. On the other hand, if too many dark factor birds are used then the problem of darkening the wings becomes evident.

Clearwings have made excellent strides since the early introduction of the variety. Heads, size and style have been bred by devoted breeders.