Budgerigar Society of New Zealand (Inc.): AUGUST 2023
2023 Issue One
The Council of the Budgerigar Society of New Zealand (Inc.) meets on the second Wednesday of
every month via Skype. Should you have anything that you wish to have added to the General
Business of the agenda please ensure that you have notified this a week earlier so it can be
included in the business for any given month. The meeting commences at 7.30pm.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
View from the 2023 A.G.M
NEXT NZBS
The President’s Patter including
images of suggested new
drinkers
2
Report of the Patronage Show,
Annual General Meeting and
BSNZ Auction
3-6
Quarantine — David Phalen,
University of Sydney, Winners
7-8
Obituaries — Lincoln Baldwin
and Beryl Carter
9
A Different Perspective on Genetic Selection in Aviculture,
Membership Renewal, More
Winners
1011
Topflite National Bird Show in
Palmerston North
1214
A Vet List, perhaps?
2023-2024 Council List
15
COUNCIL MEETING
Wednesday 9 August
[Press Ctrl as you hover over the links]
NEXT FEDERATION
COMMITTEE MEETING
Wednesday 23 August
Salman Rashad, Hamilton
Cawood Family, Nth Taranaki
Julie & Graeme Haldane, Dunedin
Jason Creswell, Nelson (J)
Kayla Adlington, Tauranga
Ava & Declan Harris, Auck. Met (J)
Mark North, Dunedin
Duncan & Jocelyn Weir, Tauranga
If you have any questions please
contact the Society at:
budgiesnz@gmail.com
Violet Budgerigars
https://bcsa.com.au/
varieties/normal-violetbudgerigar/
A History of Budgerigars
Ring Registrar Report
By the time you receive this
Bulletin your new rings
have been received in your
letter box ready to put on
your new season’s chicks.
A WARM WELCOME:
We warmly welcome the
following NEW Novice members to
the Society since January:
Links to Interesting Websites
that Inform, Educate and
Entertain
So far for the 2023-24
season:
46 members ordered a total
of 3780 coded rings
40 members have, thus far,
ordered a total of 1450
generic A series rings
Email: martin@pprint.co.nz
if you need to order extra
supplies of rings
https://
www.australiangeographic.com.au/
topics/wildlife/2020/07/budgerigarsaustralias-colourful-clever-andmuch-loved-avian-gift-to-the-world/
Using Birds of Prey for Pest Control
https://www.abc.net.au/news/
rural/2023-07-01/farmers-eaglesfalcons-trained-dispersecorellas/102540520?
fbclid=IwAR3E3p4EtBsNZd_0e4fo5dN5
yOmHI-
Are you interested in writing an
article about budgerigars to share
with fellow Society members?
Please send in your articles to be
included to:
budgiesnz@gmail.com
Any articles that deal with aspects of
breeding, feeding or housing your budgies
would be most gratefully received. Also any
articles that help newcomers or experienced
breeders alike to understand genetics or
other more complex topics are especially
encouraged. If you are worried about
presenting it well — just let us know and we
will help to get your words on paper!
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Budgerigar Society of New Zealand (Inc.): AUGUST 2023
The President’s Patter: P hil Hill
Hi everybody,
Welcome to the new BSNZ Bulletin. We're very pleased to have secured the
services of Sheryl Baron as our Bulletin editor and we hope you can see
why. Such an informative and well put together document, something for
the Budgerigar Society to be proud of.
It's been quite a busy start for the new BSNZ Council since the Annual
General Meeting in Tauranga at the BSNZ Patronage Show. We've had a
couple of early set backs in trying to secure the services of a secretary, but pleasingly, Chris Asken has
stepped out of the Vice President role and into the secretarial role, a position that she's held before.
Mike Hannan has been promoted to that Vice President role and at the time of writing we are looking
for someone suitable to replace Mike on the Council. Please see the list of Council members on the last
page of the Bulletin for the contact details for each member of Council.
I'm sure you would've seen in the circulated Minutes of the BSNZ , that the council is looking at changing
the drinkers we use on our show cages, that was first mooted back in 2016. The council is quite keen on
the idea, but we'd love to hear from you, the members, with your thoughts on this. Please email Chris
with your thoughts around this or any other matter relevant to the BSNZ.
Now that the Topflite National is over for another year, I wish you all well with your breeding season,
hopefully it is successful for all.
That's probably enough from me, in the meantime enjoy the Bulletin and I look forward to catching up
with many of you in the coming year.
With warm regards
Phil Hill
President
Images of the suggested drinkers up for discussion
Attendees at the Annual General Meeting of the BSNZ at the Tauranga Patronage Show
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Budgerigar Society of New Zealand (Inc.): AUGUST 2023
An Overseas Perspective of the 2023
Patronage Show:
Our Return Visit to New Zealand
Grant and Maggie Findlay
We would like to express our deepest gratitude to
those who made our return visit to New Zealand so
welcoming and enjoyable. From the moment when
Tony Grinter picked us up at Auckland Airport to
when we left the wonderful home of Dave and
Lorraine Ingoe we were treated like royalty.
Our first night was spent in the company of Tony
and Robyn Grinter who invited us to have dinner at
a lovely restaurant on the harbour front in
Tauranga. This was a super meal in a relaxing
atmosphere which was ideal after the many, many
hours travel over from Scotland.
On the Friday we met an old school friend of Grant,
who moved to the Rotorua area some 30 years
ago, so it was great to catch up. He showed us
around the Tauranga area and treated us to a
lovely lunch at a restaurant on the sea front. We
then returned to the motel and bumped into Carol
Hughes who remembered us from the last time
Grant had been judging in Auckland in 2015. We
nattered for some time before we left for some
supper.
It was great to meet up with so many familiar faces
and a few new ones at the Show Hall on the
Saturday morning including Sheryl Baron who we
visited and stayed with in 2015. The team of
stewards, led by Dave Ingoe, kept Grant busy all
morning when he judged some excellent quality
birds and many classes were very competitive. The
winning birds were a great credit to their owners.
Dave Ingoe came out top of the tree with his Best
in Show winning Normal Grey Green Cock, which
narrowly beat the Grinters substantial Opaline
Light Green Cock. The
winning bird had a lovely
stance and filled the show
cage with its length. Third
overall was Carol Hughes
and Ian Silk’s lovely
condition Normal Light
Green which was a showy
bird but perhaps lacked
the overall size of the best
two.
The Champion Adults were the pick of the bunch,
however, Grant was impressed with the team of
young birds benched by John Rosser who topped
the Champion Young Bird section with a promising
Normal Grey Cock. Grant managed to get the
judging to completion just as the doors opened to
the public and after a break for lunch it was super
to meet many of the exhibitors in both the
Champion and Novice sections. While judging was
underway Maggie and Lorraine visited a local spa
for some welcome relaxation which was much
appreciated.
After the show we were treated to a lovely meal at
the local Sports club organised by Sheryl's husband,
Rob, and a super night was had chatting to many of
the exhibitors. We then retired back to the
Grinter’s who were hosting us for the Saturday
evening at their lovely spacious home. It was
impressive to see the new bird room they have
designed and it won't be long before this is
complete and full of their quality stud of budgies.
On the Sunday it was interesting to experience
your Annual General Meeting and watch
democracy in action. Then it was time to say our
goodbyes to all and be driven by Dave and Lorraine
back to their home in Gisborne. It was a lovely
drive which took around 4 hours and we were
3
Budgerigar Society of New Zealand (Inc.): AUGUST 2023
Our Return Visit to New Zealand …
However, all good things must come to an end and
Continued
after a busy few days we were off again on our
We spent a few travels flying from Gisborne to Auckland to
days with Dave
continue our down under experience visiting
and
Lorraine Maggie's cousin and his wife in Sydney, Australia.
exploring
the
area We must end on a funny story as when we were in
around Gisborne Sydney we were taken to the horse racing in
and sampling a Gosforth. Low and behold a horse was running in
lovely
wine... or two! It the second last race called “Bodgie”. With such a
was interesting to name Grant felt obliged to back it with 10 Aussie
see the Ingoe's Dollars only to discover it was the rank outsider at
fruit
growing odds of over 60 to 1!! However, Bodgie ran the
and race of its life and came in first and Grant was
just such a joy to nip through their garden to pick a A$660 richer for the experience!!
enterprise
few succulent mandarins – something we just can't
do back in Scotland!! Grant spent a few hours in
Dave's aviary and was impressed with many of his
Grey Green family and other varieties that he
keeps.
Can we both thank all who made it possible by
inviting us to your very impressive part of the
world and we hope our paths cross again. Your
hospitality was astounding and we very much
appreciated the experience.
One of the abiding memories was seeing the
devastation that the recent cyclone had caused to
the area surrounding Gisborne and our heart went
out to those who were severely affected.
Dave Ingoe accepts his cup for Best Budgie
John Rosser accepts the cup for Best CYCR
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Budgerigar Society of New Zealand (Inc.): AUGUST 2023
An overview of the Patronage Show by the Novice Judge — Phil Hill
I was very fortunate to be asked to replace Deon Davies as the judge of the
Novice section at the BSNZ patronage show, hosted by the Tauranga Bird
Club this year.
The quality of the Novice birds was very high. It's very encouraging to see
such a strong contingent of birds on display. The upper Nth island has some
very strong Novice birds.
Best Novice was a very well presented normal grey green cock, belonging to
Simone Holderness. Although it couldn't break into the Champion birds on
the day, it had done a week prior at Auckland Met, finishing as R/up Best
budgie. Simone should be very pleased with her progress, having other birds
in contention also.
R/up Best Novice was the Best CYCR BBE Novice bird, a very strong opaline grey green hen bred by Sam
Baker. The main difference separating these top two was the fact that the hen lacked a bit of substance
in the body and had slightly messy flights. It also had minor flecking, but is a great bird. This bird went on
to win Best CYCR BBE Opposite Sex in Show, a very fine achievement
for Sam at our most prestigious event.
Third best and R/up CYCR BBE Novice (also Best Opposite Sex CYCR
BBE Novice) was a strong opaline grey cock bred by Karl Vasau. This
bird didn't sit as well and had quite a bit of flecking, but was a lovely
strong bird.
Karl rounded out the top 5 Novice with an opaline yf grey AA hen in
4th and the R/up Novice opaline grey green in 5th. A strong showing
for Karl.
It was a great privilege for me to judge alongside the champion judge,
Grant Findlay, from Scotland. The Patronage Show presents both
Champion and Novice exhibitors the opportunity to see first hand how
judges go about their business, by having open judging. I strongly
recommend that people attend open judging whenever possible.
Image 1: Phil judging the
Novice birds
Image 2: Simone Holderness
receiving her Best Novice in
Show Trophy
Image 3: The top three Novice
budgies. Far left, Best Novice
Budgie—Simone Holderness
Middle, Best Opp. Sex in Show
and Best CYCR BBE Novice,
Sam Baker
Close Left, Third Best Novice,
Karl Vasau
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Budgerigar Society of New Zealand (Inc.): AUGUST 2023
The Annual BSNZ Auction: Graeme Earles
The budgie auction at the recent NZBS
Patronage show in Tauranga saw 21 birds up for
sale with a local property auctioneer, Frank
Vosper, doing the honours for us. Frank had
never auctioned birds before and was a
humorous and most engaging fellow. We
extend to him our sincere thanks for his
assistance with our auction this year.
22 prospective buyers registered their possible
interest and 13 of them actually purchased
birds. The top price of $400 this year, was paid
for a John Rosser bred light green opaline hen
and the average price on the day was $166. This
left the Society with commission of just over $830 being raised on the sale this year.
Sincere thanks must go out to both vendors, without whom we could not hope to hold a
sale of exhibition budgies, and also to the purchasers for their whole-hearted
participation in this fund raising event. Again, without our keen buyers this sale would
simply not take flight.
This year’s result compares favourably
with the results at the Patronage Show in
Dunedin in 2022 where 18 birds were
auctioned at an average of $219, giving a
return to the NZBS of just under $800. At
the Dunedin Patronage Show two birds
sold for $500 each, so some prices were a
little higher than those realised this year.
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Budgerigar Society of New Zealand (Inc.): AUGUST 2023
Quarantine? The Pros and Cons
David N. Phalen, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ABVP
University of Sydney, Camden, New South Wales, Australia
Over the many years I have worked with birds, the issue of quarantine and biosecurity has come up
over and over again. As a result, I have lectured on this topic to many people who keep birds for many
reasons. During these lectures I feel like a minister preaching to a congregation that needs to be inspired to mend their ways. After all, isn’t it the most important thing to keep our birds healthy by keeping disease out? Like a minister, after the preaching is over, there are some converts, some who heard
some of the message and others who come up to me rolling their eyes and either saying, or are thinking, “Yeah. Right. Om what world are you living?”
Is there a place for a biosecurity programme that includes quarantine in your aviary? To answer this
question, let’s examine the value of quarantine and what a quarantine programme requires? Quarantine is a period of time that all new birds and any bird that has left the aviary but then returns, are kept
in isolation before they are allowed to mix with the other birds in the aviary. The reason for quarantining birds is that infectious diseases are most likely to develop in the weeks immediately following disease exposure. Therefore, in theory, an exposed bird would develop signs of illness before exposing the
resident birds in the collection.
Principles of quarantine include location, duration, isolation and the all in and all out concept. No two
quarantine plans will be exactly the same, as each bird owner will need to create a quarantine protocol
that fits their needs and their circumstances. The quarantine room can be anything from a bathroom to
a separate building. The main features of the quarantine room should be that it is as far away from your
other birds as possible; it should have limited traffic in and out; and it should not be in your hospital area. The duration of the quarantine period is also going to vary. Thirty days is probably the minimum
effective quarantine period. However, the longer the quarantine, the better. It is possible for you to carry disease agents from quarantined birds to the birds in your aviary. Therefore, you should always take
care of the birds in quarantine last and keep their food sources and food and water bowls separate from
the food and bowls used for the main aviary. The all in and all out concept means that if a group of birds
is put in quarantine, that new birds are not added to that group during the quarantine process. If new
birds are added to the quarantine room and birds are already in there, then the clock starts again so
that all the birds, new and old, leave quarantine at the same time.
Two realistic questions to ask at this point are: 1. Does a quarantine programme make sense for you
and 2. Is a quarantine programme alone sufficient to keep disease out? Quarantine takes time and
effort. According to quarantine basics, all new birds entering the aviary and all birds returning from
shows should be quarantined before they return to the flock. Ideally, birds going to one show would be
quarantined in a separate set up. For most budgerigar breeders this is highly impractical or at least highly inconvenient during the show season.
Not only is quarantine sometimes not practical, sometimes it is not effective. An unfortunate fact of life
is that some infectious agents can infect birds and these birds may never show signs of illness and as a
result these infections will not be detected in quarantine. However, they may still be able to pass their
infection onto another birds and that bird may become ill. A good example of this is avian polyomavirus.
This virus does not cause disease in young adult birds, but is shed for several months after infection and
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Budgerigar Society of New Zealand (Inc.): AUGUST 2023
and when it gets into chicks it can be fatal. To keep out these types of infectious agents, birds need to
be quarantined, but they also need to be tested. In many cases testing requires that birds be taken to a
veterinarian and the cost of testing may be more than you are willing to pay.
Additionally, not all tests are available in all places and not every test is 100 per cent accurate.
Quarantine is not going to do any good if the diseases you are trying to keep out are already in your
collection. There are several infectious diseases that are widespread in budgerigars. Many like
Macrorhabdus orthinogaster, formally megababacteria, are present in nearly every aviary. Quarantine
is not the solution to this type of infectious agent.
So is there a point in quarantine at all? I think there is and while it will not provide you with a guarantee
that you will keep your birds free of disease, it may keep out the really bad infectious agents that could
be devastating.
What I currently recommend is that budgerigar breeders keep at least two distinct populations of birds
during the show season. The first are the breeding birds and the birds you are preparing for the shows
or are intending to sell. These are your “clean” birds – you care for them first. The second group contains the birds that have been to shows or are birds you have just acquired. Keeping your show birds
and the newly acquired birds separate, or at least in different cages would be best. But will depend on
your circumstances. These birds you care for last. They should remain as isolated as possible until you
are ready to set them up for breeding. This gives you a buffer, so if they bring back a very hot virus or a
bacterial infection, hopefully it will soon after they enter your aviary and it will not get into your most
valuable birds, your breeding stock.
From: Budgerigar Australia’s International Bird, April-May 2007
Patronage Show Winners
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Budgerigar Society of New Zealand (Inc.): AUGUST 2023
Tribute to a Life Member of the BSNZ
Lincoln Baldwin
10.04.1931 to 09.06.2023
It is with sadness that we
record the passing of a real
stalwart of the hobby here
in New Zealand, Lincoln
Baldwin. Lincoln has been a
member of the BSNZ for 60 years, having joined
first in 1961, and was named as a Life Member
in 2002. He was President of the Budgerigar
Society from 1996 to 1999 and was actively
involved in both the Society and Federation for
many years. He was a Senior International
Judge who judged in Australia and was part of
the group that established the BS judges
programme in New Zealand. He won Best CYCR
Budgie at the 1968 National Show and had to
wait until 1988 to win the Best Budgie again, at
the 1988 National. Lincoln and his wife, Fay,
bred their birds from mid to late August using
28 breeding cages and aiming to be finished
breeding by Christmas having bred around 100
chicks. We acknowledge our debt to Lincoln as
a really amazing volunteer for the hobby during
his time breeding and exhibiting budgerigars.
Two fine budgies bred by Lincoln and Fay
Celebrating the Life of Beryl Carter: 19 December 1945 - 7 June 2023
Friends, family and a commonsense, positive attitude towards life were the key features expressed
in a celebration of Beryl Carter's life in a packed Grahamstown Chapel in Thames on Saturday 17
June. Beryl and her much loved husband, Gary, had enjoyed 59 years of marriage and there were
some delightful reminiscences shared by their family with those who had travelled to be present
from Australia and many parts of the North Island. It was recounted that Beryl was certainly the
'rock' behind the family with her low-key, supportive, loving and no-nonsense approach. She could
multi-task: knitting, talking, watching TV, reading and keeping the children AND Gary 'in-line' all
at once! She loved going to the speedway, was an expert at sewing and a wonderful cook.
Tears of sorrow and laughter were mixed as many amusing stories were told, especially at Gary's
expense! The service was led by the Reverend Brendon Wilkinson and along with other speakers, he
was able to interpret some of the 'old things' for the grandchildren and great grandchildren present
('radiogram’, the evenings with no TVs spent playing cards, Monopoly and pick-up-sticks and the
bane of everyone's early life: a spoonful of malt and brussel’s sprouts!')
The bird world was well represented with at least 18 people from
different clubs in the North Island, all of whom well remember how
Gary and Beryl held the South Auckland Bird Club together and ran the
Bird Auction at the Pukekohe Saleyards for so long.
A delicious afternoon tea was provided by the family following the
service with plenty of mingling, telling of stories and memories of the
cheerful and effervescent Beryl shared. Gary and family were delighted
with the turn-out and Gary has declared that he is 'still in birds!'
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Budgerigar Society of New Zealand (Inc.): AUGUST 2023
A Different Perspective on Genetic Selection in Aviculture - Dr Hamish Baron,
BVSc (Hons), FANZCVS (Avian Medicine and Surgery)
This article is presented again as we all contemplate the upcoming breeding season, to ensure that
we think on and consider a more holistic approach as we make our selections in pairing up. This
article first appeared in the June/July 2020 Bulletin of the BSNZ
I have owned and bred budgerigars since I was ten years old. I’ve had them for
over two-thirds of my life and have seen a huge evolution in the exhibition
standards, feeding regimes and the “quality” of the birds over this time. It was
budgerigars that pushed me to follow my dreams of becoming a veterinarian and,
later, an Avian Specialist. When thinking on an article for the Bulletin, I tossed up
between a number of common disease conditions and how we manage them in
the vet clinic. I then thought about writing a piece on disease prevention and
avicultural management leading up to the breeding season. As I formulated these articles in my mind, each one
ended up back at the same starting point, and rather than an answer, the articles always started with the same
question – why do we see so much disease in the top breeding birds in avicultural collections?
I have just submitted my thesis for a PhD on Macrorhabdus ornithogaster in budgerigars and I am trying to
establish a more effective treatment modality. Macrorhabdus is, without a doubt, one of the most devastating
conditions in budgerigar, canary, finch and other psittacine collections and, to-date, we do not have an effective
cure. As part of my research, I have looked at co-morbidities (a fancy word for diseases occurring at the same
time, in the same bird) and tried to establish whether birds with multiple issues, are more affected by the yeast
and more likely to develop clinical disease. It appears as though they are. However, this research has raised more
questions than answers. Most importantly, why do these birds have so much disease to start off with – some of
the budgerigars I have sampled have been infected with three different viruses, protozoal infections and
macrorhabdus ornithogaster – a lot of disease for a little bird.
This is the reason I have changed my perspective somewhat on the way we select birds for breeding. Traditionally,
those with the most unique colour, the mutation or the genetic anomaly were selected and propagated to ensure
the maintenance of the new mutation or morph. More recently, selection in some species (specifically
budgerigars) has been for deportment, directional feather, length of feather and depth of mask. Very little, if any
consideration is given to longevity of life, ability to withstand stress, ability to fly, fertility or the ability to
withstand and fight disease. It is time, I believe, that this perspective changed.
We are in a unique position as aviculturists in that we have complete control over the direction the birds under
our care will head. Selecting rare mutations or birds with outstanding traits is always going to be desirable, but
breeding these birds with robust, healthy and disease-resistant outcrosses is a decision that needs to be made by
the fancier. I recently did some work for a budgerigar fancier who was experiencing losses in a line of outstanding
texas clearbodies and the fancier proudly told me that the entire line stemmed from a cock bird that was on the
national team 15 years ago. Since then, the birds had been “line-bred” with parents being mated to offspring,
offspring to grandparents and aunts and uncles and the genetics had been kept very close. This had led to a very
consistent line of birds that had some very desirable features – because they’d all inherited the same genes.
However, the birds of the last two generations had started to die at 1 year old, healthy in the aviary one day and
dead on the floor the next. I was presented with some live birds and some dead birds for examination. We
performed a post-mortem examination on a number of the dead birds and all had died from the same condition –
severe dilation of the heart with cardiac dysfunction. When we radiographed the live birds, each of them had a
severely distended heart and cardiac murmurs on auscultation with a stethoscope. and as these birds had become
closer and closer genetically, their congenital abnormalities had come to the fore.
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Budgerigar Society of New Zealand (Inc.): AUGUST 2023
Somewhere along the line, one of these birds’ common ancestors had a large number of desirable traits, but also
apparently had heart disease. This is just one example of birds that have been selected for desirable traits, without
consideration for other, perhaps arguably more desirable traits, such as a long life.
It is difficult, as a fancier, to fathom how we can shift our focus from the traditional selection methods we use, to a
method, which incorporates a more holistic view, but this shift does not have to be monumental. It merely takes a
slight change in focus. A very basic example of this shift could be a situation where you have a light green bird that
won the TopFlite National Show. Shortly after he turned one, he dropped his flights and his tail, and has been
running around on the floor of the flight with an absolutely magnificent face since then. In the aviary, you also
have his brother and two sisters, who are lesser birds, but at three years old have maintained fitness, appear
robust and healthy and are in prime breeding condition for 10 months of the year. Classically, many fanciers would
select the national selection cock bird and put him with as many hens as possible before he dies, hoping to get at
least a couple of chicks from him to continue his line. My argument is that you have the genetics in the aviary for
both outstanding birds, AND birds that don’t drop their flights and tail and can still fly at three years old. Put them
in the breeding cabinet and propagate the same genetic line, without propagating the fault(s).
If we are able to shift our focus from simply breeding the biggest, most mutated colours and take into
consideration some of these disease resistance, longevity and other health characteristics, in two or three
generations we will have a collection of birds that requires far less input from a disease management point of
view, we’ll have higher fertility and greater breeding successes and we will have bird fanciers that are happier and
less frustrated by the difficulties we face getting the birds to stay healthy. Next time you come to pair up, I
challenge you to consider some of these points, and together we might be able to move the captive population
into a more robust and healthy place.
Some Topflite National Winners
Best Opp Sex in Show— Dave Ingoe
Best Opp Sex CYCR — Nigel Moore
Best Junior in Show— Luke Moore
R/up Best CYCR— Mike Fuller
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Budgerigar Society of New Zealand (Inc.): AUGUST 2023
CHAMPION AA JUDGE REPORT: TONY GRINTER
This weekend I had the pleasure of judging the Any Age
Champion and the overall best Budgerigar section at the
Topflight 2023 National Bird show. There was an excellent
benching of birds with over 200 Champion adult birds
entered with a number of classes of over 10 birds. I was
originally tasked with judging the entire Champion section
but with so many birds entered, it was decided to get
Robyn to do the CYCR section and to get Mike Fuller to
judge the Novice section, so thanks to them for their
assistance. The general standard of the birds benched was
of excellent quality, and most were well prepared being
both de-spotted and in well-presented cages. The top three birds were all from the aviary of Dave Ingoe. This was
Dave’s first National win and a deserved result for decades of effort and support for the Society. The best bird was
a large grey green cock and second a similar grey with third being another grey green all being outstanding
examples of the species, with good directional feather and outstanding heads and balanced clean outline. These
birds were also complimented by the other birds in the top lineup with some very promising CYCR birds.
Most of the birds displayed well but you always have some that will not stand up on the perch for judging and
unfortunately with so many birds to judge and some quite big classes it is not
always possible to give the birds too much time to display their quality. The
winning birds were well behaved for the duration of the judging and deserving
winners, with many other outstanding exhibits who will start to challenge the
top birds with a bit more maturity. So, congratulations to all of the people who
won awards and many thanks to the members of the Palmerston North Club for
putting on an excellent show and inviting me to participate in the judging.
Tony Grinter
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Budgerigar Society of New Zealand (Inc.): AUGUST 2023
CHAMPION CYCR JUDGE REPORT: ROBYN GRINTER
It was an absolute pleasure to judge the CYCR Champion
section at the Topflite National Show in Palmerston North
this year.
Most of the birds were well presented, which I was
delighted about. It is nice to see people have put the time
into their birds. A few of the birds, sadly, let themselves
down when it came to the final lineup as they would just not
perform and you can only give them so long. Mind you, my
first class, the light green cocks, did the same at the start. Luckily, after I walked away down my
other lineup to see what else was coming up, they decided to sit again on my return.
As usual a number of birds had the odd feather missing. Several flights, in some cases. Those
were penalised accordingly. I did not write on all the cages, in fact very few about feather
problems. People should know, and even come to speak to me afterwards if they want
clarification on something. Judges are required to stay for a couple of hours after the show
opens for that very reason. I did get approached by a few Novices, which is understandable as I
had been down to do them, but when the champion entry exceeded the expectations so they
needed to bring in an extra judge.
Congratulations to all the
exhibitors whether you won
something or not. The show cannot
go on without you all. The top few
birds in my section were really
outstanding and it will be
interesting to see how they develop
in a few years. Because the budgies
keep maturing for 3-4 years getting
better each year.
Thanks, Robyn Grinter
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Budgerigar Society of New Zealand (Inc.): AUGUST 2023
NOVICE JUDGE REPORT: MIKE FULLER
Today I had the privilege of judging the Novice budgie
section at the Palmerston North Topflite National Show.
I have appreciated the effort of exhibitors in sending
birds to the Show. I was ably assisted by Josh Smith, as
my Steward. We went through the classes with the end
goal of finding the Best 3 Novice budgies, top 5 AA and
top 10 CYCR, as well as a number of colour awards. The
Best Budgie was a YF Grey hen that showed early on
that she was going to be hard to beat When relaxed she
has great width across the cap. The second placed bird
was a YF Opal Grey cock. This bird had good shoulder
and head features but lacked a bit of length — still a nice
Best Novice:
Darryl Gledhill
bird. 3rd Best Budgie, which was also best CYCR, was a
lovely Lacewing Yellow Hen. I really liked this bird and
thought she might have won, however, age counted against her. The runner up CYCR that would
have been 4th best if there was an award, was a Sky Blue hen. She was a long bird but flecking
counted against her in the final assessment. These 4 were ahead in quality to the rest. I was
pleased that my Dominant Pied and Recessive Pied were awarded best open in each variety. This
is a good outcome for the
Novice exhibitors.
Mike Fuller
Karl Vasau’s winning Novice CYCR hen
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Budgerigar Society of New Zealand (Inc.): AUGUST 2023
Useful List of Vets in New Zealand with Avian Qualifications and Skills:
One of the common complaints we hear from our exhibition fraternity is that there are so few vets
in New Zealand with experience and skill in the care of avian clients. It would be so helpful if we
could establish a list of veterinarians across the country who are skilled in the care of these special
patients. If YOU have found a vet, local to you, who is able to provide quality care of your budgie
or other avian pets, please send an email to budgiesnz@gmail.com with the name of the clinic
and/or the veterinarian and this will help to create a list of people who can assist with the care of
your collection. Flood the e-mail Inbox with your local clinic and so help others.
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