Greater Pittsburgh Cage Bird Society (11/02/2002)
Judge: Janet Landvater
Exhibitors: 8
Entries: 54

Judge's Comments:

I have been attending the Greater Pittsburgh Cage Bird Society's show for about 13 years. In 1995 I came to this show not as an exhibitor but as a judges apprentice and now in 2002 I am here to judge this show. And as always it was a good show.

We had only one rare, a black-cheeked, which was a little out of condition and did not make it to the top bench. The Fischer's section was weak too, as we only had 4 birds in this section, but that was enough as our show winner and last place bird came from this section. A very nice, well conditioned with good deportment lutino Fischer's exhibited by Fred and Linda Buckley won the show. And a nice Type I (nominate) green Fischer's placed 10th. The masked section was disappointing as we only had one dilute blue in that section. It didn't make the top bench either as it lacked in size. I have said this before in other show reports that it seems that not too many people are either raising or showing the masked bird much anymore, and I thought that much progress had been made with the different mutations in the masked classes with their size and color. I hope that the numbers of masked birds being shown will soon increase as these birds are fairly easy to breed and some of the blue masked are among the prettiest of love birds.

Green peachfaced section had 9 birds mostly single birds in each class. Two made it to the top bench - a young orangefaced placed 5th and a young green violet placed 9th both birds exhibited by Danny Cardona, for young birds they behaved very well on the perch and were in very good feather. The young orangefaced was our best young bird in the show.

The blue peachfaced section had 5 birds with one making it to the top bench, a very nice, clean creamino exhibited by Kathy Vozzo, placed 7th. This bird would have finished higher but it was almost too relaxed on the perch and could have shown itself better.

The green pied section had 4 birds, with one making it to the top bench. That bird finished 3rd. A nice bird with even markings in good feather. Most pieds have a tendency to look fluffed while sitting on the perch, but this bird had nicer, tight feathering and didn't fluff as much. The blue pied section had 2 birds with neither one making it to the top bench.

The American cinnamon section had 5 birds with one orangefaced placing 6th on the top bench. A nice well colored bird with a few conditioning problems keeping it from placing higher.

The Australian cinnamon section had 8 birds. And our section place birds came from this section. A very nice whitefaced. It had a good, clean whiteface, nice feathering and good deportment. It was a tough decision to make between this bird and the lutino Fischer's but the Lutino Fischer's just was looking a little bit better that day. The whitefaced was our best novice in show, exhibited by Frank Horan.

The Violet peachfaced section had only 2 birds in it but one made it to the top bench. A very nice seagreen violet exhibited by Elizabeth Hoffman placed 8th. A very nice bird with good feather but just a little out of condition to place higher that day.

Now our newest section, the long feathered peachfaced. We had 7 birds in this section with a medium green longfeather making it to the top bench in 4th place. Most of the longfeathers were not in very good condition, but longfeathers do have a tendency to sit looking fluffed just like some of the pieds. But this one longfeather was very tight feathered and of course like most longfeathers sat very well on the perch.

Five champions and only 2 made it to the top bench. Besides champions having to look better than the best, these champions had to look exceptionally good as the top bench birds were very nice birds. John Gossweiler's whitefaced violet made it all the way to the number one position. This bird looked like a champion. It sat there saying "Hay, look at me! I'm a Winner!" And win it did. After the show I was told that this win made this bird a grand champion.

Another champion exhibited by John came in 6th overall and that was a nice orangefaced Australian cinnamon. All of the rest of the champions were just not in good shape to compete with the birds on the top bench.

I would like to say thank you to the Greater Pittsburgh Cage Bird Society for asking me to judge the love bird division. And a big thank you to my secretary Richard Debb and his wife Nancy Debb who was my steward.