Mid-America Cage Bird Society (10/25/2003) - IA
Judge: Phil Ryan
Exhibitors: 3
Entries: 51

Judge's Comments:

Good news for bird shows - this club had an increase of more than 100 birds over last year's count. This lovebird count was up by a factor of more than 7. We had a major show with 51 birds entered. A large show scheduled for next week had some exhibitors "tuning up" and we appreciate their efforts to enter their birds in this show.

The day was a typical early fall day - great weather - and the venue fast fine. Lovebirds were shown in a small meeting room. That kept outside noise to a minimum and all we had to listen to was the lovebirds. Of course, that was plenty but we did not have to add the parrots, cockatiels, and budgies to the din. In the rares we had 6 Fischer's. We had great distribution in the peachfaced with at least 3 birds entered in every section. The largest section was the green with 12 entries. There was a minor amount of reclassification in a few sections before we began judging.

For the fist time in my experience the top 10 birds were from a single exhibitor. There were 3 exhibitors and all had some very nice entries. The winning exhibitor's birds came just a little ahead in the "beak to beak" matches. Almost all birds were in excellent show condition and there were very few pin feathers in spite of being relatively early in the show season.

First place went to a whitefaced medium violet that was almost perfectly smooth in both color and feather condition. Second was a medium whitefaced blue and third was a very nice longfeather in excellent condition. A yellow Fischer's placed seventh. I awarded a judge's certificate to a young orangefaced that got bumped right at the end of the top ten placements because it still had some gray in the cheeks. That bird will do quite well in the near future. There was one champion bird, an orangefaced green pied, which I put in seventh place. This club has had shows for many years and their hospitality was great. My thanks to John Thielking, the show manager, Randy Gibson, president, and all the members for their hard work in putting on a great show. Also thanks to Maria Michel, lovebird shows secretary and to Bob Shively, our steward.