New Mexico Bird Club (09/27/2003) - NM
Judge: Roland Dubuc
Exhibitors: 3
Entries: 51

Judge's Comments:

It was a great joy to judge the show in New Mexico. After so many years of seeing all these names in print, it was nice to place faces with them. The show was not too large, even though we did make it to a major show. Several exhibitors have decided not to show this year and others had several choices.

Overall the birds were in good condition. The Rare Section had only one entry a not very happy Madagascar male. The Fischer's included some very good colored birds and also some that had poor color. The normal greens all ahd too much yellow on their bib and also shading in the face. Since the birds are not in the color critical category these birds could not advance. The birds that won the section was a young dilute green/ino. The color on this bird was right on the money. I have it all 25 points for perfect color. The bird had great deportment and good size for a Fischer's. This bird did not go on to win the show. The second place bird in the Section I later found out was a nest mate of the split ino. This was another young bird but a dilute green. The color on the face and bib were excellent but the back of the head did not have enough orange. But even with this flaw the bird did place 7th overall.

The masked were also a bit disappointing. There was a very beautifully colored blue, but I was unable to get the bird to perform or even sit on the perch. The winner for this group, a dilute blue, which was very steady on the perch but did not have the perfect even coloration we are looking for in our show birds. T/here was a good example of a dilute blue/ino that had great color but the bird ketp getting wet and dirty.

The Green Peachfaced Section was won by a nice orangefaced lutino. The bird was in great condition but simply tired out by the time top bench came along. It finished in 8th overall. New Mexico seems to be the new hot bed for the greywings(heavy suffused dilute green peachfaced). The greens were beautiful but lack the size needed to advance. The same thing happened to the opalines, they were simply too small.

The Blue Peachfaced Section was dominated by the blue greywings. There seemed to be 3 types. One I would call normal, one I would guess to be seagreen and the last reminded me of the birds Nancy Pollrenao used to call silver pieds (later the exhibitor explained her birds did not have pied blood but the wing coloration sure looked like the birds I remembered). Two of these were almost clones of one another and they went on to place 5th and 6th in show.

The Pied Sections were weak. The American Cinnamon Section had one exceptional bird, a violet American cinnamon that went on to place 3rd best in show. The Australian Cinnamon Section was again a small section but a very strong one. The winner of the section was an orangefaced that went on to place 3rd and the violet went on to 10th. The Violet Section had a beautiful whitefaced. Again a young bird that had already molted to perfect plumage and head color. The bird went all the way to second overall. It only lost to the Fischer's because the full size was not there yet. The second placed bird, a beautifully marked violet pied, went on to 9th overall. One champion was exhibited - a very beautifully conditioned orangefaced green. It went on to 3rd place for points. Thanks to all those who helped me get this job done.

New Mexico Bird Club (09/28/2003) - NM
Judge: Janet Landvater
Exhibitors: 4
Entries: 50

Judge's Comments-

This was the first time I have judged the New Mexico Bird Club's two-day show. Roland Dubuc judged on Saturday and I on Sunday. The show is held in the New Mexico Fair Grounds in Albuquerque and it is a great place to hold a show and mart.

I believe, if I remember correctly, I had two less birds than Roland did on Saturday, but they still had a major show. I was disappointed that we only had one rare and that was a Madagascar who was not in very good showing condition. We had 5 in the Fischer's and 6 masked, none of which made the top bench. This show was heavy into Greywings. I told them it was the most Greywings I have ever seen in one show and quite a few made the top bench. I must say here though that all of the greywings were of varying color. This was discussed after the show and several opinions on why the difference in colors among the birds were talked about one being that some one observed that the females seemed to be lighter in color than the males. I think that greywing breeders should be keeping good records so that when things like this are noticed they can see what the background of the bird is and we can see if it is related: to the sex of the bird or genetic.

The top bird, an orangefaced Australian cinnamon, was a big well-feathered bird with good deportment. There also were a few pieds on the top bench, a lot of the time they do not show well, sitting lazily on the perch and looking fluffy, but the second place orangefaced pied and the 5th and 3rd violet pieds all looked very alert and tight-feathered. The 4th place whitefaced violet was also Best Unflighted. It is my belief and others that only young birds have clean whitefaces as the whitefaced birds begin to get some age to them a little color starts to show up in the white. This bird also had good deportment for its age. I would like to thank the New Mexico Bird Club members for their wonderful hospitality. They put on a really good show, and I believe everyone had fun.