Capital City Bird Society (10/23/2004) - Roseville, CA
Judge: Phil Ryan
Exhibitors: 7
Entries: 44

Judge's Comments:

This was the 26th Annual Bird Show for this club. They have a great blend of Canaries, Finches, and Softbills, and hookbills in their show. There were 4 Canary Divisions, 1 for Finches and Softbills, 3 for hookbills(Cockatiels, Parrots, Love Birds) and a Junior Division which included all of the above. The show as quite well planned and managed with a Show Manager, steward and secretary for each Division.

The venue was a county fair grounds where the club had 2 buildings - one for sale birds and accessories and one for sales and exhibition with all Divisions judged in the 2nd building. Surprisingly, noise was not a problem.

We had 7 exhibitors and 44 birds entered. Four of the exhibitors were represented on the top bench and, in fact, the top 4 birds were all from different exhibitors. Two of the exhibitors were novice exhibitors and one finished with the 2nd place bird overall. We began judging at 9:45AM and finished at about 2:00PM with a 45 minute lunch break. Three or more of the exhibitors were in the audience most of the time with 2 or more were novice exhibitors. Since we did not have a great number of birds we spent a significant amount of time talking about the comparative qualities of the birds. The exhibitors indicated that they had learned some things during the show.

The first placed bird was an Orangefaced Lutino. The bird had good size, great color and did not exhibit the long bill common to many lutinos. Second ws a seagreen violet with great color and very good conformation. This was the top novice exhibitor Love Bird. Third was a Medium Whitefaced Blue. Fourth was an Orangefaced Pied with very good size and good markings for that combination of mutations.

Some of the birds seemed to be affected by the weather. Sacramento had what was described in news reports as the worst rain storm they had seen in "decades" on Tuesday before the show. Some birds seemed to be in less than show condition and others seemed a little listless during the judging. In general, the birds which placed lower were not as well cage trained as the top 3 or 4 birdsw.

I certainly appreciate the invitation to judge the ALBS Division at the show. I wish to thank Ellis Crabtree for performing the task of Show Manager for the Division, Alvin Lea for a great job of stewarding, and Cathy Knight for maintaining the records as Secretary. Cathy was there in spite of some personal hardships, and I appreciate her effort. I especially want to thank Ella and John Galik for their warm hospitality.