Friday, March 23, 2007
The 2007 Chicago Pet Expo Bird Show
By Blake Ma
Blake enjoys working with lovebirds and has a passion for exhibiting and breeding them
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Blake with Judge Joe De Luca at the ALBS show on Saturday, March 17, 2007. |
This green took first place in the ALBS show. |
Blake's orange-faced Australian cinnamon took first place in the SPBE show. |
I woke-up at the crack of dawn on Saturday with only a couple of hours of sleep. It was a very long –but fun day. I got to the show hall around 8AM and didn’t leave `till about 6:30PM. There was a good turnout with a lot of new and novice exhibitors. There were 77 lovebirds total and eight exhibitors in the lovebird division.
Serenade and Firefly both did well in my opinion and stood nicely in the show box for being such young birds. Firefly did really well in the Green Pied section. There were five green pieds, and he placed third to beat out two older and already fully colored birds. Serenade stood nicely in the show box but wasn’t going to go anywhere; as she had some rough competition from her half-sister, an American cinnamon opaline that ended up placing third overall in the show. I didn’t bring Melody to the show because she got into a little spat with some of the other young birds and messed up her tail feathers.
A normal green bird ended up taking first in the African Lovebird Society show. You might think, how could a normal green bird beat all those other beautiful lovebirds that come in all colors? It just goes to show that sometimes the most common birds have the nicest conformation and coloring and that you don’t need something exotic to do well or to attend a show. I was very excited about the win, but I was more excited that we had so many new exhibitors come out to participate.
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This Abyssian lovebird took second place in both the ALBS and SPBE shows. |
Captain Morgan, Kahlua and Bailey's father, at the show on Saturday, March 17, 2007. |
I think what shocked me the most that day was what happened at the SPBE (Society of Parrot Breeders and Exhibitors) show, which was right before the ALBS show. I don’t usually enter lovebirds into the parrot show, because we have our own division for lovebirds. But I was asked if I could help the parrot exhibitors out with numbers because 50 birds are needed for a major show. All types of parrots are shown in SPBE, such as African greys, cockatoos, cockatiels, parrotlets and others. My orange-faced Australian cinnamon lovebird, which I bred and banded last year and is only 10 months old ended up taking first in the SPBE show! This bird also ended up taking fifth in the ALBS show later in the day. As a baby last year, this bird never placed and had not reached maturity yet but, it seems over the winter break, she grew bigger and more beautiful and never once left the perch while in the show cage.
Thanks to all who came out to the show and made it a success. A big welcome to all the new exhibitors who came out to learn, exhibit and just have a good time! Hopefully, all of you will think about joining us next time there’s a show.
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The 2007 Chicago Pet Expo Bird Show
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