Champion budgies flock to Toowoomba - ABC Local

They're known as the 'quiet achiever' in the Australian bird world, and this week the best budgies in the land descend on Toowoomba for the 39th Australian National Budgerigar Council Championship.

The ultimate goal for any budgie breeder is to win a 'Logie', and according to Lockyer Valley breeder Alan Beutel, "there's prestige attached to it... it's like when the actresses go up on stage to collect their Logies!"

Exhibition budgies are bigger than their common cousins, and some live in the lap of luxury.

"Some aviaries are bigger than the average home," Alan Beutel explains. "They might have a hundred breeding cages, and three to four hundred birds flying around. But you don't have to spend a great deal of money to get into the hobby."

Exhibition birds have one shot at glory. "They can only go to one National show each. That's it. When they come home they go to stud."

Judges take into consideration a number of factors; size, colour and deportment.

"There's a lot to exhibiting," Alan says. "Preparation starts about three to four months before the show. It's not just simply grabbing a bird and putting it into a cage."

But, being the playful bird they are, sometimes sitting still for the judges can all be a bit too hard.

"They're supposed to sit at a 30 degree angle on the perch...but sometimes they'll spin around in circles on the perch! That doesn't make you feel all warm and fuzzy, I can tell you! Or they get in the corner and scratch in the seed or run up and down their cage when they're supposed to be on the perch."

"You do train them, but sometimes they'll do something they've never done before, and you think, 'oh, not now!'"

It's all part of the joy of owning budgies.

"I had birds as a kid," Alan Beutal explains. "It's fulfilling. Once the bug gets you, it doesn't matter if you leave it 30 years, you'll still come back into the hobby at some stage."

The birds aren't named, but they have unique code and number attached to plastic rings on their legs.

"There wouldn't be enough names for them!" Alan says. "Some people have thousands of birds. But we all know our favourite birds, and know their pedigrees and numbers."

Members of the public are invited to see the birds on their perches at the Empire Theatre on Saturday and Sunday, and maybe catch the bug just like Alan Beutel.