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Banding Date
The WCBA has selected November 1st of each year as its official Ring Issue Date. As could have been expected there
was a tremendous amount of discussion surrounding a move from the calender date of January 1st to November 1st .
It was ultimately decided that it would be for the betterment of the birds and exhibitors to move to the November 1st
date, it was suggested that if this would not work out that a move back to the calender date would be considered.
Since the first year of moving the Band Issue date to November 1st there have been ZERO problems. All members
soon realized that they were all on an even playing field and that their choices had simply been expanded.
As a side note, it is interesting to see many other bird clubs across Canada have now adopted WCBA's Band Issue
date. (top of page)
Recognition of International Bands
The fraternity of budgerigar fanciers has no borders, proof of this is witnessed by the somewhat newly formed World
Budgerigar Organisation. To this end, the WCBA adopted, long before the WBO was formed, a guideline of accepting
birds banded with internationally issued bands. It does far more for the fancy in general to accept these birds and
bands, than it does to create a ‘closed shop' where only a selected few are eligible to win awards because "their birds
have the right coloured bands". Allowing our members, and members from other clubs and countries to show their
birds without fear of having their birds disqualified because they are wearing a different coloured band is counter
productive to the entire budgerigar fancy. (top of page)
A Proposed Standard of Excellence
The first "Proposed" WCBA Ideal or Standard of Excellence was originally published for the members in the October
1985 WCBA Viewpoint Publication. The description of the bird and the drawing were put forward to the membership to
come to a decision on adopting. Over the years this WCBA Standard of Excellence has remained ‘Proposed' on purpose.
The reason is that as the birds change over the years, this "Proposed" Ideal will also become dated and will have to
change. To adopt a standard can only be a temporary move, and as such it will remain "Proposed" until the next
version of the Ideal Budgerigar comes along. (top of page)
The most gratifying award for any exhibitor is to have a bird that they have bred and banded achieve top honours at a
show. To this end, the WCBA has ruled that only birds bred and banded by the exhibitor will be eligible for any awards
at any show. As this rule was enacted, it was deemed that a section for Acquired Birds' be implemented, but that this
section does not have any associated awards. Initially, a few members decided to exhibit some of their purchased birds
in this section, knowing that they would not be eligible for any awards. What was interesting to note was that in every
case, the ‘bred by exhibitor' birds were easily beating all the acquired birds. Over the years the Acquired Bird Section'
has seen little activity in the number of entries it receives but will remain for the benefit those who wish to utilize it.
Members of the WCBA continue to support the notion that birds exhibited should be bred and banded by the exhibitor.
(top of page)
Early on, the WCBA decided to change the names of it first show of the season from Baby Bird Show to the Spring Show.
The reason for this change was to more accurately describe the birds that would be gracing the show bench, namely,
that yearlings would also be shown. This move boosted the numbers of birds at the show tremendously, increased the
enthusiasm of members, and gave the judges more of a challenge. At the spring show, the current year banded birds
are all judged against one another to determine which current year bird is best. In so doing, the spirit of showing current
year birds is not lost, but everyone also gets so see how the yearling birds are progressing from last year. (top of page)
The WCBA established its first Judges Panel in 1987. For information on this topic please see Judges Panel. (top of page)
As anyone knows who exhibits budgerigars, one the goals are to exhibit a bird that shows it's boldness in the show cage.
One of the ways to achieve this is the whole purpose that the false top was created. The purpose was to drive the bird
forward in the show cage thus making it appear bolder and closer to the judge for viewing. The false roof was an
admirable addition to the show cage, but cutting off the perch at only four and a half inches defeated the whole purpose
of the sloped false roof. Why on earth would someone create a sloped false roof to drive the bird forward, then cut the
perch of short so it couldn't stand forward? The solution to this for the WCBA was to create a longer show cage perch, one
that extends from the back of the cage all the way to with one eighth inch of touching the cage front. This minor
modification has made dramatic changes to the way birds are exhibited. The first thing that was noted immediately was
that birds appeared to be calmer in the show cages, especially younger birds. There is less of a tendency for birds to get
parts of their wings or legs caught between the show cage perches and the show cage fronts. The biggest improvement is
that the birds are easier to judge because they have more movement on the perches. Over the years, the WCBA has
employed a number of International Judges to adjudicate our birds. Only one has ever noticed the longer show cage
perches before it was pointed out to them. What this implies is that the lengthening of perches, in no way distracts from
the overall look of the bird in the cage. So why didn't we continue the perch through the show cage front by cutting a
small slot to allow part of the show cage to support the perch? For the same reasons cited above, a perch protruding
through the show cage front is something of a distraction for the judges, and adds nothing to the comfort of the bird. The
other problem is in removal and realignment of the show cage front and perches, an annoyance that, again, adds nothing
to the comfort. The final point on the show cage perch changes is that the cost to change all show cage perches to extend
within one eighth inch of the show cage front is minimal. Existing bosses' can be drilled out and new extended perch
dowelling inserted to replace old dowelling. (top of page)