Three years ago Jaxon Creswell won a cockatiel in a raffle at the annual Nelson Bird Show that became the first of his varied flock, and this year he won junior and novice prizes for his budgie, Blueberry.
The blue budgerigar was one of nearly 300 birds being judged at the show in Hope during the weekend, with birds travelling from as far as Taranaki and Dunedin.
For nine-year-old Jaxon from Wakefield, this year’s show was a success and he is expanding his flock which already includes budgies, canaries and the original cockatiel, Cocky.
The cheeky cockatiel has not learnt any words, but happily taunts the family cat with meows.
Jaxon’s 12-year-old brother Tyler was the first to become interested in breeding birds and now has six homing pigeons, one budgie and “too many chickens to count”.
“They don’t get angry like a cat, or do too much damage,” he says.
“They can peck you, but that doesn’t do much. The outside birds eat wasps which is good because I’m allergic to wasps.”
Tyler breeds black and blue Orpington hens and sells fertile eggs.
His mother Amanda says he can not provide enough fertile eggs to fill orders since the price of eggs escalated and more people want to produce their own.
The bird show was not for the pigeons and poultry though, but rather caged birds.
Nelson Bird Club secretary Nicole Fryer says many breeders travel to shows around the country each year with their birds and it requires skill to breed the right characteristics for each breed.
The mix of breeds at Hope ranged from canaries and numerous finches, including a Cuban and Gouldian finch, to parrots and even a galah.
The canary section alone had eight different breeds which were required to sing for the judges, but at Saturday morning judging most of them refused to perform.
Nicole says canaries are trained to sing and are required to sing several songs for the judges.
The judging sheet for the canaries has 13 songs that each bird has to sing, with faults deducted when their flutes and bells do not hit the mark.
