Breeding success

Dubbed ‘The Guru’ by fellow United Budgerigar Society members, Alan Rowe first became a budgie fancier as a 16 year old, after seeing “all these colourful little budgies with their big ribbons” at the Royal Melbourne Show. Now aged 80, Alan is like a grandmaster of breeding and showing budgies, having clocked up 16 national championship class wins. He has judged national shows as well as in New Zealand, Germany and England as part of the World Budgerigar Organisation Panel of Judges. In 1994 his achievements earned him a place in the Australian National Budgerigar Council Hall of Fame and although he has now retired from judging, he remains very competitive as a breeder. The appeal, Alan says, lies in the challenge of trying to breed birds that most closely meet the standard. “I probably don’t get as much pleasure out of how they act and carry on now like I did when I first started,” he admits. “I look at them now with the standard in mind.” A budgie is judged on a range of values including size, shape, condition, proportions, the texture of its feathers and how it holds itself on the perch.