It was an honor to be invited to judge the first major budgerigar show held by PeriquitosMex in Guadalajara, Mexico.
While I had been in contact with some of the members online, including Delfino Rosales who arranged my visit, it was to be my first time in Mexico so I was excited to see some of the country, meet local breeders, judge their birds, and learn a little about their culture and traditional food.
I had learned the first meeting of the club was held back in 2013 when five
breeders gathered at a breeder’s home.
From those who attended the initial meeting, three remain active. Javier
Rosales (Xavi), Ricardo Alba (Richip) and Delfino Rosales.
Today the club has members in Guadalajara, and other cities including León,
Monterrey, CDMX, Yucatán, Cancún, Chiapas and also Morelia, with new groups
joining most months
Before Reunión Anual PMX 2018 the club held around 25 small shows.
At these shows the attendees all took a hand in judging the entries,
awarding points to the three birds they liked best… (3 points for the Best,
2 and 1 for the next two places). At
the end top awards went to the birds with most points.
Reunión Anual PMX 2018 was the first major show staged by the club with an international judge.
The venue, Santiago de Compostela Hotel in downtown Guadalajara, proved an excellent venue. A great meeting room for a seminar held Friday evening ....
...and the rooftop ballroom had plenty of space for the show staging,
judging stands and audience seating... with plenty of natural lighting.
One pleasing observation was how most clubs in Mexico are working together.
A Canary Club provided the judging stands and extra show cages to use if
entries if all Club and Members show cages were not enough for the entries.
(Just as well as there were many more entries than show cages… and some
cages were reused as the show progressed and birds were eliminated from
competition).
Early next morning members worked to set up the show and trade show area for vendors.. while nervously wondering how many would attend and how many birds would be entered.. everyone stepping up while Delfino was still at the hospital.
As breeders arrived with their birds it soon became obvious entries would be much higher than anticipated.
Next door.... the trade show area for vendors and sponsor was packed with people buying birds, cages, supplies and supplements. This area was crowded all day.
The show team worked well so everything went smoothly. A really great team. Special Thanks to Alberto Lomeli who acted as show manager, and my head stewards Rafa Munguia, Miguel Camacho, and Liliana Ramirez who kept things moving and made my job easy. It was a pleasure judging with them.
There was a good mix of "exhibition style" budgies and the smaller "wild type/budgies of color" birds which made judging interesting and a challenge.
The top bench (best ten) birds were quite good quality. Better than I expected for the club's first major show. Many would compete strongly in other countries.
Best In Show was a huge surprise. A stylish Texas Clearbody Saddleback shown by Jorge Nunes. We do not get to see many saddlebacks in most countries and this bird was the best I have seen in all my years judging. Not only an excellent bird but he demanded to be noticed all day.
Second was a very good Double Factor Spangle bred by Liliana Ramirez that showed well all day.
A Cobalt owned by Liliana placed third and she also took fourth with a Greywing. A very successful day showing she has depth of quality in her show team.
Best Opposite Sex in Show went to Marten Galiicia Reyes with his Texas Clearbody hen.
The PeriqitosMex Club must be congratulated on how the show was planned, promoted and organized. They watched what has worked for other clubs around the world, took a few ideas, and added their own touch. I was very impressed.
Over 700 people attending and hundreds of entries shows something special is happening with our hobby in Mexico. We can look for even bigger things next year.
Congratulations to all the exhibitors. Thank you for the honor of judging your birds. You should be proud of your achievements.
I look forward to watching the hobby boom in Mexico and seeing the quality of your budgerigars improve in future years.
