One part of the hobby is judging our Lovebirds. In my opinion we have to take as an example the judging like it is done in Budgerigar societies. Most of these clubs are specialised clubs in one species namely Budgerigars.
The following article is just my opinion and is not the way judging is going on in all the lovebird clubs but some of them are using this system and it will result in lesser discussions on the long term.
In most “general” clubs, lovebirds are only a part of the hole show, in specialised clubs we have a serie in each color. That’s the way we use in Budgerigar clubs all over the world and everybody is happy with it.
The main program exist off 8 groups, we can call it headgroups if you wanted. Why 8 groups ?
That is because we have in Lovebirds 7 different species that are frequently showed in a show. Number 8 is a headgroup for pedigree ( 3 or 4 birds of the same color and species). In this group we can never have the showwinner but we can give special awards for it.
We can split the” headgroups” in “groups” and the groups in “series “.
Principally we have for each color in every species a different series. It would be nice if each judging will be done by two different judges, if possible from different clubs or countries( to make it international).
They start by placing the birds in a same serie or if you want color from 1 to 7 , all the birds who are at a lower place doesn’t count anymore for futher competition in the show.
We don’t use points but we can put “ Insufficient mark “ - “ Sufficient” - “Good” – “ Very good” – “ Super “.
* “Insufficient mark” : means that the bird is not good for showing.
(could be a lack of species color, he lost a withe , a blind bird etc.)
* “Sufficient” : means a bird who is not good for show but can be used as a breedingbird
* “Good” : means those birds have a temporally fault (lost a tail feather for example) , he is not in good condition.
* “Very good” : means a very good bird but not good enough to be a super bird
* “Super” : means a topbird
If you want you can give the first 3 birds of each series a different rosette or put a sign as Gold, Silver and Bronze.
Each bird who has become the first in his series can go to a higher group(Headgroup) and are judged together to become the “Headgroups – winner”. Each Headgroupswinner can have a bigger rosette to indicate that this bird is better than the other birds in his group.
Last step is to put all “groupswinners” together and to chose the best bird of the show. If you want you can start with this programm in A and B series birds. An A bird is a young bird, a B bird is a bird older than one year.
In that way you can have “Best young bird of the show” , “Best older bird of the show” and “Best bird of the show”
To help the breeder it is needed that the judges put their remarks on each bulletin of each bird.
I think that this is an easy way to let the breeder understand what he or she has to breed for, in other words what we want to see at a show.
I wish all of you success at the shows and in the breeding of those wonderfull Lovebirds.