GOING CHEEP: Lyndall Gill admires the various breeds of cockatiels with Penrith trader Brendon Taylor. Photo: JUDE KEOGH 0302birdshow5
MORE than $1 million worth of birds were on show at the PCYC on Saturday in what has become one of Australia’s biggest bird shows.
Hosted by the Orange Bird Society, the show attracted a record number of sellers, buyers and trade exhibitors.
“We can’t get over the way the people of Orange have come out to have a look,” Orange Bird Society president Tony Ford said.
“There were a couple of thousand ready to go through when we opened this morning.”
Bird breeders and buyers came from all over Australia to attend the bird show.
“This is a tremendous thing for Orange with all the accommodation booked out and people coming from as far away as Western Australia and Queensland to spend a few days here for the show,” Mr Ford said.
“It is a great boost for tourism.”
Bird varieties ranged from small birds for just a few dollars to the rare and exotic Macaws and some Amazon varieties selling for about $20,000.
Lyndal Gill was one of the interested Orange residents who visited the show to see the variety of birds on display.
“I’m just looking today, particularly at the cockatiels because I already have one,” she said.
“They are beautiful birds and they just bond so well with people.”
Seller Brendon Taylor from Penrith said he was introduced to keeping birds at the age of five and had been involved ever since.
“It is just something I have a real passion for, and although it does get fairly intense for three of four months of the year it’s an important part of my life,” he said.
Mr Ford said he was amazed at the way the event had grown in Orange in a relatively short time.
“Ten years ago we started out with about 20 to 30 people selling birds, and look at this now, we’ve got 250 here today,” he said.
janice.harris@fairfaxmedia.com.au
