Watch the video "How did we create the International Talking Birds Championship of Poland"

(English subtitles)

 

 

In 1997 we took the initiative to organize in Poland the first contest of birds imitating human speech and other sounds. Our goal was to popularize knowledge about exotic birds which was in line with the statutory objectives of the Polish Society for Exotic Birds Fanciers which we cooperated with.

 

The Championship gave us the opportunity to inform people about exotic birds and make them realize that these magnificent, colorful mimicking animals are endangered and it is crucial to counter it by global action. We wish that our generation would not be the last one which could admire them in real life. We hope that getting to know parrots in aviculture, people will be eager to learn about their problems in the wild and with time they will engage in their environment conservation. People will not make any effort to protect something what they do not know. Lately this our belief was confirmed by world known aviculturist and parrot publicist - Tony Silva:

 

Watch the video "Tony Silva on parrot keeping and nature conservation"

(English subtitles)

 

 

Ecology is not selective. We are convinced that someone who is sensible of ecological issues worldwide, would also act in his regional environment. Development of ecological awareness is our main goal.

 

Birds can mimic various sounds and due to their intelligence, they can connect sounds with situations, therefore we can say that they communicate with their owners. The birds' mimic is not an effect of training, what is - in our opinion - immoral, but a result of real friendship and close relations with a human.

 

Organization of the "Parrot Chat" in the 1990s of the last century was an ambitious and hard task because it was a live performance. Such a contest has never been organized in Poland before and we wanted to rely on successful examples. Similar events were organized in countries with much longer tradition of aviculture so we established  contacts with organizations that used to hold this kind of contests. Basing on their experience we developed our rules which fit the character of our country. The main problem with the organization was judging. We took the "Parrot Chat" with a pinch of salt, however, we wanted our contest to be on a professional level. We wanted the birds' assessment to be equal, clear, objective and fair, and we wanted our judges to be professionally prepared. The country which held this kind of contests the longest is Great Britain. We established a contact with The Parrot Society and we received a kind respond. They recommended us Mrs. Irene Christie, who was a recognized specialist in talking birds and was a member of numerous jury panels in similar contests worldwide. She gave us many valuable tips on organization and judging system, moreover, she agreed to preside the jury in our two subsequent contests in 1997 and 1999.