International Ornithological Association
Founder Member COM-UK

Affiliated to the Confederation Ornithologique Mondiale

The show of Acala de Guardaria held in Seville Spain was attended by two IOA members from Gibraltar, John Canepa and Manolo Suetta. Entry of birds for the show was 3480 which included colour, type and European fauna. It also hosted in conjunction with Northern Frill monographice with 400 birds benched and the Gloster Monographic with 780 birds benched. It took 14 COM judges to judge the type section.
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The 2016 show was held on 3/4th Dec 2016 and attracted a record entry of 7300 birds from all of Europe, birds came from Holland, Belgium, France, Malta and United Kingdom. Alan Robinson and myself took 15 members birds ( a total of 170 birds) and were rewarded with a COM medal haul of 27. First, a big thanks to the show organisation for once again putting on a first class show and to all who took part in the show, some did not win but it’s the taking part which counts for me.

There were a few stars but for me the star of the show team has to be Neil Prentice who won 1 gold and 1 silver with his redpolls, not the biggest winner but he won gold with a redpoll out of a class of 47 birds, now that just takes some doing. A close runner up has to be first time exhibitor and novice breeder Rob Savage, he sent 10 birds and was rewarded with 2 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze with his Irish team. Donald Skinner-Reid from Scotland won 2 gold and 1 silver with his Gibso (another first). Gloster breeder Richard Lumley won 1 gold and 1 bronze with a Bullfinch Hen (first time), Richard Kendrew won 1 bronze with his glosters. Dave Shelbourne from Wales  and George Whitfield both won 1 bronze with their Fifes. Stacey Turner won 1 gold with his British birds and last but not least affiliated member Maurice O’Conner won 4 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze with his Irish Fancy. Super, a big thanks to all.
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                           The 68th World Show will be held in Matosinhos,Portugal,open to the public 23rd Jan – until 26h Jan 2020.

 

 

                                             The 67th World Show will be held in Zwolle,Holland,open to the public 10th Jan until 13th Jan 2019.
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The 65th World Show Mondial will be held in Almeria Spain.Open to the public 20-22 Jan 2017.

“Show Hall” Address: Palacio De Exposiciones Y Congresos De Aguadulce.

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The IOA are pleased to be able to announce another show date which they will be taking members birds to in Europe, the show they will be attending for the first time is the Campeoonato Ornitologico International COM “Avixira 2016” which is held near Lisbon in Portugal. The date for the show is birds must be benched by 29th Oct. The two conveyors for this show are Willie McKay and Gary Mann and Gary will be doing all the entry forms and schedule’s cost per bird will be £5-00.We do not have the closing date for entries just yet.
For anyone needing more info please phone Gary: 01202 582059 or email: phoenixdecs@tiscali.co.uk or contact Willie on 01501 741569.

Cartaz Avixira 2016

Cartaz Avixira 2016


For 2016 the IOA committee has decided to once again take a coach trip to the 24th Gouden Ring Show held in Belgium.The format for this show will be different to other years with the possibly of a different Hotel and just a one night stay.What is proposed at this moment is leave the UK on Friday  2nd December and arrive at the Hotel around 5pm,then if any one wishes they can go to the show  and gain FREE entry to the show section as it is open to the public from 7-30 pm untill 10-00 pm,(please note the sales section does not open until Saturday).Then one full day at the show from 9-00 am until 5-00pm on the Saturday. After the show closes the coach will make its way back to the UK and arrive back in the UK early Sunday morning. This will result in a big money saving and members get home in daylight. One big down side is this year the coach will not be stopping at any tobacco/chocolate shop due to the incident which happened in 2015 when one person was caught at Dover by the customs people trying to smuggle into the UK tobacco which resulted in a large bill from the coach company for another driver plus the trouble to fellow passengers.

More info will be given out later. The new Hotel is only 10 mins ride from the show hall.

For more details please contact Alan Robinson, tel: 01226 286066 email: allen.robinson@blueyonder.co.uk


The 64th World was held in 2016 – Matosinhos, Portugal.

The 64th World Show held in Matosinhos, Portugal will always be remembered for three very tragic events which happened. First as the IOA always tells the truth these sad facts have to be reported. First in December 2015 the President of the COM from the Southern Hemisphere Luis Beraldi from Brazil suddenly died at the age of 67 years old, he was a very good friend of myself and the IOA and will be greatly missed. In late December the President of the COM Salvatore Cirmi was rushed into hospital with a life threatening illness and was placed on a life support machine. Then, as if these were not too large blows to the show for some unknown reason the transport of the birds from Italy was changed and when the birds arrived at the show a number were found to be dead. No number of dead birds has been told by any one so how many birds were lost in the transport is unknown, to the breeders who lost birds we offer our condolence’s but also the effect it had on the conveyors from Italy was devastating some were in tears. (more…)


The 23rd Gouden Ring Show how held on 5/6th Dec 2015 saw a record entry of 6800 birds  in total, and once again it was a super show. This year due to other organisations jumping on the band wagon of what the IOA has achieved in showing at this show there were four lots of conveyors taking birds from the UK and so to distance them selves the IOA officers Alan Robinson and Richard Lumley have decided to call their team, TEAM YORKSHIRE and so can only report on the members birds who showed under that banner. A total number of 17 members sent 210 birds and were rewarded with a wonderful medal haul, 14 COM Gold, 11 COM Silver and 7 COM Bronze. Just proving that North of Watford is were the best birds came from. The high light of the team was Darren Hadley with his Irish fancys he sent 1 stamm team and 8 single birds and was rewarded with 3 Gold, 4 Silver, 1 Bronze, in fact only one bird got nothing. But other first time winners were Mel Knaggs 1 Gold with a Pairisan Frill, Keith Bennett 2 Gold with his Irish, George Dial 1 Gold with a Satinet, Colin Patterson 1 Gold with a Kobalt, Stan Bolton 2 Gold with his lizards, Maurice O’Conner 4 Gold, 2 Silver, 2 Bronze with his Irish, Pornprapa Bolton 1 Silver, Georgina Bunting 1 Silver, Adam Kendall 1 Silver, Richard Kendrew 1 Silver, Willie McKay 1 Silver, 2 Bronze with his Fifes, Rob Bunting 1 Bronze and Donald Skinner-Reid 1 Bronze with his Scotts fancy. Just to prove how hard it is to win at this show both myself and Alan won nothing as did a few others but as I always say it’s taking part that is the most important thing and I thank every one who took the time to show and visit the show.
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The 63rd World show was held in Rosmalen, Holland from the 22/1/15 -25/1/15. Conveyors Richard Lumley and Chris Smith took a total number of birds from the UK of 187,with a few absent birds which would have seen a very good entry of 215 birds from 31 fully paid up IOA members, 3 NCA members and 1 from a affiliated society making a total of 35 exhibitors. Total number of birds entered for the show was 22,248 so a very good entry when you understand all the problems the show organisation had in the weeks leading up to the show are the out break of Bird Flu. Once again the standard of birds on show was of high quality and for COM-UK to win 10 Gold and 4 Silver was high praise indeed. The IOA feel that every one who partook was a winner with 6 first time exhibitors and as a thank you all IOA members were given a special Gold Pin badge, congratulations to all the medal winners but not every one can win from the IOA’s side its the partaking which counts.
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The 22nd Gouden Ring Show  was held on the 6/7th Dec 2014 in Roeselare, Belgium. It went ahead even though certain breeders in the UK were telling everybody that the show was off due to the out break of Bird Flu in Holland. The answer to why the show went on is in the place were the Bird flu was and it was in Holland NOT Belgium. A record total of 5760 birds were on show, the Belgium government would not allow the show hall to sell birds out so no dealers/members were at the show selling birds, but just to show how daft this idea was you could travel 10 mins drive from the show hall to a very well known dealer and purchase as many birds as you wanted and this is what a large number of breeders from the UK did.
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Mondial 2014 was held in Bari, Italy. The world show website is http://www.bari2014.it

This is the COM-UK president with fellow members at the flag ceremony world show gala dinner Bari.
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The 62 nd World Show was held in Bari, Italy from 24/1/14 to 26/1/14. COM-UK conveyour’s Richard Lumley & Gary Mann took a total of 180 birds from the UK plus 15 birds from our members in Gibraltar making a total entry of 195 from 32 exhibitors. A total entry of bird’s for the show was 25,895 from 3340 exhibitors coming from 19 countries. COM-UK managed to win a total of 11 medals, of which 6 were gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze. All birds at the show arrived in good condition after a journey of 1,600 miles which took two days driving. The standard of all birds on show was a very high one so to win a medal you had to have a outstanding bird, and some of the COM-UK team just missed out on medals this time where as in past shows we would have won more medals. The main contributor’s to this show were once again from the IOA, out of the 32 who exhibited this year 29 were fully paid up IOA members, 1 was an affiliated society to the IOA and from our partners in COM-UK they managed to get 2 exhibitors.
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The IOA-COM-UK have just returned from this wonderful show with a record number of COM medals.Conveyor Alan Robinson and his assistant Richard Lumley took from the UK a total of 270 birds which is a record for the show. In total they won 31 COM medals, 16 Gold, 13 Silver and 12 Bronze. The standard of birds on the show bench this year were of a very high quality so to win this many medals is a great achievement.
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The 61st World Show was held in the Ethias-Arena, Hasselt, Belgium from 23-1-13 to 27-1-13.COM-UK conveyors Richard Lumley and Gary Mann took a total of 170 birds to this wonderful show. A total entry for the show, (23,543 birds!) was a wonderful sight. COM-UK which is now the team that we take our birds with won a total of 9 medals which is more than we got in Spain in 2012. IOA exhibitors had a good show winning 5 out of the nine medals, For me the highlight was the Lizard boys Rob Bunting from Kings Lynn continued his success with a silver medal Lizard Gold and ‘Mr Lizard’ Stan Bolton shocked everybody with a bronze medal with a Lizard Blue, the first ever person from the UK to do this, so well done Stan. Bernard Howlett won Gold with a Phaeo Green Finch, first time exhibitor Geoff White won a bronze with a stam of White Irish Fancy’s and Brian Hogg won a Gold with a Lancashire Coppy canary. Two exhibitors Peter Sardena from Gibraltar got 91pts for one of his birds but unfortunately it was placed fourth and Willie McKay from Scotland got a fourth place with a stam of his fifes, he was so near a medal because there were 27 teams of stams in the class so to get the same number of points as the bronze medal winner is no mean feat. I wish to thank everyone else who showed but did not win anything and I include myself in that because for me it’s the taking part that counts. We had a lot of members scoring 90 pts. but it’s just that little bit of luck you need. Overall I felt this was one of the better organised shows I have been to, they did everything they promised and lifted 24,000 in five hours, no mean feat. My only complaint would have to be the lighting in the hall, it was pathetic, yes it was that bad, if you wanted to see the new colours I hope you had a torch with you.
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The IOA-COM-UK have just returned from a wonderful exhibition at the 20th Gouden Ring Show held in Roeselare, Belgium 1-2nd December 2012.The conveyors Alan Robinson with his assistant Richard Lumley took a total of 197 birds from 24 exhibitors of which five were showing for the first time from the UK. They won a record total of 21 COM medals, which were made up of 11 gold, 5 Silver and 5 Bronze. A total of 24 members and affiliated societies took part in the show, and the honour this year of being the UK’s first gold medal winner at the show fell to Fife breeder Willie McKay from Scotland with a wonderful stam  team, this was quickly followed by David Shelbourne from Wales who won his first ever gold medal also with a wonderful cinnamon Fife, he also won a silver with a Blue hen. Gary Mann won a bronze medal with his fifes. (more…)