Orange Headed Thrush Imitating Sound

It is very common in Indonesia to create birds, mainly the birds for exhibition purpose, with unique sounds when it is singing. Especially the sounds comes from other 'in fashion' birds, as to date preferred sounds such as: love bird, prinia, woodpecker, sturnias, etc. Almost all birds used for the patron are has high frequency, screechy and loud sounds.
Today, there is only one Orange Headed Thrush ['Zoothera Citrina' - Punglor Merah] left in my list of collection. It still be patronized by those bird mates, to fill its varies sounds.
The first one, from left to right in this picture, is the Sturnus Contra [Jalak Uret], in the white cage. The second from the left is the Woodpecker, the small one [in Indonesia they used to call it Pelatuk Sampit, Sampit is one regency located in Kalimantan island]. The next is a Love Bird and the last one, at the right side, is the Weaver. This weaver should have Yellow color in its upper part of the head, but I think this one is the youngster, so it might have its yellow color few more years. The reason is, when I got this bird first time, it has no yellow color in its head, but after it got its first molting period is finished, a little bit yellow color was arose. So, I said to my self, well, I'll wait till couple years in caring it, till I can see its yellow color and prove that my theory is right. Those four patron birds seem good enough for filling the additional sounds produced by the Thrush.
I have believed as it have been proven, as a friend of mine had borrowed this Thrush for at least one year [last year], for exhibition purpose, when its molting period was came, I took this bird back to my home and taking care of it by my self until it reaches its optimum health after the molting period. When it started to sing again, I just found that there were a lot of new songs it produces. It had imitated the songs of birds which belong to my friend during he store it in his house.

Birds Exhibition/Championship - 2 [The Videos]

This is the video of the White Rumped Shama [Copsycus Malabaricus], the most noisy and prestige class in every birds exhibition. In order to instruct or attract the bird to sing, with all of their full abilities, all flown sounds variance, loudest sounds ever, the owner or the supporter of each bird usually makes unsual acts such as whistling loudly, clapping their hands, blowing whistle, and so many other weird things, in which way those acts surely becomes hindrance and obstacle, for then screw up the Juries works. But, believe it or not, it works ... the shamas has unique character, which the more noise they hear, the more fighting act and better sounds they produce.
The persons in the green uniform are the Juries, which examinating the class and the black uniform guy is the Juries Coordinator. This coordinator has specific task. He has to supervise and controling the Juries works. He also will reminds the Juries whenever there are birds that out of their sight or un-examinated, while it also gives its abilities during the class session.

Birds Exhibition/Championship - 1

This picture shows what is the birds exhibition or championship in Indonesia looks like. Seems the picture shows the class examination of Magpie Robin [Copsycus Saularis].This one is small scale or local exhibition, which arranged in weekly basis. They used to called it the 'Exercise'. It shows that the place is as is or using unused places, no further improvement and not specially designed for the birds exhibition purpose.
This time, it is using the unfinished construction  of a building, seems it is a warehouse, located in the down town of Surabaya. The building is a Spanwerk Steel Structure Portal Frame, Several bays - about 6 meters times 6 bays, with Zincalume Metal Sheet Roofing. The portal members are Wide Flange profiled steel, underneath the C Channel steel Purlins, jointing is using Bolts n Nuts, all finishes is green color prime coat paint. The Base is unfinished floor, made from compacted Granular Base materials and some waste removed building materials and finished by concrete leaning. No shell or perimeter wall is erected yet.
Under the roofing, they constructed a frame for hanging the bird cages. Straight under each cage, they put a can, on floor, where the Juries can plug their flag. The flag is a sign that this bird has been judged, examined and valued by a Jury. There were several groups of Birds in every Exhibition and some groups has couple or several classes, i.e. the Group for the Orange Headed Thrush has Class A, B and C. Each class shall has 6 Juries, so each bird will be judged or examined by 6 Juries and it means there will be 6 flags in different colors. Each class approximately takes about 10 to 20 minutes for completing the examination of the Juries, but it is also depending to the number of the birds and the difficulties to each kind of bird. So the time spent will be varies.
There is a place for registration. Each bird shall be registered first before joining the class. Pay the admin fee for the ticket, get the number of hook in a sticker and a form for put notes of result. In the bigger exhibition, with the more professional EO and bigger budget by several financiers/sponsorship, you may find some pretty girls, which serving this registration and ticket selling, this could be as we usually saw it in the cars exhibition. They put different rate to each class. The rate is basically refers to the kind of bird that being in style, which will be connected to enthusiasm/number of registrant. The funny thing is, the owner of the bird, most of them, like to support their bird with some acts, such as waving the cage cover, clapping, whistling, screaming, calling their bird [name or number] and makes some other noises and crowds. It is very highly unethically, as this will be a hindrance or obstacle for the jury in examination of the class. Some bid event gives more strict rule, which any act that will disturbs the jury's task is forbidden. There is a sanction for this.
Another funny thing is, the bird's owner gives different treatment to each bird for the purpose that the bird will give its full and maximum performance during the examination. Like the owner did in this picture, he took all the food, extra food and the drinking water bowl out of the cage just in couple minutes before the show. This will takes few minutes to hours for the treatment. But, anyway, they shall think and consider that only a little of them will be the winner. :-)
During the waiting time between or among the session of examination, the bird shall resting. There are several palce for this purpose. Some tents or paddocks are available. Some participants prefer to hang the cages in the trees near the arena, as they feel the place temperature under the tent was too hot for the bird and they sure that this will decrease the performance of their birds. As seen in the picture on above, the tents are exposured under the mid day sun ray and surely you can imagine how much the temperature inside the curtain covered cage, if the outside temperature is about 37 - 38 degrees celcius.
This last pictures is a class for the White Rumped Shama [Copsycus Malabaricus], the most noisy class. The security guard is seen, came from the Army Personnel, sit in the chair in the corner of the area. This is the last round. The jury usually gives, in average, three round for examinating the birds. First round is for the birds to give its acts and sings, the jury will put a flag, little one, into the can, then the basic value will be written in their form. Don't forget, each jury has their own flag's color. Second round is focused to the bird that still acting and singing, this time the jury will be more concerned to the several parameters of the judgement. These parameter are the acts, the sound volume, the sound variations, the tones, the tuning and some other variance. This round will increase the value, so each best performance shown will be an added value written. The last round is the time for the juries to decide which one will be the winner. They will focus and concentrate to the prominent birds, evaluate and put the extra value to the best birds performance, by ticking the value or gives stars. The more stars the bird gets, the higher value it gets. Maximum stars they can get is three stars. Each jury also brings three big flags in three different different colors. Yellow color with C Font is represent one star and this is the third winner. The second winner is represented by green flag with the B font that should have 2 stars. The bird which has 3 stars in the examination will gets the red flag with the A font and this one is the Winner, the first winner.