It's not only birds of a feather that flock together. People tend to congregate too when birds are put on show preening their colourful plumage.

The annual bird show organised by the Bird Breeders Association at the Trade Fair Grounds in Naxxar over the weekend proved this point when 5,000 visitors visited the exhibits.

Association president Charles Vella said the exhibition was divided into five sections, namely: parrot-like; canaries; colour canaries; finches - European and foreign; and soft bills.

There were 1,300 birds belonging to 92 exhibitors, many of whom had more than one bird on show - one had 60.

The show has been held every year since the association was set up 25 years ago, with the exception of last year because of the bird flu scare.

Projects promoter Michael Corser said the association has 350 paid-up members, five of which are international judges. Asked how harmful such a show was for the birds seeing they were kept in cages for so long in an environment they were not used to, Mr Corser said the show was actually beneficial as the company of so many other birds helped the rest to prepare themselves better for breeding. The show was in fact held just before the start of the breeding season. The Maltese were very good breeders - among the best in the world, regularly winning medals in international competitions, he said.

While parrots can live to be 120 years old, the average life span of small birds is 10 years.

Mr Vella reminded owners of finches that they had to ring their birds before next January 1, according to new regulations.

The association's office is in Gharghur Road, Birkirkara and it can be contacted on 2137 5426 or 9989 4683, e-mail: bba.com@maltanet.net

www.parrotsmalta.org