A Taste For Silverbills

When LEE CLARKE decided to come back to birdkeeping after a break of nearly 20 years, he picked up straight where he left off thanks to his uncle Ron Jackson and the duo were soon producing world-class silverbills alongside other foreign species.

- Dave Brown

HARDBILLS

LEE Clarke’s return to the fancy has been to the advantage of many organisations and he has taken on official roles with his local club Stratford-upon-Avon CBS, the National Bengalese Fanciers Association (NBFA) and the Australian Finch Society (AFS).

In his birdroom, Lee keeps a range of seedeaters with a particular focus on silverbills.

Dave Brown: What is your birdkeeping history?

Lee Clarke: As a child, Saturday afternoons would be spent at my granddad’s house with him, my uncle Ron Jackson and I standing outside shaking tins of corn and throwing up a tumbler pigeon to encourage the returning racing pigeons to trap and be clocked. I even took and released a racing pigeon from my junior school in front of the whole class on one occasion!

My first birds were a pair of zebra finches. My interest grew and aged 16 I formed the Clarke & Jackson partnership with Ron. He was instrumental in my involvement with aviculture when I was a junior, building cages and a birdroom, taking me to club meetings and shows, and advice was always freely available. We exhibited as a novice partnership for a number of years, showing predominantly zebra finches.