The Budapest Body

The Budapest Body

Preface:
The history of the Budapest in its present form was the result of 80 men working together to create the Budapest from the Vienna Ancestor and a Hungarian short face that was very similar to what we call the Buda Blue today at the turn of the last century. The Standard or Beauty Ideal is something to strive for. There is no perfect pigeon so the Standard should never be reached but can be a great goal to try and achieve.

These men took pieces and moved forward with the Beauty Ideal in mind. As the Budapest developed it more or less destroyed the Vienna in the United States and the Vienna was greatly diminished in Europe as well. The Budapest is a more elegant breed.

Our forefathers wanted to get away from the short necked, short legged and long pigeon which did not stand erect and move to a pigeon which more or less resembles an English Carrier in body and station (stance).

I must state here that I cannot sacrifice the head structure for the desired body. However, I strive to follow the Standard and try to breed beautiful headed pigeons on the correct body. This is a goal that we must all strive for if you really want to breed a Budapest close to the Standard. With this stated, I will try and make you understand what the Standard calls for in the correct or desired body.

The Body

The body does not stand alone! The body is the center of the pigeon with the neck, legs, tail all connected.

The bird should stand erect. This means that the eyes of the head need to be carried directly above the legs! The body itself should not be long and the Budapest should not lean forward. The body should be thin. This is more observed in young pigeons. The adults tend to put weight on and be a little thicker as the body fills in. I have seen many beautiful pigeons not show well in the judging cage because the pigeon is afraid. Big headed pigeons with parallel eyes don’t see well, so they are constantly turning their head and are moving around. Lights and large cages do not help with the show specimen because the Budapest is supposed to be very alert. (more or less flighty – wanting to just about fly.) If they attempt to fly, they ruin their posture and flight and tail feathers. They should be exposed to a judging cage before a show. Very few pigeons should be in the same cage and I prefer one pigeon to a cage. The pigeons should not be handled and handled over and over again. A proper judging stick should be used in the cage to direct the bird but not frighten them.

The body should be short—not long. The wing butts should be protruding and not hidden by the contour feathers of the chest. The wing butts should be prominent (sticking out). The wings should be sitting on the tail. The wing feathers have to be shorter than the tail. The tail should be well folded and be sitting on the tail. The tail should be tightly folded meaning it should not resemble a shovel if turned upside down. A shovel tail is a serious fault!

The neck should be slender and slightly arched—this is rare and very desirable. The bird should be “dancing” on its toes and showing off. I have seen this trait in its most extreme case lacking nails on the rear toes which is a serious disqualification. Do not breed from these birds as the trait will return in the flock and will haunt you. Why breed a near perfect pigeon only to be disqualified in a show because you did not avoid this undesirable trait? Take into account that these pigeons are closely inbred already and the only way to avoid problems is to cross the colors and to share birds with one another.

I advocate sharing the birds on a regular basis---trade with one another so the breed continues to flourish.

Pictures are worth a thousand words. You need to study the standard of this pigeon. There is some confusion as to which drawing is the Beauty Ideal. The drawing by Tony Baars from the Netherlands is the correct Standard drawing and I have added here at the end. Study it and as questions arise they can be answered.

NOW THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: In a show, when two birds that are equal in every respect are being judged, the bird with the better Station (stance) or body will win the show. You want the winner or champion to be as close to the Standard of Perfection as possible and this means looking for a nice body as well as a nice head. This balanced pigeon is quite a challenge to achieve.

For some strange reason, a great deal of jealousy surrounds this breed. I have suffered from it, myself, most of my life. The judges can make or break this breed. Some judges prefer white beaks and some dark beaks. This is becoming a thing of the past here, but it took 25 years to correct. Too long in a hobby where we are supoose to be having fun whiling working hard to achieve the best birds.