His bend is deep and dignified even as his cape of velvet black feathers rises to expose pale flanks. Springy wires topping his head tap the ground, one, two, one, two. The showman's stage is a patch of earth that he's cleared of forest debris before scattering beakfuls of roots, like petals in a bride's path. His audience: a row of skeptical females fidgeting on an overhanging limb. Their attention is fleeting, so he launches into his routine, toeing forward on skinny legs like a ballerina en pointe. He pauses for dramatic effect, then moves into the jungle boogie. His neck sinks and his head bobs, head wires bouncing on the offbeat. He hops and shakes, wings flapping or tucked in, chin whiskers fluttering.
His performance has the desired effect. The nearest female quivers in invitation, and with a nasal blast the dancer jumps her. Feathered commotion blocks the view, and it's unclear whether the romp is successful. But no matter: Another show will begin soon.
Birds of paradise perch on an improbable branch of the avian family tree, the flashy cousins of straitlaced ravens and crows. They began splitting off from their bland kin millions of years ago, evolving into today's 38 eclectic species. Of these, 34 live only on New Guinea and its satellite islands.
Born and bred in North East England, Sparkie was owned by Mrs Mattie Williams, who lived in Forest Hall, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He earned his name after Mrs Williams called him ‘A bright little spark,' and she taught him to speak, recite songs and sing nursery rhymes. Sparkie had a huge repertoire of words and sayings. By the time he was three-and-a-half, he had won the BBC International Cage Word Contest in July 1958. He was so good, in fact, that he was disqualified from taking part again.
Sparkie was courted by bird seed sellers and fronted the advertisement campaign for Capern’s bird seed for two years. He was recorded talking with budgie expert Philip Marsden on BBC radio, and appeared on the BBC Tonight programme with Cliff Michelmore. When Sparkie died, he was stuffed by the best taxidermist in London and taken on a tour of Britain in an exhibition of his life and work, before coming back to the Hancock Museum in 1996. Sparkie Williams is acclaimed as the world’s most outstanding talking bird in the Guinness Book of Records.
He is now part of the collections owned by the Natural History Society of Northumbria.
The new opera inspired by Sparkie is based on Michael Nyman’s 1977 piece Pretty Talk. The original piece used material from a record made by Capern’s bird-food company to help customers teach their pet birds to talk. The 7-inch flexi disc played short sentences spoken by Sparkie’s owner, Mrs Williams, to encourage her pet to speak - followed by replies from Sparkie himself. The new opera, Sparkie: Cage and Beyond, features further recordings from the ‘Sparkie’ archives of the Natural History Society of Northumbria. A CD of Sparkie talking has already been released.
Work on a £26 million extension and refurbishing of the Hancock Museum in Newcastle will see it re-open in May 2009 as part of the Great North Museum. Sparkie will be among the exhibits on show to visitors.
