Ever since his childhood Alain Campagne has been interested in birds, especially hookbills. He began breeding Budgerigars when he was just a teenager and in the 1970s turned his attention to coloured canaries and avian genetics. After several years of breeding and showing canaries he renewed his interest in parrots and joined the CDE—Le Club des Éleveurs Amateurs d’Oiseaux Exotiques—a club for breeders of exotic birds in France. Alain has always been very interested in and involved with dogs too, and is specially known among sighthound (gazehound) fanciers. In 1975 he became an international judge for the Central Canine Society and the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (World Canine Federation), a position which took up most of his spare time. A doctor by profession, he decided to leave medicine in 2000 to devote himself to his hobbies, which include painting and sculpture. He also rediscovered his passion for photography thanks to digital technology. It was then that he created his first web site dedicated to the Bourke’s Parrot. He chose to focus on Neophema species and initiated the Neophema, Neopsephotus and Psephotus Club. In 2004 his web site Grass Parrots—the prelude to this book—went online. He presented the project for this book at the CDE’s general meeting in 2005. Alain Campagne was able to combine his interest in the Neophema and Neopsephotus group with a sense of aesthetics to produce this work of exceptional quality which stands out amongst French (and now English) publications on the breeding of Australian parrots.
