Hatched 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 on Tuesday 4 December 1962, Mattie Williams had him stuffed and mounted on a wooden perch at the renowned taxidermy establishment,
Rowland Ward Ltd. of Piccadilly, London. He was then 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. Sparkie is among the exhibits on show in the
Great North Museum: Hancock. ==Opera==