Other stories of the birds derived from a gift of some small chickens by the King of Thailand to a local sultan in ancient times.

These styles are often names given by breeders to describe a blood line of a champion (e.g. Husin, Mat Awang), but may also be more general shape, characteristics or behaviour (e.g. slim, submarine, and dragon).

Hence there is quite a lot of diversity in Malaysia, but an overall theme of a small brave chicken with a persona of fearless warrior or toy soldier.

They compete against each other in open table top competitions (often described as "beauty contests") and scored by several judges.

[1] This council helped to introduce the Serama to North America in various National Poultry shows.

In early 2012, another group was formed to help gain APA and ABA acceptance of more varieties of serama.

Seramas have an assertive and confident stance, but are calm and manageable, and should be easily handled and show no aggression.

The bird should pose readily and when viewed from the side should create a vase like or wide 'V' shape outline.

They shake their wings and pose, walk with pride, pull their head back to reveal a large chest, lift the legs, and in some styles have neck/head vibrations similar to that of a pigeon.

Seramas have fairly large wings in proportion to the body, which should be held in a vertical position just clearing the ground and leaving the feet partially visible.

The remaining tail feathers should ideally be no higher than the top of the comb when the bird is standing to attention.

The legs are of medium to long length, straight and set wide apart to allow for full and muscular body.

Other mutations (e.g. frizzled, rumpless and booted) have been introduced in America and some parts of Europe by crossing to other breeds.

After hatching, it takes about 16–18 weeks for the chicks to mature and reach the point at which they themselves can begin laying eggs.

One U.S. breeder of note was Brian Sparks of Wisconsin, who advocated the Malaysian style of breeding.