FINCHforum

Hi, I'm doing a research on wild-caught birds and since the information about this topic is pretty scarce, I would be very grateful for any personal experiences that you might have had with them. I'm mostly interested in:

1. How many wild-caught (or possibly wild-caught) birds have you purchased? What species?
2. Where from were they purchased (please be specific, a lot of people or pet stores say they got their birds from breeders, when in reality they got them from online companies like thefinchfarm.com or birdproduct.com which sell wild-caught, imported birds).
3. For what price?
4. Were/are they banded?
5. How long did they live (and how did they die) or how long have you had them?
6. How long did they take to calm and settle down? Did they display any alarming behavior (crashing into the cage walls, excessive fear and noise, aggressiveness, lethargy, food rejection etc.)
7. Did they ever start singing (if yes, after how much time)?
8. Were/are they particularly scared and flighty compared to other birds?
9. Did they have any health problems when just bought and throughout their life?
10. Were you aware that you were getting a wild-caught bird? (some online bird sellers like thefinchfarm.com or birdproduct.com sell wild-caught birds like European Goldfinches or Spotted Tanagers without stating so)
11. Where are you from (at least country please)

Thanks for all the information you can give me! I greatly appreciate it!

Bunny Whisperer

I had wild caught lorekeets

They fed on my fruit trees

Caught 3 pairs...after a year they bred in a large aviary

Eventually producing pied chicks

1. Dozens and dozens over the past 8 years. I've purchased at least some wild-caught of every species in my signature, plus Black & White Mannikins, Black-cheeked Waxbills, St. Helena Waxbills, Green-backed Twinspots.

2. Some were swapped with other breeders, many if not most came from brokers.

3. Anything from $25 each to $200 each.

4. No bands.

5. Haven't really kept accurate records on this, and have no idea how old they were when purchased, so no idea how old they were when they died.

6. Mostly wild-caught waxbills are more flighty than domestic, but not to the point of injuring themselves.

7. Yes, didn't keep records.

8. Answered in 6.

9. No more so than domestics.

10. Yes.

11. USA

Thanks for replying! The question number 5 is about how long they lived in captivity (not in total) : ) Thank you!

Bunny Whisperer wrote: Thanks for replying! The question number 5 is about how long they lived in captivity (not in total) : ) Thank you!

5. It is hard to give a definitive answer, since I haven't really paid much attention to this. The fact that a wild-caught only lived two years in captivity really doesn't tell me anything about longevity, since that is a bird that could have been 6 or more years old when captured. There would be no way to give any relevance to how many years the wild-caught bird lived in captivity.

Bunny Whisperer

Hi Bunny.

All of my birds are domestic bred, no wild caught.

~Elana~

Bunny Whisperer
I had one wild caught pair when I first bought finches, through a pet store and the staff told me the pair were wild caught and the store had them for two years. The male lived for six years with me and his mate, until he died this year. The rest of my finches were domestic bred and from breeders I know in the U.S. or through the forum and bird club.

I don't keep wild caught birds on personal grounds of ethics.

Sally, I agree. This question is mostly to gather all possible information in the subject. In the long run though, possibly it could show some tendency as to wether the wild-caught birds live shorter or longer compared to captive-bred birds if there is enough data gathered. Thanks.

Thanks to all for replying!

I don't have any wild caught birds.

I only buy captive bred birds too

Like Sheather, I don't purchase wild-caught birds as a matter of ethics.

I've had some who were re-homed to me. (My personal ethics allows for this because release usually isn't an option. So they're limited to captive environments and I provide a captive environment that's better than most since I feed a good diet, care for them well and allow free fly. Obviously not ideal, but it's more space than they'd have in a cage.)
Anyways, I'd have to check my records to be sure, but if memory serves, I believe some of the species were weavers, RCCBs, strawberries and some miscellaneous mannakins.

They were always very flighty, but not to the extreme point of harming themselves.

A couple sang; most never did.

All seemed to have a distinct sadness about them. Hard to explain, but they never seemed to thrive like the captive-breds. They lived, but they never thrived. They lacked that extra bounce in their step; that zest for life. They were constantly nervous when I was present.

None ever lived more than maybe 2 years? As I mentioned, I was their second (or third) home. And I have no idea how old they were when caught.

In short, they didn't make good pets. They made me sad and I could never forget that they were wild-caught. It was always very obvious.
To be honest, I would have released them if that had been an option.

I also served as a licensed rehabber for about 10 years in the Boston area. So I have some unique insights in this regard. I had a wide array of different species, from crows to sparrows, pigeons, robins, starlings, wrens, finches, etc.

I never had any water birds, owls or raptors for the long term. (I'd accept any bird in need, but there were people who specialized in these species, so I'd send them to those rehabbers.)

The youngsters were always very trusting and tamed easily; some were actually too-trusting and tame (to the point where it made eventual release difficult or impossible.) There is really no difference between a wild baby and a captive baby, in my experience.

The adults are a different story.
The wild birds were always more flighty than a captive bred. But the birds who required lots of direct contact (e.g. for medications, wound care, bandaging/splinting, etc.) would become surprisingly tame, surprisingly fast. In these cases, the birds were essentially forced to rely on a human, so they had no choice but to trust. A few would actually seek out human attention (corvids in particular). But that trust wasn't transferrable to another human -- a big difference between captive-bred and wild-born. (But this was good for my purposes as a rehabber, as you don't want a released bird landing on some random person's shoulder.)

You didn't ask about gender, but I made an interesting observation amongst the tamer wild birds.
Females were always more trusting than males. It was by a significant margin --- perhaps a 2 or 3-to-1 ratio. This was always curious to me, as with most species, males tend to be more out-going and gregarious. I've spoken to other rehabbers and they also noticed the same.
This only applied to birds, not mammals.

I can't speak to their ages, as we never knew their age. Only juvenile, adult or geriatric.

I'll be interested to hear what conclusions you draw from your research!!

MiaCarter, thank you so much for your insight! To me it's all very valuable information. Especially the subtle differences that are sometimes hard to notice. I will let you know about the results of the whole research.

Thanks everyone!

MiaCarter - But you recently bought a weaver and a whydah? These birds aren't normally bred in captivity - with the latter its virtually unheard of.

Sheather - Yeah, I'm not sure about them.

The pet shop said they'd come from a breeder, but you're totally right -- it's very possible they were wild caught and then went to the breeder (who perhaps tried to breed them, failed, and then pawned them off on the pet shop.)

At first I thought they were likely wild caught, but not so much anymore. The flighty-ness has worn off and not as spooky as I'd expect from wild caught and they both now seem very happy, especially the whydah. He was silent in the beginning, but now I can't shut him up! LOL He's constantly singing. (Which I love as he doesn't sound like anyone else in my bird room!)
But you're right. Certainly possible. Next time I'm in there I'm actually going to see if they can give me the breeder's number, as I'd like to see if I can get an identity on the precise type of weaver. If they do give me his/her info, you can bet I'll be asking about their origins!
But for me, it doesn't much matter. My personal ethics don't let me directly support the sale of wild caught birds. But I have no problem adopting one that's already in captivity via re-homing-type situations. (Esp. where re-homing usually doesn't involve a profit. And I know they didn't turn a profit with the price I paid! LOL Granted, we didn't know the species of either bird, so it was a bit of a crapshoot.) But ethically speaking, it's similar to my policy on puppy mill dogs. I'd never buy a pet shop/puppy mill dog, but I'd never turn them away in a re-homing situation. They exist and they deserve a good home just as much as any other (perhaps more than others). I see it as the difference between supporting an unethical practice vs. helping an animal in need, where there's no profit involved.