Pin Tailed Whydah bully - What to do?

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Rox
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Re: Pin Tailed Whydah bully - What to do?

Post by Rox » Sat Aug 15, 2015 2:18 am

Just found this on FB. A classic example of a whydah :lol:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater

He is taking on a masked weaver
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MariusStegmann
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Re: Pin Tailed Whydah bully - What to do?

Post by MariusStegmann » Sat Aug 15, 2015 5:47 am

When I was about 16 years old, I decided to trap a pintail mail and a few few females. I managed to catch a male and about 3 of his harem and put them inside my mixed aviary. I had diamond doves, pigmy doves, spice finches, white headed and black headed nuns, CB's silverbills and zebra finches. The pintail male chased all the birds around. Within a few hours, I caught him and the females and let them go again.

The only thing you can do is what I did with my black headed canary. Cut about 15 mm away from both wings and slow him down a bit. He will still dominate the ground, but it will improve things if you don't keep your food on the ground. In that case he will still hog the food.
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Weew
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Re: Pin Tailed Whydah bully - What to do?

Post by Weew » Tue Sep 13, 2016 9:42 am

I discovered a trick by accident... but it will effectively "castrate" the whydah for the remainder of the season.

Mine was being a huuuuge bully - it would routinely chase all other finches from the community feeder in my outdoor aviary. It got to the point where I had to separate him from the rest.

Instead of putting him in a cage and keeping him in the outdoor aviary, I took him indoors and put him in a flight cage that had a timed light (12 hours) and in air conditioning. Within a week he dropped his tail feathers and began his winter molt. I think the diminished "daylight" hours and the air conditioning triggered his seasonal hormones or something. In any case, he was quite docile after spending a month in "solitary confinement" and was returned to general population.

That was last year. This spring he sprouted new tail feathers and had his usual summer molt as always, and is once again terrorizing the other birds. At least now I have multiple feeders set up so he can't enjoy a monopoly.

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