Golden sparrows in mixed aviary?

[w.l.]

I could trade my widowed single grey-headed silverbill for a pair of golden sparrows.
However, I don't fancy the idea of putting them into a smallish cage, while I also have reservations about putting them into my mixed-species birdroom where their size and behaviour might intimidate the much smaller waxbills.

Any thoughts?
Would they be OK in the mixed collection, should I put them in a cage, or just not get them at all?

[finchmix22]

w.l.
If the sparrows are much bigger, then they would need a flight, not a cage. Since I don't breed sparrows, I'm not sure if they would be aggressive with other smaller finches, but that is a possibility.

[Sally]

Here is an interesting article I found. Scroll down to the paragraph on compatibility, and you will see that this breeder had serious problems with his birds.

http://www.finchsociety.org/cfa/goldss/gss.htm

[w.l.]

Thanks Sally, I had read it a few times before, and it was one of the sources giving me doubts.
OTOH, a very experienced breeder who bred them for years in Hungary said I could mix them with waxbills as my place is big enough.
Different people, different experiences!
That breeder also said they coulf breed in cages, but less reliably.
I think I'll choose to be cautious though and at least initially, a cage is where they'll go.de

[w.l.]

Brought the sparrows home last night.
Very cute birds, smaller than the familiar urban species, and sizewise certainly look like they'd be fine with waxbills.
But after all the warnings, they were put into a cage, with its sides mostly covered with cloth to make it feel safer to them.
Pretty nervous birds - hope they'll calm down though.

[w.l.]

In the end I bought a second pair, too.
They never calmed down in cages, in fact looked miserably stressed there, so I first did put them.into mixed aviaries, first with munias and Lavender waxbills (that bred alongside them) then one pair with weavers.
They did fine, the males even displayed courtship behaviour, but never got to raise chicks there.
I eventually put the 2 pairs in a separate aviary, and breeding soon kicked off!
One pair has raised first one, then 3 young (the last of which feldeg this morning) the other has raised two.
They seem to be very good parents with the females feeding the young extremely industriously, in and out of nest nonstop, but a constant supply of livefood is essential.
If the supply of that runs out, they start tossing their chicks soon! This also happened when the female of the dominant pair kept chasing away the other one from the food dish - fortunately they now coexist peacefully enough to have raised their young side by side, and after fledging, one female sometimes even feeds the chicks of the other.
A very lively lot, highly recomended to those looking for something active, though can be quite noisy, too!

I'd love to upload some pics but the forum won't let me noww - maybe later.

[lovezebs]

Are these the birds we're talking about?


http://www.birdguides.com/species/species.asp?sp=163040

They are very pretty. You mentioned that they are noisy, what do they sound like (or similar to?)

[w.l.]

Yes, they are.
They sound pretty much like the familiar house or tree sparrows, despite sometimes being optimistically called Golden Song Sparrows in aviculture.

I uploaded some pix of my birds on this Hungarian forum:
http://www.idre.hu/index.php?t=344&jfil ... &Itemid=23

[Spreckles]

Beautiful! How cool to translate from Hungarian to English with the touch of a button. What an amazing world!

Karen

[w.l.]

Wow Karen, could you really get a decent teanslation of that forum??? I am surprised, as not only is Hungarian difficult to translate at the best of times, I typed there without the necessary 'accents' .
Anyway, if it is possible to read it meaningfully, there is a much longer version of my story there, plus experiences of other breeders.
And I only linked it here for the pix...

[lovezebs]

w.l.

The translation, is very patchy, lol.
I didn't realize you are Hungarian. My Father, is Hungarian, but regrettably I never picked up the language. I will attest to the fact however, that it is a difficult language (dissimilar to fairly much any other language in this world).

As in regards to the birds, they are very attractive looking, especially the males.

[w.l.]

Trying to upload the pix directly:

FB_IMG_1454643779527~2.jpg

FB_IMG_1454643784540~2.jpg

FB_IMG_1454643790417~2.jpg

FB_IMG_1454643798501~3.jpg

FB_IMG_1456287220766.jpg

[w.l.]

Success!
So 2 more:

FB_IMG_1456287184431.jpg

FB_IMG_1456287176840.jpg

Hard to get better pics of them as they are quite nervous birds, don't like to be approached closely.

[debbie276]

VERY nice