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My pair pin-tailed Whydahs have been with me for a about 2 months now. Initially I did not want to buy them because I can't sex them correctly, the males are not in breeding plumage, so no long tails. However on a subsequent visit, at the spur of the moment I selected and bought a pair hoping I got a male and a female.

I am quite sure I got a male at least, he is a noisy fellow, always whistling and making strange sounds. The other bird which I presumed is a female, it never made any sound so far. It got bullied by the male which prevents it from perching near him. The male is not overly aggressive though, it just gave the female a soft peck to shoo her away. The female's plumage is slightly different from the male, the browns are darker, the chest is less white, otherwise they both look the same. Uploaded both birds. Let me know if you can tell which is male and female.

I have a problem with their food, they eat nothing but millets only. Small eaters. Tried giving them mealworms, green seeds but they are not interested at all.

It looks like you may have 2 males in non-breeding plumage, based on the white patches. I have a male and 2 females and the females never showed any white in their feathers. My females would eat veggies & egg food (along with seed), but all I ever saw the male eat was seeds. Good luck with them. It's recommended to have more females to 1 male. I tried breeding them in my mixed flight, but it didn't work out. The male needs quite a bit of space to do his mating display (he will hover in mid air in front of the female, kind of bobbing up & down so his long feathery tail bounced around - apparently they are supposed to like that!) but when he tried to mount them they would just fly away. You also need to have some waxbills with them (they are parasitic breeders) preferably St Helena waxbills to successfully breed them...
Jeannine

Check mia's thread out. They both look like males based on her thread.

Looks like 2 males to me too... The hens have much less markings on their shoulders and chests.

Here is the link to Mia's post
http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=31634

Here is a nice photo of a hen. Note the difference in head markings too

http://birdsonweb.com/wp-content/upload ... a-dom-.jpg

finkfinch

What is your cage size?, and yes I agree with everybody else, both males.

Steve

I agree, 2 males.

jniner
delray
Rox
steve
MariusStegmann


Thanks to all your replies. I got a feeling this 'female' is also a male too but the behaviour is puzzling, no calls whatsoever was heard from it so far. Let's wait for the breeding plumage. Found 2 common waxbill today and they are now in the same cage as the PTWs. Not sure of their sex, both are not in very good conditions, missing tail feathers, otherwise they seem healthy. The male PTW as usual is aggressive, busy pecking at the newcomers.

This morning, the male was in a happy mood and it delivered a series of songs lasting many minutes.

Steve, the cage is a 24" flight.

finkfinch

I have read and heard that 3-5 metres is requires to breed these birds.

Steve

24" is not big enough for that many birds. I guess I should have mentioned while in my flight the male ptw chased EVERYONE around continuously, which is part of why I removed them...

Most, if not all, of the whydahs are wild-caught males. It is very difficult to captive-breed them.
They are parasitic breeders, which means they only lay their eggs in another birds nest, and are quite particular about it.
And, they require tons of space, and can be quite quarrelsome in a mixed aviary.

Lauren

jniner

Did your male also harass the females? Do your females make any calls?

I know 24" is too small but it is hard to get a longer cage here. I am tempted to combine two 24" into one.

If you can combine 2 cages to make it larger, I would absolutely do it. The bigger the better with these guys. The male would chase the females, but he was hoping to mate with them and they were not receptive, it was not in the same way he chased the others. He would chase the others just to chase them, either away from his spot on the perch, or if he saw them at the feeding station, or just because it seemed. He was a real jerk! One of my grey singers got so stressed out (before I realized he was that bad) he ended up dying.

You probably only hear one male because it is the dominant one of the two. I bet if you separate them they will both start making noises. They learn to imitate the other birds around them, and I read that has something to do with the parasitic breeding, so they can blend in with the others. The females make some noises, but not song-like like the males will do.

You will need lots of greenery and hiding places for the others to hide out from them if you ever try breeding them, and probably even if you are not breeding. Although they may not chase anyone if you don't give them a nest. When I first got mine they were in a 30x18x36 flight cage for quarantine with a pair of strawberries, a pair of lavenders, a male Gouldian, a male Owl, and the pr of grey singers. He did not chase anyone in there, only started chasing when I moved them into the walk in flight which is loaded with nests...

Good luck with them, but I'm convinced you have 2 males...
Jeannine

jniner
Thanks for your input.

Well, I need to find a female or two but I don't think that's possible now, only one shop is selling PTW and they are all males, females aren't popular, they can't sing and have no long tails to attract buyers. They have quite a few Paradise Wyhdahs though, tempted to get them, they are much larger than PTWs. They parasite brood on Pytillas which I have never seen on sale. The shop also have some Peking Robin on sale, all males. So no chances of breeding some expensive birds for now.

Disaster after disaster...but this is by far the worst..both my PTW died!

I left them together with a pair of common wax and an orange-breasted wax for 10 days and went on a holiday. I had no choice, can't find a friend to help. The CW survived and the OBW I guess escaped by squeezing through the cage bars.

Am not sure what caused their deaths, the food was completely cleaned out, not even a single husk was left, but there were still plenty of water. I made a gravity water feeder using two mineral water plastic bottles (500ml), left it in the cage on the night before I left. I guess the PTW pair did not know how to access the water through a cut hole. They usually drank from a water tube feeder which last only a few days (3 days or so). The CW were drinking OK. One CW was found under the cage, it squeeze through the bottom of the cage bars to reach for the spilled seeds. At first I thought only one CW survived but immediately heard a call from the bottom of the cage. This poor CW found food but not water, and seeing me it tried to squeeze back into the cage but got stuck. I released it, and it immediately went to the water feeder and drank copiously. It would have died too if left unattended for another day.

I left plenty of food but I made a mistake of not putting the main food tray, containing rolled oats in the middle of the cage, spillage was high, most of the food were found outside the cage. Not sure who were the messy eaters. I also left a few other trays of millet beside the oats. All the birds in the other cages survived.

Interesting to note though, the male had grown about an inch of his pintail but the "female" had grown nothing. Judging by the tail growth, they probably had survived for 5 days or so. Could they have died of hunger instead of thirst? The cage had a water tube and a dish of bath water too. Both were dried out.