Female Pin Tailed Whydah Question

[Shannylee]

I just got a "female" pin tailed whydah in hopes that the male would settle down some with "her" in the aviary with him. I'm concerned that this "female" is actually a male in eclipse but the folks at the store assured me that it's a female. Her beak is not as bright as his but it's still pretty brightly colored. I'll see if I can get a picture of him/her and post it but my question is...do females ever have orange/red beaks?

[Shannylee]

Here are the pix.

him
https://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/vie ... f07a6807f9

"her"
https://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/vie ... a80fdf8c46

https://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/vie ... a80fdf8c46

[Stuart whiting]

No pics coming up Sharon, but anyhow doesn't matter,

Cock birds are black and white with red beaks and long tail,

Hens are brown with a little white and red beaks and short tail

[Shannylee]

LOL! I'm picture attachment challenged for sure!

I have him/her back in the quarantine cage and will give her a few days before introducing the cage to the aviary. He's flying around like a maniac. He's in full breeding feathers and is one handsome boy but he is intense.

Let's see if this works

him
https://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/vie ... f1ebadc1fb

"her"
https://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/vie ... f1ebadc1fb

https://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/vie ... f1ebadc1fb

[w.l.]

The links you post require logging into that site to see your pics.

See this post about how to post pix to this forum directly:

http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=22710

Eclipse males can be told from females by their red rather than blackish bill.

Note that with wydahs (and most weavers) it is recommended to keep 3-4 females with a make to avoid him chasing a solo female to exhaustion.

[w.l.]

This might help:

FB_IMG_1470106626110.jpg

[Stuart whiting]

The links you post require logging into that site to see your pics.

See this post about how to post pix to this forum directly:

http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=22710

Eclipse males can be told from females by their red rather than blackish bill.

Note that with wydahs (and most weavers) it is recommended to keep 3-4 females with a make to avoid him chasing a solo female to exhaustion.

Totally agree , well said

[Shannylee]

Ooooooh! I didn't realize that you needed a log-in to view the Shutterfly pix. I get a fatal error when I try to load pix directly from my computer and I'm sure that's because my files are too large. Thanks for letting me know. I'll figure this out eventually.

I'm going to move the whydah into a divided cage with "her" on the other side and see how they do. I don't expect it to be love at first sight so I'll give them plenty of time. The rest of my aviary birds will be thankful for the break from him.

[Shannylee]

This might help:

FB_IMG_1470106626110.jpg

Thank you! Yes, that helps tremendously. She looks just like the female pictured below the male with breeding feathers (far right) except for that her beak is more orange than blackish/brownish. Her markings are identical though.

[w.l.]

If there is no love between them, or even if the male is too amorous, the wydah pair might coexist better in a spacious aviary than in a small cage.
But please do note my comments about wydahs being best kept with a harem of females to one male. A male and a female won't automatically make a good pair in many bird species.

Yes, too big pix could be a problem, you must resize them.
If you find that too complicated, uploading them into a Facebook album might do the trick as FB would automatically resize them. Then you should save them to your PC and upload them here.

[Shannylee]

w.l. Thanks so much for all of the tips!

The whydah is happy in his large aviary but at the expense of the rest of the birds. He beat up one of the little societies so bad yesterday that I had to put the little guy in a hospital cage so he could rest. This morning, 2 of the gouldians are hunkered down on the ground and ducking every time the whydah flies overhead. I either need to remove all of the passive birds (societies and gouldians) and have an aviary of madness or I need to remove him. I'm not too happy about either option so maybe I just need to have a separate enclosure built for him and his harem!!!

Good idea about the facebook pix!

[Shannylee]

[Stuart whiting]

13909128_10209904732752869_9041071516942092372_o.jpg

13679952_10209904732472862_828798248609567677_o.jpg

Hooray nice pics of yer whydah's Sharon

[w.l.]

Sounds like your male wydah has no place in the mixed aviary!
Such agressive birds indeed need to be removed.
As whydahs are not really birds for small cages, now you face a dilemma of whether making him and his harem a new aviary, or find a new home/owner for him.
Good that you've finally managed to upload pics!
What is not so good is that your 'hen' has such a red bill that it may well be a male in eclipse color, too. Mind you, out of color whydahs are less aggressive so perhaps he (?) could at least go to your aviary (under initial supervision!).

[Stuart whiting]

Sounds like your male wydah has no place in the mixed aviary!
Such agressive birds indeed need to be removed.
As whydahs are not really birds for small cages, now you face a dilemma of whether making him and his harem a new aviary, or find a new home/owner for him.
Good that you've finally managed to upload pics!
What is not so good is that your 'hen' has such a red bill that it may well be a male in eclipse color, too. Mind you, out of color whydahs are less aggressive so perhaps he (?) could at least go to your aviary (under initial supervision!).

Yes I very much agree with you here Laszlo, very wise words