FINCHforum

The pintail male that was abandoned by a neighbor in my care last month has settled in really nicely to my setup. He's gotten used to the larger birds and now spends most of his time out of cage and free to fly in the house. He eats pellets but won't go for fresh food, but I figure anything is better than straight seed for at least five years (what I was told he was aged - I did find out who dumped these birds on me and talked to her eventually.)

When I got him he was in full color but had no tail. He didn't sing. Now he's begun to sing all throughout the day and is growing in a tail again (about 3 inches now at the longest feather.) But he is also losing patches of color on his back and the new feathers there are brown. He is simultaneously molting into breeding plumage and eclipse plumage. What is the normal pattern for their molts?

He is under natural daylight, so the day length is fairly short this time of year.

Sheather

I'll tag our most vocal whydah owner here. Shes got her hands full with two males. Hopefully she can shed light. Hopefully he's just going through a much needed and abnormal molt, due to years without sun.

Shannylee

Sheather

No experience with them whatsoever...

However, from what I could find about them, "Older male birds may retain some of their nuptial plumage evev when not breeding..."

Also, they are apparantly very aggrressive towards other male Whydas, and other birds as well (even if there are no females present). They will even bully birds like Crows .

Their diet consists of mainly grass seeds of different kinds, sprouted or half sprouted seeds, insects of different kinds, and do show a preference for seeded sliced cucumbers in captivity.

That's all I could find that may be helpfull (I hope ).

Sheather

Hi Dylan!

I have one male whydah with a ton of personality. He was in full breeding color + tail when I got him about 6 months ago. I had no clue what he was but my husband thought he was cool so we brought him home. And then it began.... LOL! Just kidding....sorta.

It really depends on what kind of birds that you pair with a whydah and how much room they have to move around AND whether or not they are wearing their tuxedo or if they are brown. My whydah would dive bomb the society finches and mannikins and then land on a perch and spit feathers out. He didn't mess with the canaries at all and they totally ignored all of his crazy flying around. Anyhow, I removed him from the aviary and put him in his own flight cage and got him a "hen". Fast forward and the hen is not a hen and he is starting to get his breeding feathers while the black & white one is losing his and turning brown. Things were getting violent so I separated them.

I haven't figured out a color pattern for them yet. I have one eclipse male that is starting to darken, sing, and display dance and the full breeding color male is losing his black & white feathers and starting to get brown feathers. ??

As far as food, my whydahs will not touch live food and will rarely eat fresh veggies. Spinach is about the only thing that they show any interest in. I've learned to give them one leaf because they will only sort of pick at that. They eat Higgins Finch Diet mixed with Lafeber's crumbles. Sometimes, they will pick at spray millet but not very often.

Cool birds but I really only needed one male!

Babs wrote: Sheather

I'll tag our most vocal whydah owner here. Shes got her hands full with two males. Hopefully she can shed light. Hopefully he's just going through a much needed and abnormal molt, due to years without sun.

Shannylee

All is peaceful in whydah world now that the boys are in separate flight cages. They are right next to each other so they display for each other. Funny to see the brown one trying to be one of the cool guys.

Shannylee Interesting, thank you for the information on your experience with these interesting little guys. At the moment mine is not aggressive, he stays to himself and sings the prettiest and most varied little songs. He has a few rooms to fly around if I leave the bird room door ajar and doesn't bother any of the other birds so far, from zebra finches to cockatiels. If he does get boisterous, I can isolate him, but it'd be a shame as he's really come to enjoy his freedom to fly. I think I've seen mine display, he flutters around the room with a bouncing flight and sings, but his tail is so short that it doesn't look like much yet.

Sheather

If my memory serves me right, I read whydahs start getting their "attitude" when their tail grows in.

Probably makes them believe they are much bigger than they actually are. I'm sure you are enjoying his displays in the house. What fun!

Sheather, Babs is right. Attitude comes with the long tail feathers. I think the only birds that you have that he may pick on are the societies. Zebras have their own little attitudes and my canaries totally ignored the whydah when he was in the aviary with them. Hookbills don't normally put up with such nonsense. LOL! Hopefully, he won't pick on any of them since he has been with them during his eclipse.

My eclipse male is in with 2 male zebras and one society hen. The society is the boss of that flight. She is the first in the bath, the first to check out the food dishes, etc. The eclipse male is on the bottom of the pecking order. My full breeding color male is in the flight next door. He puffs up, spreads his wings out a little, and hisses at the birds in the other cage. He's evil.

I've had a pair of Whydahs in my collection for about 4 years now.

They have plenty of flight space and he only becomes aggressive for about 6 months of the year while he's in full breeding condition. He has a lot of energy and spends most of his time displaying and chasing his mate around. His mid-air mating dance with that long 4-feather tail is fascinating. He does try to chase others away from the feeders but since I have several feeding stations, his macho behaviors don't have much effect. I'm sure this pair breaks a few eggs once in a while because that's their nature but other than that, this is a great species to keep if you have enough free flight space to accommodate the male's hyper personality. He always calms down when he looses his tail and most of his black and white markings - which will happen in the next month or so. In winter the male looks a lot like the short tailed brown and black female.

I have a pretty cool 5 minute video of him in a 20" diameter bird bath "pool" with about 8 other species. Very funny to watch him move everyone else aside so he can take a bath with his 8" long tail.
No U Tube account yet but if you e-mail me a note, I'll send you
(or anyone else interested) the video.

Paul

paul.94949@gmail.com

Paul, has your hen ever displayed or sang? I'm in a conundrum over my whydahs. My "hen" started singing several weeks ago and about 2 weeks ago, "she" did the mid-air display. Since my "pair" seemed to be getting more and more aggressive toward each other, I separated them into side-by-side flight cages. Since then, they flirt through the bars and sit next to each other on the perches that allow that between the 2 cages. While the full color male hisses at the other birds, he displays and *she* still does this little peeping bootie dance response to him. But the brown one is displaying too. ?? The brown one's beak is pretty bright, which made me think from the get-go that she is a he. I'm at a loss over these two.

The brown one could be a Juvenal male with no color or long black tail yet - which starts to happen in the second year.

My female never sings or displays like the male. In the breeding season, he chases her around the aviary quite a bit and then when she lands high off the floor, in an area where there's lots of space, he does this mid air hover thing all around her until she finally gives him "the signal" by fluttering her wings a little.
I saw him break some Diamond Dove eggs in an open nest once but only the female actually searches inside active nest boxes to check things out. No fostered babies yet in the last 4 years - which is fine with me.

This pair eats egg food prepared for other finches and a wide variety of fruit, veggies and seeds - always from feeders that can accommodate the long tail without touching anything.

He really enjoys a good bath once or twice a day - getting himself so wet he can hardly lift off. He moves all the other birds away and then has half the 20" bird bath to himself. Then he flys off and spends a lot of time singing and preening....quite an ego!

P

Bad photo of my guy with his budding tail:

If that pic is current, seems a little odd that he would be growing a tail now. Mine is just about ready to loose his for the winter months.
Any pics of your mystery bird?

This picture is from today - tail is growing noticeably each day now.

Here a few shots of mine