Pin-tailed Whydah Temperment?

[flrancho]

I've had a pair of pin-tailed whydahs for a while now, a male and a female.

I'm extremely surprised by the nature of my male. I've read that the species, especially male, is very aggressive, however I have these finches in a mixed group of finches and I haven't seen any aggression with him and the other finches, despite there being a female with him. He may be slightly territorial as he will chase another finch away from him a short distance, but he's not what I would call "aggressive".

Secondly, he also seems to have the ability to mimic other sounds he has heard, which I'm going to assume is rare for a finch, as I've never heard of it before. We successfully taught him to "wolf-whistle" and he picked up mimicking the sound of our house alarm on his own. He also seems to respond to music and will start singing when it starts.

Do I have an odd finch, or is his non-aggressiveness and mimicing ability fairly normal for the species?

[L in Ontario]

Do you have any nests in your aviary?

[flrancho]

Yes, there are 3 nests.

[L in Ontario]

Wow I'm very surprised he is so calm then. My daughter has two males (no females) and they both get very aggressive when they come into breeding season - she has to separate both of them into their own cages... they are that bad.

[monotwine]

I suppose you have a one in a million Pintail. I would hold on to him!
I would not be too surprised that he does not get agressive with the community. That depends on space and when he was introduced to form his territory. Given enough space and perhaps coming in near the end of the territory bickering he probably is just happy with is little patch of the aviary.

I've never kept them, but have watch enough in our gardens to confirm they are agressive. Very agressive to each other and territorially agressive to other birds. They actually dive bomb pigeons that are quite larger than themselves.
I've never seen one so agressive that they have done major damage to each other, but generally that is because the victor claims the spot and the other flies away. In an aviary / cage I assume they can do much more damage to each other or kill with exhaustion alone from harassing.

[cindy]

Aren't whydahs parasitic, they lay eggs in other finches nests. I had heard that they require possibly St Helena finches in with them.

[monotwine]

Cindy true.
You need to breed them along with St. Helena's to be very successful.