Agressive Shaftails

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:28 am

Hi. I have a pair of shaftails in an open aviary that have four chicks in the nest. The problem is that every morning and every evening they are so agressive to my other birds in the aviary. They try to enter the nest of my crested societies that are sitting on eggs and chase everyone else around. I thought of putting them in a cage, but am afraid to move their nest to a cage for fear of abandonment. Any ideas?

jamezyboo21 · Post by **jamezyboo21** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 12:36 am

Thats a hard one. i dont know. if it were me. i would leave them till the babies were old enough to eat on there ownthen i would put the shaft tails in a cage in the aviary. unless you are able to feed the chicks yourself. Its risky. sometimes if you move them they will abandone and sometimes you move them and they''ll still take care of the nest. It's up to you. Maybe there is someone in the forum that can give you better suggestions...good luck!

Post by **Sally** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:40 am

That is a hard one. According to the FIC, Shaft-tails are one of the pushy species that may become aggressive when breeding, and it sounds like yours have. Most of the time, moving a nest will cause abandonment. Can you leave them where they are till the chicks have fledged? Once the chicks have fledged, you could move all of them to a cage, and the parents will most likely continue to feed, as the babies are then old enough to pester the parents for food. If they become aggressive enough to be a real problem, and you have to move them, nest and all, to a cage, you will have to watch carefully to see if the parents continue to feed, otherwise you will have to handfeed the babies.

You might have better luck moving the Societies, as they will return to the nest better than most species. But, I would only do that as a last resort, as there still is the risk of abandonment.

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 2:31 pm

Thanks Sally. My on my..... I wanted my aviary for enjoyment. I wasn't ready for all these breeding problems!

Post by **Sally** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 2:40 am

As I have found, if you have multiple birds, it never seems to stay the same. Even with my breeding birds, which are in cages, I have had to switch out mates sometimes. And the more birds you have, the more you wind up with the odd ones, the ones without a mate, so you always have to keep an eye out for them, to make sure they have a buddy and don't get picked on. But the rewards are far greater than the problems.

williep · Post by **williep** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 5:49 am

I agree with Sally, if anything absolutely has to be moved, the societies are the best but that should really be your last resort.

I am also sitting with a similar problem with my mixed aviary at the moment. I have 4 pairs ready to breed and there is lost of territorial fighting. Here is a couple of things I've done in an effort to reduce the fighting.

1. Put up visual barriers before the nests, like fake or real plants. In your case I'll try and hide the society nest as far as possible.

2. Make sure there is enough food in different feeding positions, I notice my birds were getting really aggressive with just on feeding and one watering station. I think they sense there might be a shortage worth fighting for. I now have 3 feeding and drinking stations and they've sorted out more or less who eats and drinks where.

3. Shaft tails can be pretty aggressive, if you have another pair in there (?) I'll remove them for now while the others are still raising their family

4. Make sure that there is enough nests for all the pairs in the aviary, preferable 2 per pair. Your pair might be thinking of a new clutch already and are scoping for nest spots. My shaftails have rarely bred in the same nest in the same position twice in a row.

Good luck

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 6:51 am

Well things do seem to be better. I only have one pair of shaftails in my avairy. That is quite enough of those little stinkers.

The societies are hidden in a tree, but the ST loves to get on top of their nest and have a little peek in.

Things have calmed down some and I don't think I will have to move anyone. They are on opposite sides of the room so they should be fine if the ST will stay away.

As I said before, I did this for the enjoyment of watching the birds.
After my husband had a heart cat at Emory in Atlanta and I had spend most of my day looking at the birds in the aviary there, he came hom and enclosed our front porch and made it a sun room for me.

My biggest problem now is finding good homes for my little babies.
I have adopted several our to my students at school. But even then they go with lots of instructions.... lots!

williep · Post by **williep** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 7:07 am

Glad to hear things are looking better, most of the time the birds will sort themselves out and establish their own territorial boundaries.

If you really don't want any more babies you can always remove the nests. In my off season (3months or so) I remove all nests and the birds do fine sleeping on perches. But for me parenthood is one of the most exciting and enjoyable aspects about keeping finches obviously accompanied with pain, frustration, anger, regret, sadness ect.

Keep us posted.

jamezyboo21 · Post by **jamezyboo21** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:28 pm

tHAT'S GOOD THAT THEY ARE STARTING TO SETTLE DOWN AND GET USE TO EACH OTHER. I HATE TO SEE MINE FIGHT BUT NOW THAT THEY HAVE BEEN TOGETHER FOR AWHILE THEY ARE USE TO EACHOTHER AND ONLY GET UPSET WHEN ONE GETS TO CLOSE TO THE NEST.

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 11:26 am

Here is a picture of my shaftails. The white birds with them is one that they have raised. I thought it was a shaftail and apparently it was a zebra hybrid. Needless to say, the zebras have been adopted out.

jamezyboo21 · Post by **jamezyboo21** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 1:15 pm

Your st are nice. i alwatys see them at petshops ruffed up. i wanted to put a pari in with the zebras but i heard there really agressive.

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 2:01 pm

jamezyboo21 wrote:Your st are nice. i alwatys see them at petshops ruffed up. i wanted to put a pari in with the zebras but i heard there really agressive.

They are not so bad unless they are nesting. But then again all the birds are at that time. With the exception of the societies.
They are mostly bullies, and when they find out that they cannot intimiate a bird, they usually go away. They are very inquisitive and nosey.

jamezyboo21 · Post by **jamezyboo21** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 2:54 pm

cool, maybe i'll try that then.

williep · Post by **williep** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 2:59 am

dfcauley, are you sure that is a shaft/zebra hybrid and not just a zebra. Maybe the zebras laid eggs in the shaftail nest?

I’ve never seen such a hybrid but that really looks like a clean zebra

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:37 am

I can't way for sure. I told my husband the same thing, but he insist it is a hybrid because of the black marking under its neck.

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Agressive Shaftails

Agressive Shaftails

Aggression.