New black-crowned waxbills

[isobea]

A little over a week ago I finally got my four black-crowned waxbills. They are wild caught imports and look a little 'rough around the edges' (meaning they are missing some feathers), but are very active, flying all over the place, climbing around in the branches and chirping all day long. They seem to be perfectly healthy and have settled in very quickly. They definitely prefer the sunniest, brightest part of my aviary. They are charming little birds and oh so cute. I'm hoping for two pairs, but can't be sure. I put colored bands on them so with hope - and time - I'll be able to tell who is who. They are very social and I am glad I didn't order just one pair. Already I can tell differences in their 'personalities': the one with the yellow band (possibly a female) seems to be the most courageous and inquisitive one.
I can't find a lot of info on these little guys so I'm wondering if anyone here on the forum also has these birds? Any experience keeping / breeding them? Any special tips? What works for you?
Thanks in advance, Iso

[w.l.]

I have recently bought a "pair", too.
Initially, I found them my shyest birds by far, in my large mixed birdroom I could hardly ever see them.
They seem to be calming down a bit.
Also thinking of adding 2 more, as the sexes seem far less distinct than the literature made it sound.

[lovezebs]

isobea
I think our Sally, has some as well.

I would love a couple, but they are no where to be found around here.

~Elana~

[w.l.]

lovezebs

Maybe keep watching out for them here?http://www.birdsexpress.net/blcrwa.html

[Sally]

I have two pairs, at least I hope they are pairs. One is recently acquired, so just finishing up quarantine. They will go in a cage with my other pair, hopefully I will be able to see some bonding. It is difficult to find any information on this species, so we can all share what we learn as we go.

[kyubi]

How much did u guys pay for a pair ? Ty

[isobea]

Good news everyone! On the German version of Google I found a bird forum that has several posts from people keeping and breeding our waxbills. I spent the last 2 1/2 hours reading through those posts (going back to 2005) and my head is swimming now. I took lots of notes, but you'll have to be patient a little longer. Since it is Halloween, it might take me until tomorrow to translate and post those.
Iso

Ty - Birds Express had them last month with a 'special' price of about $55. They are 'sold out' now.

[w.l.]

I paid $45 for a pair.

Btw, I speak German - so can I just ask for the link?

[isobea]

Hi w.l. - it is:

vogelforen.de/afrikanische-prachtfinken

Check it out. There are some cool pictures (including the different color of the feathers on the back of the birds --- typical male in pic. #3, typical female in pic. #5) posted by 'Lago' on 4.11.2007. Actually, I guess any English speaker can check out this post as well. The black-crowned waxbills are called "Nonnenastrild" in German.

Sorry, gotta go back to cooking dinner,
Iso

[w.l.]

For those interested, the previous link is for the African waxbills board in general.
The link of the topic with the pics of black-caps is this:
http://www.vogelforen.de/afrikanische-p ... ilder.html

Alas, the pix would not show when I checked it on my cell - will try on my laptop later.

[isobea]

Sorry, I guess I didn't make that clear: yes, the address I posted takes you to the general forum for African finches. Then I had to scroll through the posts to find the bl.-cr. waxbill related ones. That's why I added the name of the author and the date he posted it. As you go down the list of posts, every now and then there is another one about our birds. It usually says 'Nonnenastrild' in the subject line.
Am I making this too complicated? I'll see if I can't post my notes tomorrow.

[Finch Mom]

Look forward to hear more about them

[isobea]

Good morning everyone. We got the first rain last night (1/3 inch- yippee!) since the spring (April 1) and the whole world looks like it got washed! This draught has been really hard on all of us. But that's not what you want to know about. So here we go:
This info is from three different authors and was posted between 2005 and 2007. It is from their own experiences and observations and of course sometimes contradictory because everybody's birds and circumstances are different. I'll just list what I found:
- one breeder's birds used ready-made nests (meaning made by other birds) the first two times they nested. They just moved in and took over nests that were almost finished.
- The last time he posted, they built their own nest out of light-colored coconut fibers (no grass was used) high up in the aviary. This nest had a pretty long downward-facing entrance tunnel. They only added 2 or 3 white feathers as lining.
- he had 3 eggs that time, they sat on them for 14 days and the babies fledged after 21 days
- his birds fed the babies almost exclusively half ripe spray millet (2 sprays per day) and cooked and chopped pinkies and mini mealworms (2 full teaspoons per day). Also, he says they eat lots of cucumber every day (that is something all three authors pointed out --- no other vegetables are mentioned by any of the authors)
- after the babies fledged, the parents started feeding different dry millet seeds and grass seeds, too.

- another author pointed out that his birds feed the babies most heavily in the afternoons (around 3-5 pm)
- he noted that the temperature at the time of this breeding was usually between 59 and 64 degrees but thought 65 F and above would be better. Others agreed and thought 68 F would be desirable

- a third author mentioned that his babies 'graduated' to small crickets (after the initial mini mealworms). He also mentioned collecting different meadow grasses for them

- the number of eggs laid varied from 3 to 6. Two authors noted that they had one or two babies just plain disappear one or two days after they hatched.

Everybody agreed that food should be offered elevated because they don't like to come down to the bottom/floor. I've also witnessed that with my own birds.
Secondly, everybody agreed that they are very skittish when they have a nest and leave the nest as soon as somebody enters the aviary or bird room. Most advised against checking the nest too often, but one author's birds didn't seem to mind almost daily checks and he put closed bands (2,3 mm) on them on day 11 or 12.

Well, that's it for now. I hope you will find this helpful. Have a great weekend,
Iso

[KarenB]

ME TOO! I got mine today, yay! Finally!!

[isobea]

Karen - Congratulations! How exciting! I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do mine. How many did you get? Male/female? Were they able to tell you who is who? I put colored bands on mine as I took them out of the shipping box. With hope that will help in the future. I also had to clip their nails which were quite long. Let us know tomorrow how they did on their first day with you. Do you have a large cage for them or are they going into an aviary?
Iso