New black-crowned waxbills

[KarenB]

I got two, a male and female pair. They were originally aviary bred in Europe and imported, then paired. They have been paired up I guess for a few months now, and the male had started plucking the female on the back of her neck. They both look a tad bit worn and will hopefully soon molt out and get some fresh new feathers. When I got them home I put a pink plastic band on the female and a blue one on the male so that I'll be able to tell them apart in the future.

I put them in my 30x18x18 quarantine cage for now. I haven't decided where they will ultimately live. I have a large African flight, but it has five pair in it now and the dynamics of that flight are just right. I'm afraid to add to it. I am considering selling one of my gold breasted waxbill pairs that are in it and putting the black crowns in their place, but I'm not really sure I actually want to part with the gold breasts. I have stackable breeder cages that I may use and shuffle some birds around. I need to think about it some more and decide what's best for all. I also picked up some more societies, so I may need to separate some of those out into pairs as well.

[isobea]

Karen - sounds wonderful. Are you planning on breeding them? Out of the posts I read on the German forum, there was only I breeder who had his birds in a large cage. The others were all in aviaries. If you decide to give them their own cage I would put that cage up on top (you said they are stackable) as they seem to like being higher up than some other African finches.
Can you see a definite difference between male and female in your birds (other than the female is the one with missing feathers)? More red on the sides of the male? The feathers on the back of the male almost black versus brownish on the female? Mine never seem to sit still long enough for me to compare (and if they do, they face me so I can't see their backs).
Iso

BTW did you get them at a bird show?

[Sally]

I picked up another pair today too! Our largest finch vendor is retiring, so she was selling all her stock. This is the second pair from her, and I already had two, so this gives me six. I hope I have male/female pairs. A breeder who is familiar with them told me today that the two pairs I just bought are both male/female pairs, but the pair I have had for a while (I had them in the show today) are 2 males.

He said they do best in a large cage (If you don't have an aviary). He said I could put my six birds in a 4' x 4' flight, with six wicker hooded nests. Like most waxbills, they want live food when feeding young. He told me you can sex them by looking down at them from above--the male will be narrower back in the rump area. I couldn't see it, but then I am not a very observant person, and they were jumping around too much.

I didn't use my head, I should have asked Jan if she could ask any people who bought this species at the show today to talk to me, so I could get contact information. If any of us have success with this species, we can keep in touch and swap bloodlines. Jan had one extra pair that had been reserved by someone, and then they changed their mind. They were offered to me, but unfortunately, I am now flat broke and had to pass on them.

[Rox]

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.

Isobea, thank you for the translated observations, very interesting! While I don't have black-crowned waxbills, the above line rang true for me for my black-cheeked waxbills. After almost 9 months of having them in the aviary, they never venture onto the floor except to the bath dish. To give them more foraging area's, I have now added 3 large hanging baskets to the aviary with indigenous plants that flower. I have also added live food dishes up higher for them. It's been a month now and I saw one of them with a piece of grass in it's beak for the first time yesterday

I really believe the more we can do for these rarer waxbills to make them as comfortable as possible and as mentally stimulated as possible (foraging opportunities, variety of food etc) the better chances we have with them successfully breeding.

I love to think out of the box to see what I can do to make them comfortable. Keeps me challenged and the birds don't seem to mind

Edited to add, the one plant is actually a nasturtium and it's creeping beautifully along the aviary fence. The birds love it and look super cute in between the flowers!

[KarenB]

Sally, I got mine from Jan, too, and had I known that other pair were not taken, I may have picked them up or traded mine. I was there at the show for quite a while and heard about the others not being taken as I was leaving, and at that point they were already gone. Bummer.

The pair I got are very calm. I was really amazed. I hope they are OK. The one Jan said was male seems overall brighter than the plucked one which is supposedly the female. He has more of that raspberry color on him than she does. They are both kind of ratty looking, so it's hard to tell.

After they settle in a bit I'll try and get some photos. Right now I'm just exhausted from the trip, then coming home and finding a hatchling society on the floor of the flight and taking care of it. Hope it makes it, poor little one.

[w.l.]

My food tray is on the floor of the birdroom, and all my birds feed there readily.
I also saw the black-caps hopping about on the ground just like most other Africans a few times.
Maybe quite how ready they are to descend depends on how safe they feel in general - mine are in a whole room so can keep a safe distance from me even when I am around.

I wonder what you all plan to do with the "surplus" birds if a pair starts nesting?
My main reason to try and keep just one pair of each African species is that most are said to be quite aggressive towards others of their own species when breeding, and I just don't have another aviary for housing the "extras" properly.
This is why I am still thinking whether or not I should more lavenders and black-caps.

[isobea]

Sally - congratulations! You have quite a flock now and since they are very social, they'll probably be even more likely to breed.

Roxanne - thank you for the feedback! I am with you in trying to provide stimulating living conditions so they will breed more readily (mine are wild-caught birds). I was very disappointed when originally I could not find much information on these birds so turned to the German forum. There also seems to be a great relatively new book out focusing on African finches only (published in 2007). But it's in German, only available in hardcover and at least $100 plus shipping. I might just have to wait until I go home again next summer.

Karen - there might be a bird mart coming up in Orange County at the end of November. I wonder if anybody will bring some aviary raised ones. I'll definitely check it out.

w.l. - I wonder if mine are so reluctant to get down on the floor because they are wild-caught. Maybe with time, they will relax a little more. As for your concern about 'surplus' birds: I usually sell my babies to other bird people in the area. That way we keep the genetic pool more diverse. About the bl.-cr. waxbills: on birdproduct.com I read that these birds are so social that sometimes two (or more?) nests are built in the same tree/shrub.

Another question for all of you: I copied two pictures from one of those posts on the German forum into my picture folder (they show the difference in color of the feathers on the backs of a mature male and female). Is there a way I can attach them to my post directly out of my picture folder?
Iso

[w.l.]

Mine are also wild-caught.

By "surplus birds" I didn't mean offspring, rather the extra adults left after a breeding pair has formed out of 4-6 adult birds purchased. If they are happy to breed peacefully as a small colony, that's great. I had/have my doubts about this because related species like Helenas and Lavenders are supposed to be hostile to others of their species when breeding.

German books are generally great, and even what I consider the best slim popular intro to finches in English is the translation of a German book.
The one you mention must be the best on the topic, and along with the companion volume on Asian & Oceanian finches has been in my shopping basket for quite a while, too!

You should be able to upload the photos.
Under the reply box you should see buttons to select a file, then upload it.
Keep trying as I am curious to see those photos!

The one I attached is from the trader I bought mine from - though I could only choose from 4 birds when visiting him.

[isobea]

w.l. - sorry about the misunderstanding. Thanks for your photo, though - you have an impressive number of birds there! And here I'm happy I was able to get four... But yes, I've read the same thing about lavenders and others. Unfortunately I have no advice for you, but I'm sure other people on this forum will chime in.

As for the pictures: I think I found the correct button. BUT my photos are not in Flicker or Photobucket or anything like that. Just in a file on my computer. I guess I'm a little 'behind the times' here. Any more tips?
Iso

PS: I guess I could send them to you in an email and you could then post them here...

[w.l.]

Male showing pure gray back:

bl-cr. waxbill - male.jpg

Female (left bottom) showing brownish back:

bl-cr. waxbill - female.jpg

[isobea]

w.l. - Thanks for posting those for me!!! Couldn't have done it without your help.

The breeder who posted these pictures originally said that the difference in color is not always as pronounced, but I think these photos can still be helpful.
Iso

[Rox]

isobea Finding info online about the rarer species is very hard, so the more we can share between us the better. The next time I find something in German, I might just bug you to translate for me. My limited Afrikaans skills go better with Dutch than German!

@w.l. gorgeous birds!! Thank you for sharing

[DanteD716]

Beautiful birds and i love the info. I wonder if my wild caughts (though not waxbills ) are the same and leave their bests when they here me coming. It would make sense

[isobea]

Dante - these are my first wild caught birds in 30 years of keeping and raising finches. Considering what they've been through (getting caught, staying in a holding facility in Africa, going through shipping and quarantine and then living at the importer's until they finally end up with us) and the experiences they've had with us humans, I wouldn't be surprised if they stayed cautious and skittish for quite a long time.

w.l. - since you have more bl.-cr. waxbills than any of us, my question is for you: can you confirm that there is a definite color difference in the feathers on their backs? Or have you found a different way of telling males and females apart?
Iso

[w.l.]

isobea

I don't know what gave you the idea of me having more of these birds than others on the forum.
I am pretty sure I have repeatedly stated I have just one "pair" and am quite cautious about even adding a 2nd "pair".
You can also see the exact numbers of all finches I have visually depicted in my signo line.