whydahs now fighting

TheExtremeCraftsman · Post by **TheExtremeCraftsman** » Fri Jul 03, 2015 1:23 pm

My male whydah is now aggressive towards the female ( if it is female). Does anybody know why? I need whydah help bad or might have to get rid of them.

Jen · Post by **Jen** » Fri Jul 03, 2015 2:54 pm

Sorry you are having problems with such beautiful birds. I have never kept them but hopefully someone will chime in for you. I thought MiaCarter had one???

TheExtremeCraftsman · Post by **TheExtremeCraftsman** » Fri Jul 03, 2015 3:27 pm

thank you for responding. it's to the point now that the bird is always on the bottom or hiding in the bushes. I guess I'll take him or her out. either way it has to come out but it would be nice to figure out why.

Atbird · Post by **Atbird** » Sat Jul 04, 2015 8:18 am

I don't know about whydahs specifically, but a lot of males will attack the females if they are ready to breed and the female isn't. It happened with my linnies (hookbill) and sometimes with my dad's canaries. Maybe a temporary separation will work, until the male calms down.

Colt · Post by **Colt** » Sat Jul 04, 2015 4:57 pm

Rox Monotwine and the other South African members have these lovely birds wild in their gardens. They could help with general behavior.

Male whydas are just jerks when they are in their nuptial (breeding) plumage. I believe they truly need a harem of females if I'm not mistaken. How large is the flight/aviary they are being house in. You might do some searching on the forum for more specific posts that deal with them.

@MiaCarter does have one I believe. johnboy also had a pair or two at one time. I'm not sure that he is in active member but searching his name along with whyda should pull up some posts for you to browse.

JohnBoy · Post by **JohnBoy** » Sat Jul 04, 2015 9:39 pm

I had pintails years ago and the males are pretty vicious toward other birds and males but I never had a problem with a male getting aggressive with a female. Perhaps your female is a male that has not come into courting plumage?

TheExtremeCraftsman · Post by **TheExtremeCraftsman** » Sun Jul 05, 2015 7:36 am

hi johnboy ,

thanks for the reply. I'm with you. I still don't know if it's a male or female. my reasearch shows it to be a male due to the red beak. I've also found that only if the male is imature could it have a beak color similar to the female, ranging from light brown up to black, and it may have just a little red on the top. after the first moult the beak of the male turns bright red and the females retain the brownish beak. If this were correct, then I have two males as both have red beaks. Am I on track here? Also I discovered that breeders give the males mutable females. Anywhere from three to five. this could be the reason for the shortage of females. Look at all the ads for sale. they all say males only.......

JohnBoy · Post by **JohnBoy** » Sun Jul 05, 2015 4:52 pm

I do not know whether or not you are aware that the PT whydah is a parasitic species.
"The Pin-tailed Whydah is a parasitic species, most often laying it's eggs in the nests of the Common Waxbill, but also Bronze Mannikin, Orange-breasted Waxbill and others. It breeds in the summer months, when the host species are breeding."
I always had my whydahs in pairs only and only one pair at a time. Other species I've had were the straw-tail and the paradise. The straw-tail is spectacular and one of my favorites. I may have a post here with pics but not sure.

cjkrit · Post by **cjkrit** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 1:53 am

We have the Whydahs in our gardens.
I have a feeding station where all kinds of birds will visit.
I have always observed the Whydahs as aggressive towards other species.
The male will easily have 4-6 females so maybe a single "female" could take a lot of hammering.
Even much larger doves are taken on by the birds and they put up a fight.

Hope you get the problem sorted.

MiaCarter · Post by **MiaCarter** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 2:32 am

I posted this on another thread, but I'll post here too (and expand now that I hear your situation!)

My pintail whydah is named Felix and he bunks up with a female weaver named Felicity.

Both are rather outgoing (aka pushy), so they're good cagemates (though I can't say they're "friends", at least not in a cuddly, way that you would see with another species. But they definitely get on well.)

During free fly, he interacts with everyone to some degree. He's not a bully as I feared he might be.

In all, I think the whydah is a bit of an outsider. He's definitely a bit pushy and stands his ground, especially at food bowls. Now that he's got his big tail, everyone gives him a wide breadth, even the bigger birds like the cockatiels and budgies.
It's a noticeable difference from how they treated him when he was in his not-so-fancy plumage.

I do occasionally see him hanging out with two of the young zebra finch hens and one of my crested societies is also very curious about him. (She just got out of quarantine, so she's new to the flock. She follows him around and just tilts her head at him. It's quite cute! But he ignores her for the most part.)

In my case, I don't have another Whydah female so I think Felix isn't in his full breeding mode/behavior, if that makes sense? He's not acting as pushy as I've seen from other PT Whydah males in breeding plumage.

I've read about PT males being a species that needs a "harem" of females. They are rather pushy.

I would try separating him from the female for now. I've had some birds who needed to be alone or re-arranged into a new pairing during certain times of year when they're in breeding mode.

What do you have for other birds? Any other fairly bold species whom he could bunk up with? Someone who would stand their ground with him, but not be aggressive per se?

How long has this pair been together? Are they new to each other? If so, I might try reintroducing them after he's out of breeding plumage. He may just be too much for her right now.

TheExtremeCraftsman · Post by **TheExtremeCraftsman** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 7:53 am

Thank you MiaCarter ,
I just have him with the one female. But, not so sure it's a female. Go up a few posts and you can read what I think is the correct way of distingusing male from female. If you konw how it would be a big help. Right now I think it is a male because of the red beak.

Rox · Post by **Rox** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 10:14 am

TheExtremeCraftsman

Hi Rick, sorry to add frustration to your woes but the hen also has a red beak, so that is not an indication of sex.

I have attached Mia's old post, which I posted some photo's of wild PT's. From the sounds of it, you have 2 males. I would suggest separating them for now and seeing if they both color up (the only 100% way you will know their sex, without going the DNA route). I suggest separating them, as one will be more dominant (as you already found out) and they can do some serious harm to each other.

Good luck finding hens. You will also need a lot of common waxbills if have any hope to breed the PT's. The PT's are parasitic and the hens lay their eggs in the common waxbill nests. They also breed best in large outdoor aviary's, with plenty of flight room. I don't know of many people who have successfully bred them in flight cages.

http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php ... 4&start=15

All the best!

MiaCarter · Post by **MiaCarter** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 10:29 am

Indeed, the hens do have orange beaks, but they're usually a bit duller in color. (And some hens have a downright ruddy beak.)
Not typically the vivid orange like the males.

The male-female beak color differential is similar to the differential that you see in zebra finches. Some are just a few shades different. Some nearly identical. And some individuals are very different in color.

Do you have a photo of the suspected hen?
I've noticed the females' feathers tend to have less contrast than the out-of-season males.

PT Whydahs go into plumage seasonally. So if these two came from the same source, they would likely perceive it to be the same season. (You can see some differences in perception of season in birds kept indoors with all artificial lighting.)
My point: if your confirmed male is already in full plumage, then I would expect to see the other bird do the same if it were male. So the fact that it's still looking like a hen tells me it's likely female.

If nobody is in plumage, then we can't tell much until their peacock season arrives. (My boy got his tail about 5-6 weeks ago, but I'm in Florida with all artificial lighting so I have no idea whether my bird room's "season" coincides with the season elsewhere.)

monotwine · Post by **monotwine** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 3:33 am

Others have touched on all the most important points.
I'd separate this "pair" regardless. If it is a true pair a single hen will be loved to death. The pintail male usually has a harem and spends his time chasing off other birds and suitors giving the group of hens a break from him.
You could also try distract him some with a mirror of himself, but beware he won't let up chasing off the other male and could deteriorate if he doesn't stop to eat etc.

Size of their enclosure is also very critical. They need loads of space, in preferably a planted mixed species aviary to be able to interact normally.

Good luck

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