Opal Isabel Java and young siblings

[w.l.]

Call me conservative but I think the wild-coloured Javas are still the most beautiful - same with Gouldians.
I do like some mutations of Zebras though, like penguins.

[cindy]

I am moving finches around in my finch room.... set one pair of silvers up.... will be setting up a could of pairs that produce opal isabel, silver, fawn and normals split to fawn and silver.....I have fawn pairs, silvers, normals to set up also

Normals are very stunning!!!

[Stuart whiting]

w.l. Same as me mate, I've always preferred the normals in all bird species

As they say on the exhibition bench ( it's hard to beat a good normal )

[cindy]

it is actually kind of hard to find pure normals whose line has not been tainted with certain mutations..... pied is one of them.... split to pied you can breed down the pied in future generations but it is always there lurking!!

[Stuart whiting]

cindy yes I know what you mean, for many years I exhibited British greenfinches at champion level and admittedly did have some outstanding pieds,

I learnt very quickly that all pied greenfinches are dominant factor

I don't keep British birds anymore but certain things in the British finch world can be very handy and relate to other birds

[Sally]

Call me conservative but I think the wild-coloured Javas are still the most beautiful - same with Gouldians.
I do like some mutations of Zebras though, like penguins.

I also like the wild form of all finches. I used to work with Yellow-faced Stars and fawn Owls, but I personally don't care for mutations any longer. Pied is terrible to try to get out of lines. Self Societies were getting harder and harder to find, as most lines had pied in them, but breeders have been working on Self lines now. But it can be so discouraging to have pied pop up many generations down the line.

[w.l.]

I also heard that at least in my country of origin in Europe it is quite hard to find pure wild-colored Javas, as most will have a few white feathers here or there indicating past crossing with whites.
I am quite lucky that over here getting truly 'normal' Javas is still easy, as many of those on the markets are still wild-caught. Of course these will be nowhere nearly as easy to breed as donesticated Javas - forget it in those small, 60x40 cm cages.
But I have recently bought a pair (?) of young to put in my mixed aviary, hoping that by adding them at this age they will remain peaceful with everyone else. So far seems to work...

Btw ironically Javas are now quite rare in the wild on the island of Java itself, and apparently most wild-caughts sold come from introduced populations in South Borneo!

[Shannylee]

w.l. I'll be interested to hear how your little Javas do in your mixed aviary. Mine are in their own cage because I am hesitant to add them in the aviary with mostly passive birds (societies, gouldians, canaries, and some nutso mannikins). I have moved Mr. & Mrs. PT Whydah to their own divided cage so I currently have a *mostly* peaceful aviary (please refer to the above mentioned nutso mannikins). My Javas seem like such peaceful birds but so did Mr. PT Whydah until I unleashed him in the aviary. BTW...Mr. PT Whydah is still my favorite bird.

[w.l.]

Shannylee I have in the past had trouble mixing adult Java and Timor Sparrows with smaller finches, which is why I tried it with young ones now. Seems to work better!
But others claim Javas are peaceful, so maybe the domesticated form is more so than my birds that came with a "wild" temperament.
Perhaps try mixing them, under careful supervision.
A telling sign of a bird not being totally peaceful in an aviary is when other birds always keep a distance from it even when it just sits on a perch.
So your 2 whydahs mixed well? That might just be an indication of the 2nd truly being a hen. Might! Get more hens anyway.

[Stuart whiting]

w.l.id be inclined to think the same aswell, like the idea and thought of that,

As you say that Shannylee could have a hen after all

[Shannylee]

w.l., I wouldn't say that the whydahs are getting along "well" but no feathers are flying. I had to keep them separated for a few days until the new one settled down. They are definitely busy birds! He does his mid-air fancy dance for *her* and *she* does this squatty, tail shake dance in response. And then, he dive-bombs *her* until he gets bored. Picking up some meal worms for them today.

[cindy]

Setting up three pairs today that make silver, normal, fawn and opals!!!!!