Anyone with whydah experience?

[Shannylee]

They are such gorgeous birds! My full breeding color guy just lost the last of his fancy tail feathers today. He seems a bit depressed over it too. LOL! They definitely have attitude!

Dylan, what kind of lighting do you provide and for how many hours a day? That may have something to do with why he's growing tail feathers now. Also, this guy was living in bad conditions before you got him. Maybe the upgraded food and living conditions have something to do with his out-of-season plumage.

Attaching a picture of my mystery bird.

[Sheather]

Shannylee - natural southern exposure sunlight. An overhead incandescent on cloudy days, off at sunset.

[lovezebs]

Beautiful birds....

Too bad they tend to be antisocial....

[Paul's Amazing Birds]

Oh... today I noticed one of his long tail feathers on the ground. Really mixed feelings about that because I really enjoyed all his energy and his unique courtship behaviors. He will loose the other 3 in the next few days and then sort of loose himself as a pretty common looking brown bird among all the other birds for about the next 6 months.

This is a bird that once wound up in my sales cage because I thought he was to aggressive for my aviary. But no one wanted to buy him, even at a reduced price - so I gave him another chance to try to behave himself...but he didn't. All the others just learned to tolerate the occasional dive bombs while he was in season. Some species like the Canaries and Goulds just seem to be say'n "buzz off bozo" and then went about their business.

So yeah, Whydah males can be a pest around the feeders sometimes but they really are cool birds to care for. He now enjoys plenty of high protein egg food to help get him through his Fall molt...and I can almost hear the mom say'n "Whew, thank God for that!!!"

P

[Sheather]

Shannylee Paul's Amazing Birds

My guy has three tail feathers now, two or three brown feathers came in and then the rest were black and white again. He's very active, sings all day now, and frequently displays to other finches - the javas seem especially appealing to him, perhaps because of some shared coloration. Do you notice your whydahs mimicking? I've found mine does a cockatiel chirp, a parrotlet shriek, zebra beeping and a house finch song in addition to his own warbles.

[lovezebs]

Sheather

That Socie, doesn't seem all that impressed with the Wydha boy. I got a chuckle from how he's leaning away, and look at the look on his face, lol.

Your cutie Canary, doesn't seem to care too much .

[Shannylee]

Sheather, he fabulous! I just love my whydahs.

Like Paul, I tried to get rid of my extra male but no one wanted him. LOL! Err...what to do with TWO male whydahs???!!! I put them in side-by-side flight cages. My original whydah is housed with 3 bronze winged mannikins (exiled from the aviary due to murderous behavior) and the other one is in with a pair of zebras that pay him no mind AT ALL. They ignore him completely. By having the flights next to each other, the 2 whydah boys entertain each other. They have sing-offs...who can sing the loudest.

When the original whydah was in the aviary, the canaries and gouldians would stand their ground and he didn't dive bomb them. He did dive-bomb the mannikins and the societies though. He still dive-bombs the mannikins occasionally but they are feisty little birds and are just fine in his cage. No feathers flying and in a whydah/mannikin cage...that's good.

My whydahs do mimic. They have picked up some of the canary trills, the java pew pew, and zebra meeping but they have a lovely song of their own.

[Zebrafincher]

Beautiful birds. I've never seen them in Australia, so I'm presuming their more native to your climate. And they're polygamous? Interesting...


Kind Regards

Zebrafincher

[Sheather]

zebrafincher You can't import birds in Australia, and whydahs are extraordinarily complicated to breed captive so you may not have any. All of those in the US are almost surely wild caught.

[Zebrafincher]

I have two Zebbies, and a star finch, AND I had to give my details to get the star finch so I can understand how complicated it must be. A pet place with native animals close to where I work requires evidence of licenses, correct feeding and correct setup...

I've heard of Whydah in my book of softbills, but not much beyond that

[w.l.]

I've heard of Whydah in my book of softbills, but not much beyond that

Strange, because whydahs are not softbills.