Black-Headed Nun

martin · Post by **martin** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 3:07 am

Hi. I looked at the Finchinfo.com picture of the black-headed nun and it said that more pictures are needed. Where can I e-mail them to? I can e-mail the interested ones mpg4 files for them to see the video and hear their song.

Apparently, not much is known about these shy finches. I am no bird researcher but all I know is that these birds make round nests out of hay (about 6" oblong) usually in tall cogon grasses and they leave out a round hole just to fit themselves through. They are a very prolific species with hens laying up to ten eggs making them a rice farmer's nightmare. The info on them said that it is very hard to sex the birds. But as a matter of fact, the cocks and the hens look very different. The hens are not-so-pretty plain brown and the cocks have black heads like commonly shown in the pictures. This is probably because the cocks are more saleable in petshops. The cocks have a low-pitch chirps and they have to chirp alternately for one to appreciate the duet of two tones one after another.

You can message me at my Yahoo Messenger - martinmisa.

Crystal · Post by **Crystal** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 6:11 am

info@finchinfo.com is the email address for mailing them in, or you can use the form: http://www.finchinfo.com/photo_submission_form.php

martin · Post by **martin** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 6:58 am

Crystal wrote:info@finchinfo.com is the email address for mailing them in, or you can use the form: http://www.finchinfo.com/photo_submission_form.php

Thank you Crystal. I sent pictures and a video but it seems my e-mail is still unread in the Inbox.

Post by **Hilary** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 12:52 pm

Thanks for the info, Martin! I have just one of these guys, and he's great.

Hilary

martin · Post by **martin** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 10:43 am

Hilary wrote:Thanks for the info, Martin! I have just one of these guys, and he's great.

Hilary

I don't know if this will work without signing into Yahoo... I uploaded two pictures of black-headed nun pairs in my yahoo photos album which I set for public view. You will see how the hen looks like here....

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/martinmis ... /my_photos

Post by **Hilary** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:06 pm

How old is the hen? Mine looked exactly like the cock (black head and all).

Hilary

martin · Post by **martin** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 10:11 am

Hilary wrote:How old is the hen? Mine looked exactly like the cock (black head and all).

Hilary

I don't know how old the hen is, but I estimate it to be about a year old. It was caught from a wild flock. Rice farmers here catch them with fishing nets.

The cock sounds so monotonous alone. It's really nice to hear them together. They always alternate their chirps.

So don't go crazy trying to figure out the sexes between two cocks, as they are the only popular ones in pet shops. It's the same with the Java finches. The hen is also plain, usually dirty white to light yellow.

These black headed nuns are quite timid but they're no pushovers. They like keeping to themselves but they defend themselves well. Thay are also less aggressive against each other.