Wedding of Bella & Ikram

Beautiful wedding of a friend and an avid falconer...

...also an opportunity to meet up with enthusiasts from all over.

Best wishes on this wonderful journey, as you build your new lives together

Straw-headed bulbul

What wouldn't we try just to get them laying. Tried this setup with life ferns.

For this noisy pair. I wonder what other specie of birds sing synchronously like these bulbuls.

Cricket Food - Azolla

This may yet to be proven a perfect eco-friendly food for my crickets before being turned into food for the birds.

Now, time to get more tubs to cultivate these weeds (azolla)

They do not require full sun. Partial shade is preferred. In fact under full sun, it turns brownish. There are much more info on the web regarding Azolla cultivation that any interested parties may want to explore further. However I cultivate mine a little differently. I use AB fertilisers meant for hydroponic farming. At a concentration of 1,200 to 1,500ppm. Lower is still ok. Higher, the leaves turn brownish (2,000ppm)

Project Azolla

Received these water ferns (Azolla microphylla) from a friend...

Fast growing like... weeds (what else :D)

Excellent food value. The finches and chicken loves them. Only fear are water borne pathogens. So I soak them in a home made chlorinated water and rinse with tap water before feeding.

How to make food safe disinfectant? Using regular bleach (usually 5.25% available in local stores), and the services of an online calculator, 4ml added to 1L of water will get a solution that is 200ppm (parts per million), which is safe for consumption. Anyway I still rinse them off before feeding the birds.

The below is an excellent documentary on Azolla...

Using the traditional bottle cup

This is the way I use the traditional bottle cup that comes as a set of cups meant for the Oriental white-eye. Fill it to the brim with wax then carve out a little concave cavity. Enough for a single drop of nectar. That way, feeding of nectar can be given sparingly, also the hassle of cleaning the impossible to clean bottle is avoided.

Whether nectar or some other liquid food, I feed undiluted. Diluting with water tends to make the stool watery.

Caution: liquid wax is combustible if touched naked flame, so be careful.

Update (26/01/18):

Oriental white-eye enjoying the drop of semi-liquid food...

Fertiliser factory

Been taking an interest in gardening lately. Organic gardening.... and what better way to fertilise the soil than to produce my own fertiliser :)
Meet the living factory....

About 2 months+ old by now. Not very good specimens of the silkies, I was told. But then, the by-products are the same nevertheless.

The Protector

Wow! been more than a year since I last updated this blog. Probably because there is nothing interesting to write about. Many things happened.... that's life. But one constant in life has been dogs. There wasn't long stretches that I am without one. Most of the time not by a conscious, they just crosses my path. The last were a mother and son pit bull duo that passed away at age 13 and 14 respectively. The last year of their life seems to be the hardest for them.
Then a black Miniature Schnauzer came to fill the gap.... a tiny fella with a big dog attitude. She is the one keeping the birds safe. Sometimes going to extreme...

The usual rats

Sometimes the unfortunate wild birds

And in one surprising instance, 2 juvenile civet cats in one night/morning

Here is wishing her a long and happy life hunting in a little patch of garden :)

Just found the photo of the 2 civet cats, thought it might be a good idea to update with graphics.

Lovebirds - start of a new season

I didn't have any luck with lovebirds so far. First clutch were not fertile. 2nd clutch of laying started. I have a feeling, this will be the changing point of my luckless run with lovebirds ;) 

First clutch of the incardellati

It has been a slow year as far as the finches are concerned.

Was trying to breed a trio of finch & canary mix (1 male Goldfinch, 1 female Goldfinch, 1 female Timbrado)

So far only the Timbrado canary is laying... & they do grow quickly :)

What was different this round was, using a square nest box and placing 3 birds in a cage.

What was observed was that they do not care for the dry moss as nesting material, pine leaves and cuttings from a broom was accepted. Then topped up with shredded newspaper. The newspaper is entirely the hen's choice as she tears it out from the floor linings.

 First chick hatched 26th May 2015 (photo is taken on 27th)

 2nd chick hatched on the 28th

 Progress on 31st May 

 3rd June

7th June

Now, the longer wait will be till they start to sing ;) will update by then....

The Bare-throated whistler

I was introduced to the Bare-throated whistler through the writings of David De Souza. From what little info (at that time), I could gather, it seems like an interesting bird to keep.
Mine was a wild specimen which I bought from a local shop. It took a long time to get it to sing.
Being an insectivorous bird, I eventually fed it with Jeffrey Low's dry food. And some crickets as supplements in the evening.

Lately, it has tame down somewhat and I was able to take a short video of it from a distance of 3 meters away. Still not in full form yet. I am hoping its song would improve over time :)

Wild Zebra Dove pt 2

This fella was found on new year's day & handfed. Been more than 4 months already & he appears to be doing well. Maybe he could be trained as a "pikat".

Tokay Gecko

This looks like a young Tokay. Second one I caught. They must be breeding nearby. Didn't know they are around my house. Thought they thrives further North. 

The first one was released near my son's school, somewhere far away. This second one, I will keep awhile to see how it develops. 

Meanwhile, I will set traps again :) 

Wild Zebra Dove pt 1

This New Year day, first thing in the morning I rescued this chick from becoming the breakfast of a cat. It must have fledged recently but not a strong flyer. Its a wrong time to be out. The weather is mostly windy and wet. Decided to keep it and nurse it. 

I always had emergency stock of hand feeding formula in the fridge for emergencies like this. But I am never good at feeding with a syringe & moist formula. So, I did what I had done once before. I made the formula into small kibbles and air dry them. This way I can hand feed just like feeding merboks mung beans. 

The above is how it looks like. That should be enough for the day.

Its hard to estimate the correct amount, so I have some extra which I filled it in a syringe and pump out some to dry. When its dry, I intend to crumble them into pellets to see whether the finches will eat them. Waste not is the motto.... ;)

Blue-crowned hanging parrot

My son asked me today if he can select a bird and keep for himself. Of course I said go ahead and choose one. And he chose this as expected because its the cutest at the moment. Hmmm... time to hand tame it I suppose, or teach my kid to appreciate it as a songbird?... hmmm

Hybrid vigour

Something was pulling me home this morning. Don't know what, but I felt like I forgot to do something. So, I went home to have a look see on a bike because the traffic was terrible & I just want to drop by for an hour or two.

To my surprise, one of my mule finch was flying around the garden. I quickly put in some vege (kangkong) and was able to capture it back. Whew... I must have been absent minded and left the cage door open.

So, I went out again shortly, happy at the turn of events. Then when I came home again at night, the cage is again open & the bird is nowhere in sight. I can only hope it is safe for the night & will be able to come home again. I have never kept a finch or canary that has learnt how to open its own cage door. This is the first for me. Is it hybrid vigour at work?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/18636282/

I think so. And that was also the reason I ventured into hybridising. Something better than the parents - cognitive, physic & health.

Pests

I would have thought I could get a month or two of peace after trapping 5 cats within 2 weeks. Well, it was not to be. This is the latest victim of a cat attack...

No choice but to remove all chicks from their flight cages and place them in bamboo cages so that they can be hung out of reach should there be a seventh cat lurking around. 

At least the culprit was caught the following day.

Longer term solution. Appears to have good prey drive & very alert. A lot of work, keeping dogs, but a necessary evil ;) 

Rectangular nest boxes

I just realised that finches, like shamas, can adapt to squarish nest boxes. They are easier to make and hang than round nests :)
Could make 4 for Rm8 (minus the sisal nesting material)

Update 30th May 2015.
Box nest in use:

Goldfinch pair

I placed this pair side by side since yesterday. This morning, I let them together and so far, as seen with Shamas, the male that is interested in breeding will immediately check out the nest box and try to attract the attention of the female.
Now the only thing to hope for is that the female is equally ready. The male is a proven cock which I am also using to produce mules with canaries. But I do need more pure Goldfinches to continue and they are hard to come by here. So, this is the next viable alternative - produce some so that 2015 can be more interesting ;)

Happy holidays!

Photo cage

Was building a small aviary & I had some extra pieces of wood. So, decided to make a simple cage to photograph the finches. They are impossible to photograph in their normal cage where they will be darting here and there. The above was basically made from leftovers and a stapler. ;) 

Above is a 4 months old Goldfinch mule taken in the cage. 

This is a Yellow-rumped Seedeater. 

Now its much easier to take their photos :) 

Incardellato

From left, only chick from first clutch which is now undergoing molt. They usually molt to adult feathers by 3 to 4 months old. Second and third birds are from 2nd clutch. After which there were some disruptions. 3rd clutch is only at second egg today. Hope things resume back to normal.

It will be interesting to see how they will turn out and hopefully I can get an Agate female canary to come into the picture for some colour :)

The above is close to 3 months old & shedding a lot of small feathers. It sings its sub-song every time I put him atop the fence for some sunlight.

Breeding hybrids are frowned upon by some (these folks, I avoid), but with an aim to produce better songsters, I am beginning to be a convert :)