Starting a finch collection

A Goldfinch is rarely seen for sale in this part of the world. So, couldn't resist the temptation of getting one. Hope it turns out to be male. So far not singing at the moment. Has a very strong preference for Niger seeds...

A hybrid from a cross between a Green Singing Finch and Canary.... hopefully it turns out to be male too as such crosses often produces sterile mules. But potentially a good singer :)

Out of curiosity, often referred to as a F1 canary in Indonesia... maybe its time I try my hand at producing canaries and finch hybrids....

And I heard some Spanish Timbrados are available in K.L.
Time to plan an excursion :)

An Old Shama

Its been a while since I last took a photo of this Shama. A wild specimen from Rompin & estimated to be more than 9 years old (6 years with me).

It has just finished molting and form is rising slowly. Didn't realise he has learned the call of Blackie, the crow (in the beginning of video). At 45 seconds into the video, its feathers suddenly tightened which gave him a nicer more slick look. Hope he do well as a tutor to the youngsters :)

In the background singing, is another wild specimen that I have kept for 2 years. That one has been singing from day 3 out of the jungle and went through 2 bad molts. Hopefully the current one is a good molt for him.

Unwelcomed visitors

3rd cat in 3 days.... this contraption is proving to be a good investment ;)

Released some 12km away, I still have this lingering fear that they may find their way home.
To minimise that, the place of release should have a food source & preferably the journey passes a river....

Turkistan Roach

Was thinking of destroying or giving away my culture of Turkistan Roaches. The aviary birds don't really fancy eating them. The caged birds, out of lack of choice, if given the Turks, will gladly devour them. Problem is they are quite fast moving and difficult to catch. sometimes when the bird pecks at them and leave them on the floor they quickly ran away, which may pose a problem later on....

So, I replaced egg trays with bunched up newspapers as hiding areas for them. Harvesting is also made easier as it is much more convenient to handle the much smaller bunched up newspaper than the egg trays. Knocking them into plastic tubs and picks up suitable size roaches with a pair of tweezers and squeeze them half dead.

Hmmm.... lets not waste good food. Will continue feeding them to caged birds.... just a little bit more work :)

Polygamy in the wild

Recently a friend narrated an interesting obsrvation of polygamous breeding of Oriental Magpie Robin in the wild. I trust his observatory skills (well, some people who are not as keen in Magpie chciks collection may mistaken a family unit as a two adult females with a male)

Anyway as the story goes, an old orchid flower pot that was hanging in front of a house became nesting home to 2 female Magpie Robin. Only a single male was seen in the vicinity. A total of 8 eggs was laid in the same flower pot, out of which all 8 hatched.

Asking permission from the Malay house owner, he took 3 chicks away from the clutch after making sure they are males and left the 5 females behind. It is interesting as this is the first time that I have heard of such nest sharing in territorial birds like the Magpie Robin.

Shows how little I understand and how much more there is to learn about our own local birds :)

Evening feeding

Every evening around 5 to 7p.m. Caged birds are fed approximately 3g of mealworms. I used to count them but then decided weighing is a faster method & with better accuracy.
Thinking of increasing to 4g....

Bumper harvest.... feeder fish

It is almost impossible to get good stock of feeder fish. Nobody seems to be carrying stock of such fishes for sale around the area where I live. Catching some myself from the wild has proven to be a little time consuming & not justifiable by the amount of time & effort put into it.

From experience, timing is of essence. Below is the harvest of 3 scoops from the monsoon drain after a heavy downpour using a normal fish net sold in the aquarium shop.

Have to stop at 3 scoops as any more would only raise the mortality of the fishes. The bottom of the pail cannot be seen, giving an indication of the amount harvested and speedy transport of the fishes to a bigger holding tub is Important. The whole fiasco lasted only about half an hour as water level from the monsoon drain quickly subsides.

Must look out for heavy downpour nowadays :)

Local bred Straw-headed Bulbul

Personally I had no success breeding the Straw-headed Bulbul, but it is always a pleasure to learn of other's successes. There is a serious need for more captive bred successes with this bulbul.

The below photo is a second clutch bred by a hobbyist in Muar. So far 3 clutches successfully hatched. Maybe I should get from him the 4th clutch chicks to raise :)

Pied Shama

This specimen appears to be molting at the moment. Small feathers scattered on the cage floor. From observations, usually a bird will become calmer & more stable after a molt in captivity.

Bicycle light - 1902

Pied Shama

This is a nice Malaysian specimen of a pied shama. Appears to be a very young male, probably a first molt bird.

2013 season

Start of a new season this year. Hope all goes well. Time to get religious n pray hard ;)

Arko Black Allusion

Saw a few nice specimen of the Rottweiler today. Among them is the above owned by Mr. Teo of Targa Kennels..... an ex-school mate & two times ex-neighbour ;)

Hoping to cross him to one of my females one day :)

Hybrid - Red-whiskered w Yellow-vented

Dubia Roach

Took 2 adult females and a male Dubia from a friend to breed last month. Found some nymphs today when cleaning their tub....

Lucky Bamboo

This plant, often refered to as Lucky Bamboo (Dracaena sanderiana) seldoms flowers.
Was quite amused to find some flowering yesterday & took a photo of it for reference.

Pin head crickets

Something good to have around. But difficult to transfer, they are just so fast. The birds seema to like them a lot....
Will get some double the size tomorrow.... maybe easier to handle :)

Elongated Tortoise

My Elongated tortoise, a female specimen probably 7 years old or more. Now classified as endangered.
Looking for a male to pair her off. Would be a waste not to be able to breed her :(

Yellow-spotted Amazon River Turtle

My pair of Yellow-spotted river turtle, bought a bigger container for them but a friend has to borrow to keep guppies.... sigh!
Looks like you fellas have to wait a little longer ;)

Wild Lizard

My father caught this in the garden. Hiding among the grape vines. Will have to find out whether its insectivorous or herbivorous....


Update: 6th March 2013.... confirmed insectivorous :)

Update: 8th March 2013.... released back in the garden

Red-footed tortoise

Wow! they have grown. Male appears to be at least 12" long.
These would probably be the fastest growing tortoises I have kept. Can't remember, but was probably 3 to 4" long a year or so ago :)

Sometimes its interesting to stop and listen to the varieties of wild birds in other region.
Can't see a single one of them, but its drizzling, and somewhere on a hill near a historical site known as the House of Virgin Mary.

An interesting case of polyandrous specie. Where the female is larger, nicer coloration and makes the mating call to the male. She builds nest, calls for a male, lay eggs and leave the hatching and raising of the chicks to the male. She then moves on to another nest and calls for another male. Sometimes fighting off other females for territory.
Which makes the keeping of these female specimens interesting as they could be used to call and attract other quails, male (for mating) and female (territorial).

Sequential polyandry....

Bird trap

The craftman always better himself. Just when I thought nothing can be improved, something was....

Heartworms

Fighting Fish

In the name of hobby.... bought this fella to amuse my kid. Dont know why its expensive. Some cheaper variant looks nicer. There is one equally expensive one that is black in colour, but couldn't convince him to choose :D

Shama chick 2012

Not all went well with the chicks. Above is one chick that broke its leg and healed. Noticeable is a section that is crooked where the injury was.

Introducing dogs to birds