Chiku & Experiment With Cages

Decided to try out a small Shama cage for Jambul. Chiku became the candidate due to his somersaulting in a tall cage. So, he is predisposed to somersaulting and it would be good to see his acceptance of more space in such a set-up. Chiku is OK in a Thai design cage.






A fusion of Shama and Jambul cage......
So far at day 3, all is well & good ;-)


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Breeding Jambuls Pt.4

Gave up breeding Jambuls yesterday. Firstly, the nest was placed too high for me to see the inside. Even with a 5 steps ladder, I couldn't peek into the nest to determine whether there are chicks or eggs. Bad design, bad layout ......sigh!

Then came the task of taking the birds out. The female got no problem hopping out from the aviary to an open Shama cage placed outside the door. The male is a little tricky. I tried luring him out with food (mealworms), another male and the female. He just refused to come out and preferred to perch high and sing his heart out. As a last resort, I went inside the aviary and caught him with a net.

Then, surprise, surprise! there are 2 eggs in the nest when I took it down.



I have read about candling and all that, but when comes to practical, I can't tell whether its fertile or not. Anyway, I decided to lower down the nest so that the small tree will actually block it from view, but when I peek from higher up, i could see the inside. Now, the challenge is whether the pair would mind after the nest has been shifted and they have been harassed (taken out of the aviary) ;)

......glad to report that on Christmas Day today, the female Jambul is spotted using the nest and continued incubating the eggs. Since I do not know when the eggs were laid, I would take yesterday as day 1 and start counting to determine whether the eggs are fertile or not. That is me, the amateur weekend breeder hehehe!

Hatyai

Was in Hatyai recently with family. Haven't been there before...... must say that its a paradise for Jambul keepers. Everywhere now and then as I travel, I would see the the unique square cages outside of shops, houses and even factories. Thus in my opinion, it could be the favourite national past of the epople of Hatyai. Not much time to do any bird related shopping, just managed to grab some cage cloth from a shop a short walk away from my hotel......



Language is a problem though. The shop owner, a lady does not understand "cloth", "kain" (Malay), "pu" (Mandarin), "por" (Hokkien) so I end up tugging at my shirt and pointing to the cage to get the message across ;)

A short walk from my hotel is a money changer where I got my currency exchanged. Outside his shop is a Barau (Straw-headed Bulbul) and inside on top of a cabinet was another bulbul which I did not get a good look at. But it sounds like the Stripe-throated Bulbul. Wow! hope to be back again in April next year ;)

Kekek - my Jambul Pt.1/2

This Jambul is named Kekek, so named because he is always referred to as the "kekek bird" whenever my friend and I are discussing about him. He has a long "kekek" sound when in form. Just about completed his molt when I brought him to Cheras and tried him out in a tall cage which is popular in Singapore but seldom used nowadays in Malaysia.



Will be looking for a square type cage to try out (the one with tree like branches much favoured nowadays). My motto in life - never try never know :D

Breeding Jambuls Pt3

Last Tuesday, one of my Jambul escaped and it took me about an hour to get him back. It would have made some nice videos, but I was rushing to go out and wasn't in the mood to get the film rolling for his sake ;)

Quite challenging to trap him back. Tried putting out his cage with fruits and crickets in it to attract him. Also placed a "jebak" out with a slice of papaya in it. He seems attracted to the "jebak" initially and managed to land at its edge and eat the papaya. He refused to jump into the perch in the "jebak" that will trigger the trap door to be released.

After which he was preoccupied flying all over the aviary housing a pair of breeding Jambuls. Kekek and opening wing in display. Sigh!.... I think the pair will probably abandon their nest with all these activities. It would all have been fun like the time Chiku escaped if I wasn't rushing for time. Finally caught him with some latex glue, locally known as "terap". This "terap" has a nice texture and is sticky enough to hold the Jambul but not too sticky that the feathers are stuck to it.

Breeding Jambuls Pt2

A nest was made probably 2 weeks ago. Never seen the nest being used until today. Noticed the female is sitting in the nest which is made inside a coconut husk. Very positive development. Time to be more vigilant in providing supply of live food ;)

Red-whiskered Bulbuls - different judging criteria

There are no birds that are judged with as varied a criteria as the Red-whiskered Bulbuls (a..a. Merbah Jambul, Candek) that I know of. In fact there are 3 distinct cage designs that are commonly used and its popularity depends much on its locality.

First there is the Thai cage or I usually call them the "A" framed cage. It is a square cage broader at the base than the top.
Note:(Correction 11th Nov): I was told it originates from S'pore - this "A" cage)
Then there is the tall cage which is popular in Singapore and was popular in Malaysia not too long ago.
Thirdly there is the "Penang" type cage which is square in design with the top and bottom of roughly the same size, usually slightly bulging in the middle.

The perches placed on these different types of cages are also different in layout. It would have an impact on the behaviour of the birds and therefore, different criteria are used in judging a bird in competition.

I compete my Jambuls in an arena where the favoured type of cages used are the "Penang" design. However my prefered type of cages are the Thai cages. Now, how that would impact on the performance of my birds? I would think they would be at a disadvatage since "perch play" would also score some points. However, winning trophies is not important to me, more importantly the reason that I compete my birds is to benchmark against others and see how I fare against other good specimens base on my own criteria.

The best arena to be critically judged, in my opinion is the normal "chai" place, where most hobbyists gather to train their birds. Here, fellow freinds and strangers would sometimes share comments on birds. It is for the owner to filter from the genuine feedback to dishonest sarcarsm ;)

Breeding Jambuls Pt1

Finally decided to utilise the empty aviary for my pair of Jambul (Red-whiskered Bulbul). Would introduce a pair of quail later to act as a cleaner for the aviary floor.
Its interesting to note the difference between keeping aviary and cage birds.
Firstly, there is much more space for them to fly and initially they are clumsy fliers. But after much practice, they become quite good but still not strong - maybe the side effect of years in a small cage ;)
Then there is allopreening (preening of the feathers of one bird by another), an endearing trait observed just a day after introducing the pair.
The method I chose to introduce the pair to the aviary is the lazy man's method of "dump & pray". As described, its a very easy method. Dump both of them in and pray they do not tear each other apart ;D
Male is an old bird from Layang-layang in Johor. Very old bird, probably above 10 years of age. Female is from Tasik Gelugor in Penang, a very tame bird firstly thought to be a male until she laid a couple of eggs.
Disadvantage of aviary birds is that there is much less control. Especially on the dry food and supplements that I can feed them. Too much fruits is made available that they eat very little of dry food, so my solution at the moment is to smear the fruits with dry pellets and control the quantity of mealworms given.

Other concern is whether the male is too old for breeding. Honestly, I am not really that concerned about it. I have not kept Jambuls in aviary before, so the chance to observe them in aviary settings is good enough. If they did breed, then it would be a bonus. There is an additional challenge of keeping the pests like squirrels, rats, mice, snakes, ants etc etc away. And keeping the aviary clean.

Today is day 4 for the pair in the aviary.