Progress of chicks

Estimated 12 days old....



posted from Bloggeroid

Problem with handfeeding is time....
So off they went to a foster home. An old timer who is retired. Problem with an old timer is, he will probably not listen to my instructions. I know from his facial expression :D

Anyway, that is the best I can do.... ask him to feed guppies, crickets, soaked dog food, liquid calcium, multi vit. But I suppose he will stick to his method mostly..... sigh! as long as the chicks are healthy I suppose.

Sent along with chicks, a singing adult bird as a tutor. Can't separate them from pure Shama songs at a young age right? ;)

Re-Home 1 pair Shama

Any Malaysian visitor of my blog interested in a pair of White-rumped Shama can email me at dance4rain@yahoo.com
Free to serious hobbyists only. You would probably need a secure and isolated (from human traffic) aviary to successfully breed this pair. Currently kept together in a 23" cage.

Note (update 17th Jan): Have decided to release the birds in a secondary jungle nearby. One day I will go video and see whether they stick around or not.

Captive Bred Shamas

A friend has some success with breeding of his Shama. Not that it is something new, others have had successes before too but these babies, I am interested in because I have been a little preoccupied with getting the long tail genes into my Shamas. The sire of these chicks is a 10" bird from Langkawi. The hen too is not a bad specimen herself.

Out of a clutch of 3, I took 2, a male and a female. The male, I would keep for my friend to see how it would turn out. The female is for my future breeding.

Apollo X, the White-rumped Shama

Introducing Apollo X in Cheras bird competition:



hmmm.... looks good in my humble opinion. Will write more about him in the future. Unless, I choose to retire him to breeding or sell him off hehehe! then upgrade to Apollo XI?? hahaha! good to dream eh? definitely will be a good dream ;)

Captive Bred vs Wild Caught

Now, this is an old topic that was hotly debated many times before. My thoughts are that it is an unfair comparison especially when proponents of wild caught Shamas points out to the many good wild stocks that is in the competition arena. I have kept many wild caught Shamas and I can say that not all of them are equal. As is always the way life is - its never fair ;) Some are just more gifted than others just like us humans.

The reasons why there are a lot of good wild Shamas around are just a game of probability. See, most Shamas kept in this region are caught from the wild and for every good Shama found in the arena, many more has been rejects. Serious breeders of the Shama can be counted. There are not many of them around. What the proponent of wild caught Shamas need to do is point to a lesser captive bred specimen and loudly proclaims that "I told you so", "cannot play one". He fails to realise that captive bred birds are not yet well represented. Given time and as the numbers of captive bred Shamas become available, I am more than certain excellent specimens will emerge on the competition scene.

After decades of harvesting good birds from the wild, could it be possible that the gene pool of excellent Shamas from the wild has been depleted? Many old timers who has been around long enough to see birds of yesteryears and what is available now would testify to that. It seems that it is becoming more and more difficult to find Shamas that are truly excellent.

I believe Shama connoiseurs has no choice but depend on captive breeding to maintain the quality of birds. Breeding from fine specimens and selecting traits that are desirable appears to be the best way forward.

Of course not all will agree with me. But that is the beauty of us humans. We can agree to disagree and only time will tell. :)

Tale of a bird's tail

There is not as much preoccupation with a bird's tail as the White-rumped Shama (of course there are those Japanese chickens that are bred for tail length), but I am talking about a songbird. Nobody worries about how long a canary's tail would be or a Magpie Robin's ;) There is this hard tail, soft tail, curved tail (prawn tail), scissor tail etc.
The fault lies in the birds, I suppose. They just can't standardise their own tails and have to grow, some longer and some shorter than the average. Anyway, I am not complaining, just an interesting note.

Zeus had a bad year this year. He started his molt on 21st Sept 2009 and today (27th), he dropped one of his primary tail feather. His last primary tail feathers was shed on 9th Mar 2009, so this is an unscheduled molt. I suspected that he was ill for a short period of time and that, coupled with a few events, push him into a molt.

Of interest is that his tail recorded a longer length even when compared with the longest one from his previous molt. This coming from an old bird and the fact that during his previous molt, he was fed basically on a live food diet. The longer tail recorded was from a molt fed largely on a dry food mix (Shama Song Food with chicken feed). Hmmm.... food for thought. This current molt, I will be putting him on P28 (a dry food sourced from Singapore)

The below photo showed the newly dropped feather placed on top of the old feather (from previous molt). It didn't show a distinct difference, but I would think its a 0.2" difference.



Comes the next important question - how on earth does one measure the feather? how much allowance to give for the part that is embeded to the backside of the bird :D



Using my inexperienced estimate, Zeus has a tail length of 8.2"
Will update when the other tail falls, hopefully by tomorrow....

Update: 29th Sep 2009

Finally the other primary tail feather dropped. Don't know whether the 2 days difference will make the tail grows uneven. Base on current tail length, both primary tail feathers are of equal length.

Monitoring of Shamas' form

I have switched all of my Shamas to a brand that is available in Singapore called the P28 and so far am monitoring the Shamas' form as they developed. So far I am pleased with the result. A friend told me it can be further improved. Gosh! is there no end ? hahahaha! I suppose there never will be ;)

Will try to post another follow up video a month or so later:

Mr. Uneven tail:


Mr. Black feet:

Insights into birdkeeping

Last Saturday, I had a pleasant visit from 2 outstation friends whom I considered expert bird keepers. It is funny how sometimes over lunch while they were making fun at each other, you pick up pointers that have evaded you for a long time. I think I have been over eager at implementing things, trying out this and that, that I have forgotten the fundamentals of birdkeeping. I started this blog as a reminder of events, a place to jot down thoughts, place photos and videos. All so that one day I may look back and see what and where I have gone wrong. I am glad I did all that.

Now I will be revisiting the basics again - food. We are what we eat, I was often told. Now, to achieve that near complete & perfect food, its back to the drawing board (not actually drawing board, just spicing up existing food):

Below is a little experiment that didn't go too well. It has been aborted base on the tremendous drop in form. I tried changing the colour of Apollo 6's feathers. Not changing during molt, but changing it as it is. Unfortunately his form dropped and he started a molt. As shown in the picture, the wing feathers has actually developed a little white patch (after a month), but I expect him to shed those feathers as well. I have since switched him back to ordinary food.



I considered the objective has been met. Just to prove that the feather need not be molted to change colour and the dry version of the food actually worked. But with too much side effect for me to be comfortable with.
Apollo 6's form is improving and I am now giving him extra live food with addition of Vitamin B complex and he is back on an imported premium dry food.

Maybe its time to re-look into the food for Jambuls ;)


Update: 20th Sept 2009


Colour feeding food has been stopped some time already, but it appears that the white colouration is still spreading.

Black Feet Shama

Much has been said about the White-rumped Shama with black feet. Out of curiosity, I did try to look out for one. And finally fate would have it that I saw one for sale and it turn out to meet and surpass my expectation. Only thing to do now is to slowly wait for him to build up his confidence and probably I could have a ready bird to "chai" by year end ;)



Problem with having a free roaming chicken is that, he always gets in the way when I want to bath or place the birds on the floor. Aiya! looks like they are going up for adoption :D

Training Aviary

Well, everything has its blessings. The escape of the Green Jungle Fowl frees some room in the aviary for me to experiment in training of Zeus in a flight aviary. His middle toe nail on his right foot broke off. Hopefully his toe nail on his left foot follow suit. The hopping and flying around must have caused enough abrasion to chip off his overgrown nails.

Getting him in and out of the aviary doesn't seems to be a problem. Now the other thing to take note of is whether his stamina would improve over time.



22nd Aug '09: Took out 2 Shamas to "chai" with Zeus in the aviary. Very interesting exercise. Managed to see displays not normally seen when Zeus is in a bamboo cage. Would have taken a video if not for my messy garden. For the record, the black feet and 8.4" Shama sang well. Zeus utilised most of the front part of the aviary to show aggression. Diving down, hovering and hopping on the ground like a squirrel. However not much of singing though. Hope I can find time to bring him out to "chai" at the "Merbok padang" tomorrow.

Partial White Shama

Below are 2 of John Yim's Shama with interesting features:





Interesting note: the Shamas need not molt to change colour (about 2 to 3 months of food change), after the molt, colour will return to normal.

Will start feeding Apollo 6 next week to turn his tail white. Hopefully I get as good a result. Poor fella need to look different to attract some attention hehehe!
Otherwise, being short-tailed in a long-tailed bird world has its disadvantages ;)

Young Shama

A nice bird. Sings on his first outing to the "padang". Which is more than I can say for a lot of other new Shamas. Very tempted to just keep him ;)

Shama Tai Mong

Tai Mong refers to juvenile birds. Could be Shamas, Magies or even bulbuls. There has been many opinions given as to which stage of Shamas (age) makes a better songbird. Wild adults are said to posess their wild naturally learned repertoire of songs whereas baby birds would lack the capacity to do so as they have been removed from their wild environment. To compensate them from such disadvantage, often, a tutor bird is highly recommended.

For me, my preference often are skewed towards young juveniles for the mere fact that they tame down much easier than the adult birds. And often start singing after their first molt to adult plumage. Young juveniles, or often I prefer to call them the "flying babies" (vs those that still require hand feeding), have acquired their own style of songs.

This year, I kept two of such babies - one from Rompin which I kept for a friend and another from Grik which a friend decided to give up on. Both have developed nicely enough and started singing well before the adult plumage has fully grown. However I should be keeping them away from stressful competitive environment until after their second molt for best effect.

Rompin Tai Mong:


Grik Tai Mong:

Training a White-rumped Shama

Consider this - in the East Coast of Malaysia, the Red-whiskered Bulbul (Merbah Jambul) is competed at around eye level. Elsewhere, they are competed above head level, same as with the White-rumped Shama (Murai Batu) and Oriental White-eye (Mata Puteh). The Zebra Doves (Merbok) and Spotted Doves (Tekukur) are universally competed on top of poles 18 to 20 feet high. Hmmm...... how does all this come about? Maybe this all has to do with a bird's natural behaviour.

But hold on - in nature, the Red-whiskered Bulbul plays atop trees, so shouldn't they be hoisted up as well? Maybe it has more to do with commonly accepted avian culture (in Asia particularly) rather than anything. I do not know.

Well, since I have a pole for Zebra Doves, there is no harm in knowing how a caged Shama responds to higher altitude. I have tried it for a few days now on Apollo 6 and what I can say is that on the first day itself it took less than 5 seconds for him to start singing (which is more than I can say for my Zebra Doves). However, it should be noted that unlike Zebra Doves, Shamas do not tolerate heat too well, so I only start doing it about 6.30 to 7.00pm when there is no longer direct sunlight and leave him until dark about 8.00 to 9.00pm.

Below is Apollo 6 on day one at the pole.

Apollo 9 (White-rumped Shama)

This is a strange bird. Have been very patient with him. Molted once in a friend's home and molted again 2 months later in my home. Hmmmm....... he better keep his feathers longer this time round. Anyway, his form is rising up nicely now, a fella to watch out for. So far "chai" him at home only - will consider bringing him out soon or just let a friend keep him.

Apollo 8 (White-rumped Shama)

Apollo 8 was obtained on 17th Dec 2008. Came with tail feathers of roughly 8". However he has the undesirable feature of having one longer and one shorter primary tail feather. During the previous molt, the tail feather is also uneven, hoping things may change in the subsequent molt, which may be some time yet as he has just finished his molt. He has quite a nice slim body and good song.

Decided on the name Apollo 8 due to being lazy to think up a name hahaha!
I had another Shama by the name of Apollo 8 which escaped last year. He could still be around, hopefully ;)

Apollo 6 (White-rumped Shama)

This is Apollo 6, last year's Tai Mong (juvenile). Still waiting for him to molt and change his second set of adult plumage. A few pin head feathers has appeared on his face, indicating that it should be very soon. I should be feeding him with lots of live food at the moment to facilitate his molt - hopefully I will come down to it soon hehehe! just me the procrastinator.

Originated from Endau, Johor, Apollo 6 is not a favoured Shama according to current trends due to his short and stiff tail. However, what he lacks in looks, he makes up with his willingness to sing anywhere, anytime. Therefore making a very reliable tutor bird for the other young ones. Him, being also considered a young Shama should be even better after his second molt.

New Chai Place in Melaka

Manage to get 5 Shamas together to try out the Merbok field in Bukit Serindit.
Quite a nice place with plenty of trees to hang. So far no complaints yet. Have to get to know and speak to the Merbok president next week.



Besides the Shamas, also in attendance are 2 mata Putehs and 2 Terkukur (pikat).



I did take delivery of a competition Merbok yesterday night. Did not bring him out today. Waiting for him to get used to my place first before training him. Then there will be a lot of activities to take part in hehehe!

Ceh! after reviewing my post, I realised that the picture did not turn out well - too small. So below is a blow up of where we hang the Shamas.



The Mata Putehs:


Update:
Just got a great idea from a friend (Mr. John Yim) on how to jump start the Shama "chai" event.
This goes back to the 60's when Shama competition as we know it today was non existent.
Fellow hobbyists would be hanging out at the local coffee shop for a cuppa and of course hobbyists being hobbyists would inevitably get into a discussion about who has the better Shama. They would debate and eventually vote the winner who then get treated with "kaya" toast, half boiled egg and "kopi-o" or whatever they fancy. All debate and judgements are done with the utmost honesty and sincerity (sad to say we are losing these virtues nowadays).

So, this is what I will be brain storming with a few fellas over here to see how we could carry this out. What better place to do it than in Melaka that is well known for its historical legacy.

Draft:

1) Set a date - maybe the last Sunday of every month.
2) Get some gifts - cage cloth, cups, clocks, notepads, pens, cheap cages, breakfast.... anything that we fancy at the time.
3) Promote the scoring system that was laid out during the online competition (ahem! gotta move my butt to speed up the prizes for the winners :oops: thousand apologies)
4) Get the Shama "kaki" together for a picnic by the "Padang Merbok"
5) Then over breakfast, we vote each others' bird in or out and the winner gets the goodies (gifts la)
6) Winner gets to give a 5 minutes speech to thank the rest and highlight the good and bad points of his Shama.

of course then the issue...... in a small group, a Shama may be winning every month :shock:
then we could try another category......

7) Winner can also goes to the owner of a Shama that has improved itself vastly over others throughout the months.

note: at least one spectator from the Merbok crowd has moved forward to express interest to "chai" his Shama with us :D This is progress hehehe!

Chai Bird in Tmn Ungku Tun Aminah

It was a rainy day on Saturday, 30th August on the way to J.B. Need to pass 1 Grik taimong and an 8"+ Shama to John. At RM350 for both, sure is a bargain. brought along Apollo 6 for the trip. Just for fun's sake, to "chai" with John's Shama.


On Sunday 31st August, decided to drop by Tmn Ungku Tun Aminah with John and Maureen (John's temple member) to have a look at the "chai" place. Manage to meet up with the club president there, a real hard core Shama enthusiast. Maureen must be bored to death. But John appears happy catching up with his friends and me doing some investigative work.
It seems like Orchid Chin has lost interest in his multiple time champ and sold it off to the club president for RM6k. The Shama was in a bad shape due to neglect and molting at the moment. I am more curious of his (the club president) 13" Shama. He told me he is willing to bring to Batu Pahat for the next comp if I am interested in looking at it (of course its not for sale). According to his description, it would surely be a winner, not because of the tail, but its supposed beautiful play. I certainly am interested to look at it ;)

Zeus - White-rumped Shama from Rompin

Zeus had a long journey before coming to me. A 4 year plus bird from Rompin. Travelled to Pekan Nenas and eventually to Melaka. Below is the photo and video of his first day in Melaka.