Baby Merbok

Came back from work and found a hatchling of the Zebra Dove (Merbok) in the incubator. So, now I can consider myself a Merbok breeder? hahahaha! This is a long story. The parents of the baby merbok actually belongs to a friend. He passed me the pair plus 2 unhatched eggs and a few weeks old baby with weak legs. I had no choice but to try incubating the eggs.



After a successful hatching of the first egg, I panicked as the baby is just too small and did not want to co-operate by opening its beak to be fed. After a few phone calls, then decided to try contacting a breeder of Tekukurs to try to find some Tekukur Jawa as foster parents.

Finally managed to arrange for fostering with a pair of Tekukur Jawa which belongs to Pakcik Awie. Transported the baby to his place by 10p.m. After placing the baby with another unhatched egg for the Tekukur Jawa to take care, sat down with Pakcik Awie and chit chat over a glass of tea. Saw a nice cage made by his friend and bought it. Would be good for training Merbok pikat for ground use (pacak tanah). Thats me "pantang" got new "toy" hehehe! Made arrangement to borrow his Tekukur pikat with a broken wing. Reputed to be worth RM1k before the wing got broken due to an accident.

Not to mention an hour in the morning putting up hooks for Mata Putehs at the padang, trimming some of the branches and "roti canai" breakfast with Mr Wee. One of those hectic hobby related days ;)

Mata Puteh (Buka)

An example of how a Puteh (Zosterops) should sound like if it "buka". It is an area where I took some time to learn when I first started keeping these little fellas. Initially just keeping them for their canary like mid-tones ;)
Then making a point to bring up birds to their max potential as best as I know how. Must admit it was quite challenging most of the time....

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 ;)

Quarrelsome Sunbird

There are some Sunbirds who has been a regular visitor. Very hard to capture them on video as they dart here and there. Easy when they are feeding but difficult when they are fighting, singing and calling to each other - especially rival males.

Have noted that they chirp quite similarly to Zosterops and do their mid-tones too. Very funny and entertaining fellas. Will try to design a honey feeder for them ;)