Green Avadavat

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TomDeGraaff
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I have been wondering about this little gem in recent days. It seems it is not just in trouble here.
The wild birds have to deal with climate change.
Other countries do not have captive stocks of any significance because import from Asia is banned due to the risk of "bird flu".
Is there any programme dealing with this species? Is any country conducting studies and/or protecting and nurturing this bird? Is the Rare Fich Conservation Group (?)concerning itself with this species?
Any update would be appreciated.
Tom
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Craig52
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Uraeginthus wrote:I have been wondering about this little gem in recent days. It seems it is not just in trouble here.
The wild birds have to deal with climate change.
Other countries do not have captive stocks of any significance because import from Asia is banned due to the risk of "bird flu".
Is there any programme dealing with this species? Is any country conducting studies and/or protecting and nurturing this bird? Is the Rare Fich Conservation Group (?)concerning itself with this species?
Any update would be appreciated.
Tom
Hi Tom,i believe this bird is doomed in Australia with very few left.Over the last few years some have been bred in WA but i have heard this person disposed of them all in single prs of which this will be their dimise of the genetic pool plus the rediculous price they were asking is way out of peoples reach to keep them going.
It's a real shame as this bird i bred quite well really,my stock came from Tiaris's father plus a few plucked birds i picked up from here and there of which with proper feeding became good looking birds and good breeders.
IMO, EBAG? stuffed this bird as breeders of this bird and others and were made to pay a licence fee to keep them.Most,including myself disposed of them to dealers who exported them overseas,mainly to America,the price at that stage i got was $300pr. Craig :thumbdown:
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arthur
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Probably NEBRS but you couldn't really blame a $25 odd licence fee for stopping people who were prepared to pay the price for these birds . . Inconvenience YES

I bought 3 pair from KR in the Hunter @ $450 about 30 years ago . . top birds and they bred like white mice . . never a plucked bird, but they were in 18m x 3m aviary and basically full of Guinea Grass

Swapped offspring for other dear birds which were eventually lost

My last 5 pair were killed over 2 consecutive, exceptionally cold winter nights by a pair of Superb Wrens . . I first blamed the cold, but it was definitely the wrens . . take heed ALL wrens need separate housing

Ironically I sold 2 pair to a pensioner here for $210 a pair (big unders), on condition that if he bred any or wanted to get rid of them he would sell them back to me at that price ( he is long dead or I wouldn't tell the story) . . he was a pretty good breeder and I thought he was 'straight up and down' . . anyway the long and the short of it was he sold the birds 'away' . . and at top market price I might add, because (so I am told) "nobody in this town is prepared to pay a decent price for birds"

Human nature is a wonderful thing :silent: :hothead: :silent:
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TomDeGraaff
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Yes, I suppose many regret the past but some of you at least got to breed them. Many of you breeders from the past have stories of this species in Australia.

I have never understood why some people hate a bit of paperwork so much that they would let a bird die out rather than keep them going. Were there no forward-looking aviculturists back then who saw the writing on the wall and tried to save them or did they all just "quit them because of paperwork"? I know there were good people because Orange-cheeks, chaffies and song sparrows were on NEBRS yet they're still around.

This bird needs to be a focus of the rare finch group, whoever they are. Shelley's crimsonwing is important but so is this species. I'm talking about the international guys who seem to put out publicity from time to time.
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Craig52
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Uraeginthus wrote:Yes, I suppose many regret the past but some of you at least got to breed them. Many of you breeders from the past have stories of this species in Australia.

I have never understood why some people hate a bit of paperwork so much that they would let a bird die out rather than keep them going. Were there no forward-looking aviculturists back then who saw the writing on the wall and tried to save them or did they all just "quit them because of paperwork"? I know there were good people because Orange-cheeks, chaffies and song sparrows were on NEBRS yet they're still around.

This bird needs to be a focus of the rare finch group, whoever they are. Shelley's crimsonwing is important but so is this species. I'm talking about the international guys who seem to put out publicity from time to time.
Hi Tom,it wasn't that a bit of paper work and money that was the demise of the GS.In my case,i had 4pr,one pr on their own in 4 separate aviaries which was the only way to breed them successfully with a specialist diet.The birds wouldn't even look at regular commercial seed and became frustrated and plucked each other and grew deformed white/yellow feathers where they were plucked,usually around the neck and back.Way back then they got a name as a difficult bird to breed as nobody realised it was there feeding practices that was the problem.
At the time i was breeding them,they had just about vanished and new blood was very scarce and a licencing system was introduced so i weighed up my thoughts,have four aviaries with one type of bird and pay a licence fee or four aviaries and have two or three pr of birds per aviary(Blue Gouldians) and increase my income from these birds,let's face it,income from your birds is a big bonus and i don't care what anybody says,look how big bird sales are now as every breeder is there to sell there birds to make money it's what makes the world go around. :? Craig
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Jayburd
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Much as I'm opposed to the 'triage' system that's been in the news this past week, in this context I think it's a good thing.
From what I understand, the remaining avadavats are 10 years + old, surely now it's better just to let them live out the remainder of their lives rather than trying to push them into breeding - for what?
I think people should be (and a lot are) focusing on the three Pytilia species, Red Strawberries, Munias, Blue Caps, Cut-throats, and the weavers/whydahs.






(and definitely not mutation ones of them ;-) :think: :shh: )

Personally, just happy to have seen a green avadavat in Australia in the flesh, and I'm jealous of those lucky ones who had the chance to breed them 'back then'!
Julian

Birdwatcher and finch-keeper.

Feel free to check out my photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lewinsrail/
And my birding antics here: http://worthtwointhebushbirding.blogspot.com.au/
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TomDeGraaff
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I looked up the green avadavat page on Birdlife International.

"This colourful finch is listed as Vulnerable because it has a rapidly declining population, owing to widespread trapping for the cagebird trade, compounded by habitat loss and degradation through agricultural intensification... It has been traded since the late 19th century, and was recently found to be one of the most popular cage-birds in domestic markets. An annual minimum of 2,000-3,000 birds are smuggled out of India to Europe and America."
There is other interesting stuff about trade to the Arab states, medicinal use etc being threats.

I wrote to the site: "I was accessing the above page and read your summary of threats to this species. While I understand that trapping for the domestic market may still be a problem. I wonder if you could update your information about numbers being sent to Europe and USA. Since the threat of bird flu, trade in this species has been somewhat curtailed and those figures you quote do not reflect the current difficulty in finding this species in aviculture."

They replied: "Many thanks for your message. We will ensure that the information on the threat to Green Avadavat from international trade is updated when we next update the species factsheet and Red List assessment."

I think this bird will become a real worry in the not too distant future.
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Tiaris
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I think the figure of 2000 - 3000 was plucked out of someone's cloaca to make a story sound more compelling. The truth is they are now very rare in captivity worldwide & already very scarce in their wild range. I don't believe they have ever been bred in numbers anywhere else in the world like they were here up until about 1990. There is virtually no scope for new stock from either wild or captive origins elsewhere in the globe. I feel lucky to have grown up knowing at least 10 finch breeders in the Hunter Valley area alone who consistently bred 20+ of them each year. Unfortunately they're shot ducks now. You would be doing very well to find a more spectacular finch than a GS in prime condition twitching its tail in the sunlight.
I apportion at least some of the blame to the Sydney bird dealers of the 1980s for their demise in captive status. They are a bird which simply does not cope at all with crowded dealer cages & under those circumstances they just pluck badly & look terrible. The larger dealers decided in the late 1980s to arbitrarily drop their paying price from $400pr to $100pr which forced the hand of at least a few of those who regularly bred them to not keep them any more. (The finch market at that time was controlled by commercial dealers) Within a few more years a few more GS breeders died & there were then only 2 blokes in the Hunter regularly breeding them & they were close mates so their bloodlines were virtually identical.
In the early 1990s my father & I decided to grab all we could get hold of & build them up. We gathered together 10 pairs of which about half bred. We built them up to 22 breeding pairs when we sold out of all our birds for a short period in 1996. We sold all these for $300pr. Some of these went to Craig & some went to old mate in WA.
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Myzomela
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Tiaris wrote: think the figure of 2000 - 3000 was plucked out of someone's cloaca to make a story sound more compelling.
Love it :lol: :lol:

That's one hell of a cloaca Tiaris!

Fancy someone exaggerating the role of the captive bird trade !!! :crazy:
Research; evaluate;observe;act
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TomDeGraaff
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Tiaris has summed up my worries:
"they are now very rare in captivity worldwide & already very scarce in their wild range. I don't believe they have ever been bred in numbers anywhere else in the world like they were here up until about 1990. There is virtually no scope for new stock from either wild or captive origins elsewhere in the globe."

This bird is in BIG trouble, declining small wild population and virtually no captive insurance. :( :( :cry: I need a "smily" for angry !!
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