Bulbul nesting materials.

[mattymeischke]

I have a lovely pair of red-whiskered bulbuls who seem very happy together.
I have started giving them nesting materials: long grass, sticks, swamp(ish) grass, feathers...
Is there anything else they need/like?
Do they use cobwebs?

Thank you,
mm.

[Myzomela]

Hi Matty

I believe they are just as happy with coconut fibre as well.
Maybe call the seller of the birds as he has bred them himself on several occasions.

[mattymeischke]

Maybe call the seller of the birds

Good idea, though he's a dangerous man to call.

When I dropped past the other week when I got the bulbuls, he had a spare aurora hen which I picked up as I was on my way to get a pair and figured that it's always good to have a spare hen. Of course, the guy I got the pair from had a spare cock, which I was easily convinced to take off his hands.

The time before that he had a lone Pekin hen near the entrance which I fould hard to leave behind (though restraint won the day on that occasion).

So I'll give him a call, but I hereby publicly resolve to resist buying any more birds during the call.

I was wondering about cobwebs because the chaffinches have gotten through surprising quantities of it, and since I started providing it for the chaffies, the goldfinches have been using it too. Yesterday I saw the bulbuls checking it out and wondered if they would use it too.

Thanks for your reply,
mm.

[E Orix]

It's a few years since I kept and bred them on a regular basis but I can't remember them ever using cobwebs and I doubt very much if they would.
The nest is generally a reasonably large cup shape well hidden and lined very very well with Coconut Fibre and small Rootlets if available.
Should you be fortunate to have them hatch chicks be ready to increase the fruit being offerred and live food and more live food and even more livefood.
But seeing the chicks just after fledging with their tiny erect crests is quite enjoyable. Good luck.

[Tintola]

Mine usually start the nest off with a large dead leaf or a piece of paper and weave some largish bamboo leaves into the, mainly coco-nut fibre, structure.

[arthur]

Just go to images on 'Google' and type in 'bulbul nest' . .

Pix will backup suggestions by our resident softbill gurus

[TomDeGraaff]

I gave mine coconut fibre aswell as grasses. Mine were not great feather users.
When the young hatch, I used to buy 1000 small crickets and kept them in a 3ft aquarium.As the bulbuls grew, so would the crickets. They ate heaps of live food when breeding.
I also haven't bred them for a few years. Nice to know they are still around in aviaries. In Victoria, they are perhaps more appreciated than in the "fruity" areas of NSW!