Australian & Foreign softbills

[Mickp]

time for me to ask for everyone's help, yet again.
we are trying to set up a new section for softbill profiles, so any pictures that you are able to post for us to use along with some detail (cost of birds, diet, breeding etc) would be a great help.

[mickw]

Great work Mick.........I havent kept softbills but warming to the challenge.....got my eye on Silvereyes, Pardalotes & Wrens....................I know Jack S*$% about 'em so I'm keen to see your idea get legs here.................C'mon all you Softies, have a Go!

[Will_36]

yes please all the wrens.
In a couple of years I want to try superb blue wrens.
I know they are around $250pr.

[GregH]

Well now I show you all the illegal things at Cartimar in Manila. There's always silver-eyes for sale there and often flowerpeckers (like mistletoe birds), crested starlings, Hill minyahs, Philippine bulbuls and orioles. I once even saw a pitta. Do lorries and fruit pigeons classify as soft-bills they are there too. In this country feeding softbills is easy since everything is only offerd banannas.

I just got my Sept/Oct 2009 Aviary Life Mag today and I see they have an article on red capped robins - note to MickP http://www.aviarylife.com.au/contents/p ... 200909.asp. If they weren't so agressive and I didn't live here I would love to get some wrens.

[toothlessjaws]

not really 100% sure on costs but i do know what foreign species are in aviculture here...

pekin robin
silver-eared mesia
oriental magpie robin
red-pileated finch (actually a tanager)
white rumped shama (though pretty sure these are extinct, or so very near extinct in australia now)

then of course there are the introduced species such as red-whiskered bulbuls, blackbirds, skylarks and indian mynahs...

[Pete Sara]

hi. mick the scarlet robins 300 a pair here.they are one of the rarer robins to be kept.you need to have advanced licsence first and to be endorsed like all other softbills from another keeper to have them...they eat softfood i feed them the womabroo mix, maggots and pupae , moths termites, meal worms and crickets , 2 to 3 eggs in a clutch incubation around 2 weeks and another 2 weeks to fledge. require a larger type aviary 4m x 4m would be the smallest i would use the bigger the better. they require plenty of nesting sites of a forked branch either on a growing shrub like a rose bush( good for afids) or old branches with forks in them place from 50cm from the ground upwards.nest requirements plenty of cobwebs , basically 90% of what is made up from, fine grasses and roots . they do require colour feeding at times as they tend to fade in colour from the lack in caretines in the diet. damm theres so much going through my head . let me know what else you may need .....pete

[Mickp]

thanks for your help so far, keep it coming plssss

Pete, each time you remember something else pls add it.

can see a new aviary having to be built here before long. some of these birds are beautiful

[E Orix]

In my opinion the top Australian Softbill would be the Crimson Chat and followed by the Red Capped Robin.
The Wrens are very nice especially the WA Blue Wren but they can be quite aggresive and murderous to their own kind.
Infact Softbills tend to be aggresive to their own kind in general.
The Pekin Robin was my favorite softbill but the Crimson Chat has taken over.
If small softbills are housed in a planted aviary they are quite easy to look after.