Buff-banded Rails

[finchbreeder]

Congratulations. Cute little tickers.
LML

[Trilobite]

Tintola, yes initially they were very shy and bolted back into the lomandra at the slightest hint of a humans being around. But as we live on our deck they got used to us and so long as we didnt do fast/rapid and stupid movements they would walk within 3-4 meters of us as they searched and hunted for insects/worms/dogfood etc. One day while chucking some seivings out on the garden bed that I knew they frequented, one of the parents coming running out head lowered and wings astride growling at me - obviously the chicks were under the shrubs - awesome courage!!!. They only had two babies and sadly one dissappeared after the big rainfall event (we had water sheeting across the yard), one has survived into a full sized bird but has not yet moulted into adult colour - it has moved to our front yard - we are on acerage.
Question - can you tell the sexes apart visually?

Again thanks for posting your results - it s heartening.

[Tintola]

Thanks for the story on your wild ones. They really love that Lomandra don't they? They lay 5 to 9 eggs and sadly most of those don't make it in the wild. I guess that is why many species that have precocial chicks have so many. They are very vulnerable and useless little things when they first hatch. Survival of the fittest. Six out of seven of the eggs hatched, which was a good start and all are growing at an incredible rate, except one, the lesser pied. It is the runt of the clutch but seems to have a blockage in the throat and has trouble swallowing food items that are no trouble for the others. He gets special attention at feed times and I'm hoping that I can get him big enough to be able to start putting on some size. Pics to follow soon. In my experience with the birds that I have, the males tend to be a little larger. No other difference between the sexes that I am aware of.

[Tintola]

Just added some more pics.

[mattymeischke]

Beautiful stuff!
Jingo but they grow quickly.

Would they be a suitable occupant for the floor of a large mixed aviary with finches and small softies?

[E Orix]

I think you would find they would knock off any young bird they could find infact probably anything that they could catch.

[Tintola]

I haven't kept them in with small birds. My guess would that they would not be 100% safe with finch chicks..