Rufous Fantail

14 Dec 2014, 18:30

Hi Team,

I was just wandering if anyone knows if these are available in our aviaries? I see them occasionally in the bushland near our house. Beautiful birds.

Image: http://www.bushpea.com/bd/ph/geo/mi/ruf ... l%2003.jpg

14 Dec 2014, 18:54

I don't think so. We get them at home here too. Great little birds.
We actually call our place rhipidura, the genus name for the aussie fantails - all 3 of which live here.

14 Dec 2014, 19:13

My take on this is, "Why in the hell would you want to keep them if they are local.?" Enjoy them, you are luckier than many others to see them in real life. I would suggest that they would be very difficult to keep unless you are willing to have very large cages and multiple live flying food, as there name suggests, "fantail" but would suggest "flycatcher" would be more appropriate. Willy wagtails in the same family. No doubt someone on this forum has had them but they would be specialists. Not being au fait with the regulations I would suggest that they can only be kept with an appropriate licence.

Ken.

14 Dec 2014, 19:36

Tiaris wrote:I don't think so. We get them at home here too. Great little birds.
We actually call our place rhipidura, the genus name for the aussie fantails - all 3 of which live here.

That was my gut feel after doing a bit of reading on them. Great to watch.

matcho wrote: Enjoy them, you are luckier than many others to see them in real life. I would suggest that they would be very difficult to keep unless you are willing to have very large cages and multiple live flying food, as there name suggests, "flycacher". No doubt someone on this forum has had them but they would be specialists. Not being au fait with the regulations I would suggest that they can only be kept with an appropriate licence.

Ken.

I agree with you in regards in the housing and feeding. I'm not overly sure what you mean by

"Why in the hell would you want to keep them if they are local.?"

. This same reserve also contains red broweds, owls, fairy wrens, silver eyes etc which are all kept in aviaries. I keep red broweds and whilst I love seeing them in the wild having the ability to watch them everyday in closer proximity has its advantages and obvious rewards.