Saffrons

[crazy cuban]

Does anyone know how these guys are going in aussie Avairies?
are they practically gone?
If not, what is the general cost with these birds and does one find them easy to keep and breed?
if they aren't too pricey would love to try my hand with these birds and do my bit for helping secure a species in aussie aviaries.

[Lachlan1]

This is what I've heard but I'm happy to be wrong. They cost roughly $2000 a pair atm. There is one guy around the Wollongong area that has the majority of the remainding birds.

I had a conversation with a bloke a recently about them actually. He said most people don't realise but the cock bird doesnt colour up till his 2nd year (not sure if correct). I know recently as well a guy sold a bunch up north for someone else at around the $250-$300 mark a pair (poor guy probably thought they were golden song sparrows or something). But the promising thing about that is there is probably more out there we don't know about... well some of us anyway. I'm sure some of the more connected guys on this forum would know where some are stashed away and a lot more about the bird in general haha.

I've heard/read they are not overly hard to breed which somewhat confuses me as there numbers are clearly very low. Surely they wouldnt be hard to sell as they are stunning to look at... There are a few stories about them being very aggressive but as I said pretty much everything I have written here has all come from conversations with other breeders.

Good luck mate! Hopefully some of the more knowledgeable guys will have something factual to say haha.

[elferoz777]

Micki from the wollongong finch club has heaps. I have seen his set up and he is one if the best breeder and a great guy in general. The birds need a great deal more attention then your average cup nester.

I say them in the streets when I was in Peru. I saw the variety with the orange on the heads. Absolutely stunning birds.

[crazy cuban]

Does the bloke up north still have safrrons? Or did he sell his whole stock do we know?

[Lachlan1]

Does the bloke up north still have safrrons? Or did he sell his whole stock do we know?

They were all sold within the hour of the add going up apparently.

[crazy cuban]

Doesn't suprise me.
I do wonder if that was all his stock or if he had more as I would really like to know how many breeders actually are keeping them.

[Lachlan1]

Hard to know...unless you are in those inner circles we'll probably never know how many people do or don't have then until they are below $500 or gone from Australian aviaries. Which to be honest is fair enough, they are putting in the hard yards with the species and If I owned Saffrons or anything of that rarity I probably wouldn't be blabbing about it on a forum or to many people in general. I'm sure these same guys (whoever they are haha) are the reason we still have a lot of the birds we have today.

I guess the best thing to do would be either go with the Wollongong bloke or buy a species that is similar in needs to the Saffron for preparation and just wait/hope till they become a bit more commercially available.