Skylark

[King~Fisher]

Hello is there anyone here that knows about keeping Skylarks.
I bought a bonded pair from a pet store two years ago and last month the cock bird died. They were housed in a large aviary,about (1800 X1800 X 1200 mm) It is elevated about 3' from the ground and indoors. Now that the cock bird is gone the hen likes to venture out of the cage for the day and is trying new foods.
I can not find much-(any) information on Skylarks in a domestic setting. A helpful member of this forum called me to refer a fellow user however I do not yet know how to contact them directly. I do have the user name though.

I am afraid that this bird dose not get any attention from breeders as they are so plain to look at . Its size is between a sparrow and a thrush.

Any advice could be useful so thanx for your time .

[casehulsebosch]

Greetings,

I reside part of the year in New Zealand where we live on 24 Ha and I see Skylarks - Alauda arvensis - on a daily basis. They are an introduced species from Europe and this is the same species that was introduced into Australia and occurs in the South East of Australia from roughly Port Augusta in SA, East into Victoria and into the South East of NSW.
Noted for their song this species soars up to 100 meters into the sky. Reguilarly I find them sitting and singing on a fence post. They hardly ever sit on tree branches.

They feed on seeds fromn a variety of plants and also take live food, specially when having chicks.

They rear two or three broods a year, building a nest of fine grasses in a depression in the ground. When I read that you have an aviary about 3 ft from the ground it appears from my observations in the wild and speaking to a fellow mate who breeds them in Europe that the habitat for this species is wrong. In my mate's case they hardly ever leave the aviary floor.
Eggs are incubated by the hen bird for 11 days and the young leave the nest as young as 8 days old.
My friend bred them in an aviary 7 meters x 3 meters x 3 meters high. The aviary had a sandy floor. the aviary was shared with Red cardinals and hawfinches.

All three species bred in the first year, with the skylarks producing 16 young from four nests.

No issues occured with the Skylarks flying up against the aviary roof. Spending enough time around the birds and having a high enough aviary negate these issues.
Live food included live and frozen mealworms, frozen maggots and wax moths. (Europeans feed mainly frozen "live food" while we Down Under offer them in live form.)

As part of their habitat they need to be able to hide behind brush and posts on the aviary floor.

Sexing can be established through DNA of course or in the case of my mate he regularly weighed the birds as part of his research. Cock birds 36-39 grams, hen birds 32-35 grams.

Hope this is of some help.

The large part of the year I spend in the Australian outback I give them little attention as I not only seen them regularly while in Nz but I like to get my tally of Australian species up. The area they occur in Australia should give some indication of habitat and temperature requirements.

good luck.

Case, Tauranga, NZ

[King~Fisher]

Thank you casehulsebosch for that info'.

It's true that they don't perch much, they suited to the periphery of a grass land and like ledges and grass tufts to stand on.
They don't fly like other birds they hoover for long periods sort of like an insect! They are fussy feeder though, with live mealworm and canary seed-mix as a staple.

Now that the Hen leaves the cage (the pair NEVER would) she is picking at corn cobs and lettuce.

Thank you again.

[Spitfire]

I have kept the Skylark for the past 3 years, but unfortunately my breeding success has been minimal.
I started with wild caught birds and it has been an uphill battle getting a compatable pair.
This year I tried 3 pair in an aviary 10m x 6m to allow them to pair up on their own. 1 pair managed 3 nests, fertile3 eggs in each nest, but I only managed
to fledge just 2 birds. It seems like feeding the chicks was a problem, and one by one they perished. Right now I have caught up and sold 1 pair, kept 1 hen which I bred and put it in
an other aviary for next season with an older cock. Sold 1 cockbird to a friend and made him a present of the other female that I bred, Hopefully come next season , will have a pair in each aviary. I fed them Game bird starter, maggots , mealworms, finch mix and Canary Egg mix.
The advice given to you seems good advice, but the fact that you keep them off the ground, seems to be a problem.
Their Whistle is the laudest and most beautiful of all the song birds that I have kept.

[King~Fisher]

Mission accomplished
What a great Forum. I would like to say a special thanks to Guy and Mario (You Guys Rock!)
Bye ~ and thanx again