Oveseas perceptions of Aussie Aviculture

[E Orix]

I guess in Australia rare birds are generally based on price.
There are a few exceptions but Mesias these days if you can get them would be around $5000 for a true pair,
Cardinals and Shamas the same , most likely more.
In general about $1000 per pair upwards.
I was told yesterday that Green Strawberry Finches were available for $5000 p.p
To me that is insane but I guess someone will pay that amount.
I still get just the same amount of enjoyment seeing a clutch of young Cordons on the perch as I do with an expensive specie.
High up on my preference list is the humble Double Bar.

[Lukec]

All this talk gets me excited

I must sound sick

[Jayburd]

that's true e orix.

am however, not so true about there not being any co - operative breeding groups. the NFSA, the QFS, my own humble CFC, the FSA, and also the RFC are all sponsoring rare species to bring their numbers back up.

[Diane]

How do they work the sponsoring Jayburd? It may help Greg with his posting about getting the local breeders to co-operate with each other regarding the CordonBlu's
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=3434&p=17729#p17729

[Jayburd]

we pick a species that needs help either in aviculture or in the wild, then we breed it up to large numbers over a few years.

that's the theory anyway, MY finch club is still picking a species.

[jusdeb]

The idea is to breed up a large number of birds that are strong enough to be released back into the wild , this is the hard part coz with so few to work with it takes a bit of thinking to breed them without actually inbreeding them .
They will only breed the bestto the best and when they have enough to continue with the breeding programme they start releasing birds ( tagged ) and hope for the best .
Takes a lot of years a lot of work and a lot of heartbreak but it can work.

[Mickp]

it isnt just about breeding our own native species.
what about those imported species whose numbers are so low that within a few years they could be lost to us altogether.
until finches are allowed to be imported again we need to take care of the foreign species that we still have available.

[Diane]

So what can we do to help? Could we form our own co-operative?

[jusdeb]

Could do Di however the cost of setting up and maintaining aviaries is beyond most of us thus my peeve about it being up to the individual ....the government needs to be more pro active when it comes to threatened species.
The whole logistics thing is a nightmare with so many of us living so far away from each other as birds need to be out bred .
Could be done ... of course anything can be done if you put your mind to it maybe someone can be a little less pessimistic and suggest ways to do it .

[finchbreeder]

Probably would have to have a volanteer group in each state. Though only some of the birds would be available in each location. Someone with a reasonable amount of space volanteers an avairy. The group each volanteer a bird or 10 depending on what each person/group has. And the group work co-operatively to keep records and see to the feeding etc. Relys heavily on the enthusiasm, dedication and sacrifice (of space, time and birds) of a caring group of people. Unfortuneatly the tyrany of distance makes it harder in Australia than in some other places.
LML