mixed aviary

[arthur]

Those who think that wrens are those sweet little birds that Arthur is so unnecessarily paranoid about, should check out Jeff Bray's "Softbills" Face-Book page for some recent offerings on wren behaviour . . posted by some very knowledgeable, and very experienced birdkeepers . .



And then proceed forthwith to build separate accommodation for their beautiful little psychopaths . . before it's too late

[Craig52]

Glad you opened this up again Arthur, as i explained earlier wrens are incompatible with finches in smaller aviaries aggression wise and feeding wise.
It is not nice reading on fb pages that breeders are now finding out how murderous and incompatible they are with many types of birds not just finches. Most of these breeders are finding their birds dead late afternoon or early in the morning so don't know who the culprits are. House appropriately (separately) or except the consequences.

[Gshaw]

I could never breed masks when housed with bloods . There wasn’t much aggression but enough to put them off

[arthur]

Masks are very docile . .

I remember my first pair of WEM's nesting in a hollowed out termites' nest hung in the aviary, being evicted by . .

A pair of Orange-Breasts



And . . As an aside . .

The WEM's were wild caught . . LEGALLY

And . . $7.00 a pair

[Gshaw]

I remember those days Arthur most finches were cheap and if the bird shop didn’t have them there trappers would get some for you . That said after a long time not having birds it’s great to see the advanced breeding and care people have developed over the last 25 years. A lot of finches become hard to acquire in the early 80s when trapping stopped and people have developed skills to breed what was available. Some of the finches I have seen since getting back into it in the last 6 months are excellent quality and the numbers been breed astounding. It’s a credit to all the people involved I just hope we all aspire to breeding a strong wild type gene pool for all types of finches .
Regards Greg

[arthur]

Couldn't agree more Greg . .

And just as youngsters today need to know that food doesn't 'come in a packet from the supermarket' . . Beginners in bird-keeping need to know a bit of the history of the origins of our aviary stock

The efforts of some of the 'pioneers' were remarkable, in that most of the knowledge came from 'trial and error' . . no bird husbandry books or manuals/ internet in those days. It was an acquired skill, or perhaps an instinct

We owe them a debt of gratitude for the species that we still have

When the 'morals' of bird-keeping are discussed, it must be remembered, that all of our captive native population have descended from trapped ancestors; and all of our exotics are from imported birds, also taken from the wild

And, while it may not be the opinion of 'the management' I cannot see any immorality in taking a mutation from the wild, to perpetuate . . when it is already doomed in that wild environment . .

Illegal doesn't always mean immoral . . and . . legal certainly doesn't always mean moral

[noah.till]

Be careful with the purple breasted gouldians, people in the past have had them brutally executed by blue wrens