Violet Eared Waxbill

[JohnP]

Dianne,

In the December newsletter you have a photo of a Violet Eared Waxbill, what a wonderful looking bird. Can you tell me anuthing about the variety and availability.

As ususal a great newsletter and from me and the other forum members a Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all our Administrators and Moderators.

[Jayburd]

John,
Contact Monotwine, she took the pics (the thread is in the members finch photo's section)

agreed, and seconded happy summer and christmas to all!!!

[Diane]

They are the pics from Monotwine, so she would be the best person to ask about the birds.
Glad you enjoy the newsletters.

[monotwine]

JohnP I will gladly let you know what I do, but will only be able to post a decent response later today.

[GregH]

I fear looking at the locations of JohnP and Montwine that the answer to the availability question is going to be very different in Canberra and Cape Town!

[monotwine]

Availablility in Australia is that they are very rare - not available at all. Although I think they are still around in very short supply with perhaps specialist breeders? Aussie will be able to give you more accurate info though.

Violet Eared Waxbill - Granatina granatina
Latin for a garnet, a reference to the birds purple cheeks and ear-coverts

They occur naturally in drier parts of Southern Africa and north to Angola and Zambia and can be found in Acacia thickets and riverine bush where they often forage on the ground, eating seeds and insects. Can also be seen in cultivated fields. Birds are usually seen as solitary, in pairs or in small flocks.
Birds have a height of 14 cms and weighs around 12 grams.

Diet: VE will take Invertebrates, Fruit, veg and Seeds. Mine don't touch things like egg food, but others that have kept them have found differently. Depends on the pair and their domestication I guess.
Live food is a must for breeding and they will gladly take just about any form of it. Mealies, maggots, white ants, termites, fruitfly, small crickets even I suppose would go down.

In the wild they will take insects such as butterflies, bees, wasps, locusts and ants. These are usually hawked aerially, killed and then eaten.

Breeding: Birds are monogamous unless its mate dies. So you need to allow them to choose their mates from a flock and then seperate pairs.
Nests are created in high branches of a tree or shrub - although mine prefer grass clumps. 2-5 white eggs are layed. Young look much like the females and sexes can be determined after about three or four months.
(mine are a young pair going into their first breeding season, so I cannot give too much info from experience re breeding)

Housing: Pairs should be housed seperately and can be kept with other Estrildids, but they can interbreed with any other of the Cordon-bleus and Grenadiers
I would think a planted free flight aviary is best to keep them in if you want to breed, but some keep them in large cages. I have no experience cage breeding them, but I seem to recall reading that it has been done successfully.

This species needs extra care in cold weather and a little extra warmth. It should be protected from sudden changes in temperature.

Came across this Aussie site once that had a write up on them.
http://www.birdcare.com.au/violet_eared_waxbill.htm


Hope this answers your query.

[JohnP]

Monique,

Thank you for the info but as I feared (and others) it is not a variety I would expect to find in Oz and if I did it is probably going to be too tempremental to keep and breed. A shame because it is truly a stunning bird.

[monotwine]

JohnP if it makes you feel any better they are not readily available here either. It took me the better part of a year to source a cock bird when I lost the originals mate.
They are stunning birds though.