White-Browed Scubwren

[Jayburd]

Hi all,
At work we have at least a pair of white browed scrubwrens.
I was wondering - are they fairly easy to keep? I know yellow-throated scrubwrens are becoming more common.
I know this so far:
they need dense cover/possibly leaf litter
They are insectivores
They can be housed with finches in BIG aviaries (what about smaller ones?)

And my questions are thus:
Does anyone really breed them?
are they as easy to breed as normal fairy-wrens?
Do they require special upkeep, foods etc. apart from livefood?
and anything else

[Tintola]

Hi Jay
When you say that you have a pair at work I'm assuming that you mean in one of the aviaries, not wild. As you know I keep the Yellow Throated Scrub Wrens and they would be one of the easiest and hardy of the softbills.
White Broweds live on my land and are always fighting and being territorial with my Y.T.s. W.Bs are more adaptable to a wide range of habitat from coastal heath to dense rainforest so should be even easier than the Y.T.s. I have not kept them myself because they are around the house.
They breed from mid winter on until about Christmas and I have seen their nests in some of the strangest places from ground level underneath couch grass, tucked into mondo grass clumps, suspended in hanging baskets of plants and secreted into the fronds of a staghorn fern.
They are mainly insectivorous but these wild ones also eat discarded softfood mix, Lorikeet wet mix spillages grated cheese that i sometimes toss to them. They do need a planted aviary, the larger the better, with leaf litter to turn over, it's amazing what they find to eat in there.
I don't think there would be any trouble housing them with finches, only with other closely related species.

[Jayburd]

That's great Tintola, Thanks
yes I do mean in the big aviary
now I have to sit an have a think about where to go with this. probably not in the "lets get them" direction, because of leaf litter (mum would kill me ).....
time will see a pair in my collection at some point though

[Mickp]

Jay with some of these species that you plan to keep in the future, how about a species profile or two?

[Jayburd]

maybe.... all the info on species I have not kept comes originally from other forum/bird people though so perhaps they'd be better to write it.

[Mickp]

Good answer there Jay
Guess I'll have to be patient and wait until you have the birds