Aussie Finch Forum

A friend of mine Tim who used to be involved with the (retired) Bengalese Breeders Society sent me this article from an Australian Magazine printed in 2002. It gives a good simple description of some of the general ideals that the group held at the time. 2002 was a bit of a Hay-Day for the Self Bengalese especially in Queensland from what I can gather. Unfortunately there has a decline in the interest for the bird since.

Here is the article it should download for you.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/52557158/Aussie ... rticle.pdf

Enjoy.

There are some beautiful birds on that PDF. The completeness of the spangling on the first bird is top rate. And the dilute is ahead of what I have been able to achieve, but will inspire me to greater effort. But for now I think I will rest the birds this heat is awfull, even for Bengos.
LML

finchbreeder wrote:There are some beautiful birds on that PDF. The completeness of the spangling on the first bird is top rate.

I agree, the markings are quite remarkable. Unfortunately, there is no such bird in Australia, this is called the "Euro" BlackBrown and was developed by the Dutch I think originally by hybridizing with other Munias and Nuns so is not a "pure" wild type Bengalese like we have in Australia. The Euro can be now found in various countries overseas.

You can tell the Euro Bengos because their underbelly markings (Spengling) seem so defined that it is too good to be true when compared to the normal Bengalese. Also the Euro usually does not have the breast scolloping but is solid in colour.
The breast scolloping alongside the spengling in our Aussie birds I think are good features to try and develop.

Cheers

Here is the picture of the Euro Blackbrown Bengalese Finch or others to see.

That is a beautiful bird. Wouldn't it be great if that type existed in Australia?

i imagine with some dedicated and careful hybridisation and selection, we would be able to reproduce a very similar bird. I'd say the main outcross to get that spangling on the belly would be to the Spice Finch...

But we want to use skill. And produce a similar result be selective breeding. Not take the slackers route and hybridize.
LML

finchbreeder, the Euro was produced by hybridising with other munias.

I think Finchbreeder is expressing a view that through selective breeding of the Bengalese hopefully we can develop a finch that has well defined even striking features or even different mutations and still have in the end an Australian Bengalese.
From what I understand, to breed the established Euro it must be treated like a different species altogether (which it is) and is much harder to breed with, the fanciers often use Bengalese to foster them in the end which has a degree of irony to it I think.

Steering clear of the hybrid path is an ideal held by many in Aviculture and if you are amongst those that believe that the Bengalese is simply a domesticated version of the White Rumped Munia (like myself) then attempting to keep the bloodline true to its kind is not such a bad ideal to have.

All said and done the Euro Black Brown is a beautiful finch indeed.
Cheers.

"Finchbreeder is expressing a view that through selective breeding of the Bengalese hopefully we can develop a finch that has well defined even striking features or even different mutations and still have in the end an Australian Bengalese."
Couldn't have put it better myself. So I didn't. Why not copy and paste/invent the wheel when someone else has done it so well already. Yes I realize the bird we are admiring is a Hybrid. One can admire beauty without the need to blindly follow the example given, when there may be another (dare I say better) way of achieving a similarly beatiful result.
LML