Aussie Finch Forum

Does anyone know anything about these lovely little birds in aviculture. I noticed them in JF&S and im curious now

Do you mean Yellow-throated?

Good article with pix in 'Softbills & Native Pigeons' . . March 2007

I'd scan and post it but my printer is on the blink

Oops. Yes yellow throated I mean

changed title for you

Yes, I keep and breed them. What do you want to know?

Pretty much everything.

Again the lack of written information on softbills is killer.

Breeding, Housing, Clutch size, Cost and Sourcing the birds.

Any and all help is appreciated

Housing, they do well in a heavily planted, shady aviary with good leaf litter to search through. Their natural habitat is shady areas of the rainforest.
Breeding, very willing to breed at anytime of the year. Hanging nest. Mine use a large finch basket that has been disguised with "Old man's beard" Tillandsia.
Clutch size is usually two or three eggs. Sexing is easy as soon as they leave the nest. Males have a darker face. One of the longest incubation for a small bird, 23 days.
One of the easiest softbills to feed, taking some seed, soft food, egg/biscuit mix, any of the usual live food. They seem to be finding minute items of food all day.
I know of maybe 4 or 5 people in N.S.W. and S.A.who keep them and I would think that a reasonable cost would be a $300 to $400 a pair.
They are one of my favourite species as they are very active and cheeky and great mimics of other birds calls.

Hopefully readable . . if not its beyond me

Well we can look at the pictures . . again hopefully