Aussie Finch Forum

How do softbills like orange chats and robins go in the colder temperatures of Aus. When it comes to softbills there is limited articles and the some articles that I do find; the often conflict with each other. Hence the many questions.

A guy called Peter Mundry,who lives in Wesburn vic use to bred most of the exotic finches and soft bills and did very well until the fires wiped him out,very wet and cold in Wesburn,someone on the forum might be able to put you in touch with him,garyh

garyh wrote:A guy called Peter Mundry,who lives in Wesburn vic use to bred most of the exotic finches and soft bills and did very well until the fires wiped him out,very wet and cold in Wesburn,someone on the forum might be able to put you in touch with him,garyh

Also GMc on this forum,it gets very cold in Boulder and also very hot as in Canberra. He breeds those species,also EOrix. Cheers Craig

My main concern is that the winters would be too cold with -7 on a bad night. I aslo dont want to find its too windy or wet for these birds in canberra

crazy cuban wrote:My main concern is that the winters would be too cold with -7 on a bad night. I aslo dont want to find its too windy or wet for these birds in canberra

The question is,are the birds you are talking about being bred/keep in Canberra and if so what are they doing for their survival,you need to find that out before you proceed with anything imo. Craig

Over the last week we have experienced severe frosts with the temp. dropping well below freezing but followed by a sunny day.
Water dishes can remain frozen over until after 10 am unless the ice is broken by hand.
We have not lost a single bird to my knowledge.
Why? Birds can stand cold temperatures quite well provided they are given adequate protection from air movement and having metal walls
insulated if possible. All my aviaries have deep shelters, but not box type.
Any air movement pushes the warmed air trapped between the birds feathers away and must be replaced. This requires energy and if the
conditions are too bad the bird suffers. An example is if at night a bird gets a fright and lands on the wire the odds of it surviving in cold weather is remote.
So if you live in a area that experiences low temperatures give the birds deep warm still air shelters

Speak to Adam from the Canberra finch club... He keeps various softbills in Canberra and knows quite a lot about them