Aussie Finch Forum

With current talks of hybrid birds being breed (by accident) and with pure blood lines being at risk of pollution as a safe measure to protect the purity of our remaining sock in Australia I ask would you buy a bird knowing it's a hybrid and prevent this bird from breeding.

It's a small price to pay for such a valuable long term investment for all.

Rich.

Good question. ...if I could convince owner not do more..probably yes...although I dont like euthanizing birds ..I would in that case. ..

This is where this controversial question gets hard, as an experienced breeder of many years i would say NO. But it's the inexperienced breeder or enthusiastic newcomers to aviculture that don't know the difference between the pure bird and a hybrid that will stuff up pure strains,it's just human nature imo.
There are the hybrids that are deliberately bred to save a specie in Australia that have come close to the real thing but they will always be a hybrid,for example Aberdeen cross Cut throat and Blue cap hen cross Violet ear cock as well as Grenadier waxbill cross blue cap hen,these pairings are fertile but their continuation of breeding will never produce pure birds,so no i would never keep them for further breeding or hold them till they die as i am not a softy.
Now i've opened a can of worms. Craig

You have Craig, opened a can of worms,

I have been to many sales, but do not see much of the hybrid in the finch side of things bar goldfinch crosses but...... the hookbill side is totally different, and ask big money. Cross macaws, cross rosellas, cross cockatoos.

Well, what do I say? Money speaks all!

But in all reality who buys them?

Ken.

I must say that I also think deliberate hybridising for what ever reason is just bad. There are however two cenarios where I find it acceptable (my opinion of course!) Where a species has declined so far that only one sex is left. We have only 6 Timor Sparrow hens left this side. I managed to acquire one and she currently paired to a Java-Timor hybrid hoping to breed something 75% of the pure bird. When it comes down to that then I don't see any harm in it. Secondly a few of our Lonchura are now quite messed up and at the point of disappearing. These are Javan and Moluccan Munias as well as Spice Finches and sadly Chestnuts. In these cases I think using fairly "pure" looking birds to pure birds is OK to prevent loosing them. With the Lonchura family the "templet" so to speak is very similar so pure looking birds can result, but the example given of the Bluecaps and Grenadiers I wouldn't encourage as I can't see producing anything close to a Grenadier and also now one pollutes the Bluecaps as well. But sadly we can't control others actions hey!

If there is only one sex left in the country and the only choice is extinction. In Australia. Then it seems, to me, there is not a problem. Breed them to the nearest non endangered related species. BUT. Call them Australian (insert name of original species here) to differentiate from the pure originals.
LML

would you buy a bird knowing it's a hybrid and prevent this bird from breeding.

Unfortunately this just creates a market for hybrids.
Education is the key, spend your money on the pure bred birds and this will encourage everyone to produce them.

Cheers
Brett

BrettB wrote:

would you buy a bird knowing it's a hybrid and prevent this bird from breeding.

Unfortunately this just creates a market for hybrids.
Education is the key, spend your money on the pure bred birds and this will encourage everyone to produce them.

Cheers
Brett

Yes Brett I argee and once again money is the evil here.

Rich.

Here in Aust. we have accepted hybridizing under certain conditions.
I will not bother to comment too much on the parrot fraternity but that is dollar driven and or the pet trade.
When it comes to the Finches it can and has caused problems.
Firstly not all hybrids are fertile or infertile. Depending on what has crossed you can have both fertile, both infertile or
one of the sex fertile. Infertile ones are not a problem, but the others have to be monitored very closely as they will wreck
a specie over time.
I guess this is why hybridizing the Canary types is accepted as most are infertile.This is also where the single fertile sex situation
has occurred. Canary to a Red Siskin produces an F1. The cock bird is fertile the hen bird infertile. This is what was used to aide the
red coloured Canary. A waste of a Siskin in my opinion but accepted and given many great pleasure and interest.
The biggest problem is we can't afford fertile hybrids appearing in our finch stocks.
If the species has to put up with hybrids and mutations what happens to the normal pure form.
As far as I am aware Sth Africa doesn't have a pure normal Gouldian and many of their Munia stocks are not pure.
Many occurred when shipments arrived and were mixed up at the point of original sale.
This happened here in the dim dark days with our St Helena Waxbills, our blood line would have Common Waxbill, St Helena Waxbill
blood in them. No one knew and as they were closely related and looked similar they all became St Helenas. I dare say there would be others
as well. Blue Breasted Waxbills got absorbed into our Red Cheeked Cordon Blue.