Aussie Finch Forum

hi all, im a big fan of longtails, and am having great trouble finding any in south Australia, tried the s.a.bird company, can anyone point me in a good direction,
i have one on his own and his is miserable, thanks all for your time. sally.

Don't know if any of these places have any longtails but worth checking out
Emblem Aviaries 95 Holbrooks Road Flinders Park 8443 4965
Gem Birds 1181 Main North Road.
Hakendorfs The Parade at Beulah Park, runs out the back of his house, think the entrance is in Salop St. 8431 2939 to confirm address and hours of opening.
Camsal Aviaries Wiley Street Elizabeth South 8255 0880
Barossa Aviaries Plush Street Greenock 8562 8135
Barossa Bird Club have a web site where they offer birds for sale. http://www.barossabird.com.au/birds_for_sale.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

bluebutterfly213..... thank you very much for the suggested places, i appreciate your time and help on this. kind regards, sally.

Looks like a hecks with the colour of the beak.

zebman wrote:Looks like a hecks with the colour of the beak.

hi, yes, correct me of im wrong, but i thought longtails were hecks, his tail is short in this photo ,normally he has his fancy long ones.

Yes, that's definitely a Hecks.

Sally, you'll need to find another red beaked bird, the yellow beak is a different subspecies:
(a) they can and do hybridise leading to impure bloodlines:
(b) my experience is that the Hecks are more aggressive and will fight the normals (yellow beaks) for nesting and feeding stations. I now keep only normals.

Note that the red beak is not considered a mutation, while they do inter-breed where the ranges overlap it is not common and they have distinct ranges in the wild (Hecks in the western end, normals in the eastern end).

natamambo wrote:Yes, that's definitely a Hecks.

Sally, you'll need to find another red beaked bird, the yellow beak is a different subspecies:
(a) they can and do hybridise leading to impure bloodlines:
(b) my experience is that the Hecks are more aggressive and will fight the normals (yellow beaks) for nesting and feeding stations. I now keep only normals.

Note that the red beak is not considered a mutation, while they do inter-breed where the ranges overlap it is not common and they have distinct ranges in the wild (Hecks in the western end, normals in the eastern end).

thank you for the information, i do find that the hecks i have had will not live with anyone else, can i ask, are hecks completely different from long tails? normally the bird in the picture has a long tail with two very fancy long curved feathers at the rear. i do appreciate your help.
thanks for your reply,
kind regards
sally.

Both are long-tails, yellow bill is Poephila acuticauda with the hecks being the Sub species Poephila acuticuada hecki.
As natamambo said:
Note that the red beak is not considered a mutation, while they do inter-breed where the ranges overlap it is not common and they have distinct ranges in the wild (Hecks in the western end, normals in the eastern end).
I have the hecks in normal, fawn and cream which is quite often wrongly called white.

Both long tails were in very high numbers a few years ago in aviaries in S.A. The only reason atm they may be hard to find is most breeders would be holding back stock as they are most likely in full breeding mode atm.If so there will be plenty available soon.

gomer wrote:Both long tails were in very high numbers a few years ago in aviaries in S.A. The only reason atm they may be hard to find is most breeders would be holding back stock as they are most likely in full breeding mode atm.If so there will be plenty available soon.

hi there thanks very much for the explanation, i was concerned this might be a shortage for the season, so your information is most helpful.
thank you.