W
William Astor
Guest
Today, 17 June, I close-rung two yellow winged Pytilia fledglings which I happened to see in the plant cover.
Rotmaskenastrild === Yellow-Winged Pytilia === Pytilia hypogrammica
I waited until they exposed themselves away from the undergrowth and caught them without too much hassle with a 23 cms diameter net. I used Size C closed metal rings. The closed rings were quite easy to fit. Size C rings have an inner diameter of 2.5 mm.
For those interested in details.....
I gave them hard boiled egg finely cut, germinating millet and canary seeds, no grass seeds whatsoever, and lots of green English lettuce and cucumber. No insects either. I change the egg once every 4 hours to make sure it is fresh but the Pytilias do not seem to eat it unlike the other species e.g. orange cheeks. The Pytilias mostly like lettuce, cucumber and germinating seed which I replenish in the afternoon.
I started this food at six in the morning when they had the eggs and hatchlings in the nest and about a week ago I started giving this food at eight in the morning. Every 4 hours, I replenish the egg and usually the germinating seed and the lettuce because it is all eaten by late afternoon.
It is amazing that these two young came about because I still have to build breeding flights in order to place one pair of these birds to a flight. At the moment there are about 5 pairs altogether and lots of fighting and chasing by both cocks and hens. This of course should lead to infertile eggs.
OUT OF TEN AFRICAN FINCH SPECIES that I have had so far, I find that this species is the ONLY one that I have that do not like animal protein AT ALL even when they are breeding .....!!! This is VERY STRANGE because all the other African species I have cannot get enough of animal protein when I offer it to them.
The Yellow Winged Pytilia NEVER ate the mealworms and the blowfly larvae when I gave them these. And they have stubbornly refused to eat hard boiled egg to this day even when breeding.
Can anyone explain why this species does not eat animal protein please ?
If you tell me that your Pytilias eat animal protein, your birds must be coming from a different part of Africa or must be some subspecies of the hypogrammica species. I cannot understand what is going on with this species.
Thank you,
William
Rotmaskenastrild === Yellow-Winged Pytilia === Pytilia hypogrammica
I waited until they exposed themselves away from the undergrowth and caught them without too much hassle with a 23 cms diameter net. I used Size C closed metal rings. The closed rings were quite easy to fit. Size C rings have an inner diameter of 2.5 mm.
For those interested in details.....
I gave them hard boiled egg finely cut, germinating millet and canary seeds, no grass seeds whatsoever, and lots of green English lettuce and cucumber. No insects either. I change the egg once every 4 hours to make sure it is fresh but the Pytilias do not seem to eat it unlike the other species e.g. orange cheeks. The Pytilias mostly like lettuce, cucumber and germinating seed which I replenish in the afternoon.
I started this food at six in the morning when they had the eggs and hatchlings in the nest and about a week ago I started giving this food at eight in the morning. Every 4 hours, I replenish the egg and usually the germinating seed and the lettuce because it is all eaten by late afternoon.
It is amazing that these two young came about because I still have to build breeding flights in order to place one pair of these birds to a flight. At the moment there are about 5 pairs altogether and lots of fighting and chasing by both cocks and hens. This of course should lead to infertile eggs.
OUT OF TEN AFRICAN FINCH SPECIES that I have had so far, I find that this species is the ONLY one that I have that do not like animal protein AT ALL even when they are breeding .....!!! This is VERY STRANGE because all the other African species I have cannot get enough of animal protein when I offer it to them.
The Yellow Winged Pytilia NEVER ate the mealworms and the blowfly larvae when I gave them these. And they have stubbornly refused to eat hard boiled egg to this day even when breeding.
Can anyone explain why this species does not eat animal protein please ?
If you tell me that your Pytilias eat animal protein, your birds must be coming from a different part of Africa or must be some subspecies of the hypogrammica species. I cannot understand what is going on with this species.
Thank you,
William