Newly build aviary and some update pics of my collection

After 3 weeks of planning, buying, and building, the new aviary for the birds are almost complete. There is total of 7 small aviary (4ft deep x 2 ft wide x 6ft tall) all connect together and divided by a sheet of plywood. The goal is when breeding season come, all i need to do is take one of the divided plywood down and two small aviary become one 4x4x6 breeding aviary. I still need to finish the last mini aviary and clean up.



Close up one each mini aviary:



My H2N1 female: a mom of 14 babies this 09 season. She is starting to molt.



My H3N1 male: a father of 14 babies this 09 season. He is starting to molt.



My H5N1 male: He is born this year 2009 from one of my best friend DV & Andy. Currently is near the end of molting. Tail is about little over 7.5in





My H1N1 male: He is born last year 2008. I acquired him from my best friend Andy. First molt is 8in long tail from tip to end. He is curently on molt.



My H32N2 female: She is born this year 2009 from father H3N1 and mother H2N1






My H4N1 female: She is born this year 2009 also.




Cockroach egg sacks. Cockroach is another souce of food that I feed my bird. I try to raise them instead of buying.

Molting pics

Some pics of the bird that are currently molting

Baby female shama hatched on July 08




Baby male shama hatched on April (I think). This one is from one of my good friend and hopefully he will be my breeding stock for years to come.








The father of 14 babies is about to enter molting:




This is the first shama I have since the beginning of this year. Next year he will be 2 years old and will be my main breeding stock.






Here is a pair of Hwamei that I plan to breed next year:

Breeding Season of white-rumped shama is Over. Time for Molting

Last egg batch of the season did not yield any babies. No hatch due to unfertile eggs. He he, the male shama did a great job as a father of six batches. He's a father of total 14 babies and feeding them non-stop every batch; however, the female shama did a spectacular job as a mom. She laid like 30 eggs total this season and also care and feed all her babies very well. Most of my shama are currently molting or about to enter molting season. Feeding schedule with large quantity of insect such as cricket and cockroach (approx. 40 to 50 crickets per day) and supplies with multi-vitamin will be the main thing I concentrate on during molting season. Beside cricket and cockroach, I also feed them occasionally with earthworm, guppy fish, and small mealworm.
Within few weeks, I'll re-build all the aviary to be able to care for them little easier and move them to new location (facing East) with the hope that the aviary will be little cooler in the Summer and has morning sunlight instead of afternoon sunlight (facing West) as of current.

Shama pair's 7th clutch update

It's been awhile since I update this blog. Fifth batch is a total loss. 2 out of 4 eggs hatched but the parents throw them out on the 4th day. I think the reason is part of my mistake to leave 2 unhatched eggs still inside the nest with 2 hatched babies. I think the parents throw those two babies out to continue to incubate the remain eggs per their instinct. Sixth batch has 4 eggs but only one hatched and the remain three eggs has chick develop inside but could not hatch. I don't know what is the reason for this but I assume part of it is the egg laied in late season which didn't have enough substance to develop a strong baby or partly due to super hot weather during those incubation time.

Here is a little clip of 7th batch of 08 season. Eleven days and no hatch yet so far. Hope I can some babies out of this batch.

Shama pair's 4th clutch of the 2009 season hatched

Three eggs hatched on June 16th, and the fourth one hatched the next day. I'll try to document the growing process of these babies from the time they hatch until they fled their nest 12 days later. I will only post some of the hightlight of the day and will try as much as I can to document their growing process so we can learn and understand more on the bird's behavior.

First day of hatching:


Second day of hatching part 1:


Second day of hatching part 2:


Third day of hatching: Too lazy to do it! :D

Fourth day of hatching part 1:


Fourth day of hatching part 2:

Pair of Hwamei

Few pics of recent pair up of the two Hwamei. So far they seem happy together :) Both this male and female Hwamei is only average quality, but since I want to try my hand on this favorite bird, I don't need high quality bird to enjoy their company.


The female Hwamei is on the right hand side




Male Hwamei is on the left hand side


The male Hwamei

22 days old baby white rumped shama (chich choe lua)

Two out of the three babies. Pictures were taken by camera phone so the quality is not so good.

The Hwamei is one of my favorite bird ever since I was a child, but never have a chance to keep it until recently. Here is the pair that I want to try my hand on breeding them.

Shama pair's 4th clutch of the 2009 season

Like clock work, 3rd day of the month is the day the female shama laid egg for the last 4 times in this 2009 season. Early morning of June 3rd, one egg appears in the nest. Hopefully this clutch doesn't have the issue like the last two clutch of early incubation on the 2nd day by the femal; thus resulting two out of five babies died in the first 3 days due to too much different in size.

Daily feeding schedule include one big feeding of crickets and small roaches early in the morning before I go to work. In the afternoon, another big feeding same as in the morning but also add some mealworms and/or giant mealworms. Liquid multivitamin and liquid vitamin B complex is mixed with crickets one feeding per every other day. During the first twelve days period before the chicks leave the nest, I usually also feed guppies 3 times, small earthworms 2-3 times (dig from my backyard) with the hope that those food can bring enough level of calcium and protein for the chicks need to grow without any issue of weak or deform leg/wing. After the chicks left the nest, I only feed guppies and small earthworms once a week or so until they can eat for themself then I feed like once every two weeks or once per month depend on whenever I like to go out to buy some guppies.

Water is provided new daily. Calcium powder is mixed with water every other day and using the concentration from manufacturing instruction. On the other day, I only provide regular drinking water. Calcium is provided during the period of egg laying and about 2-3 days before and after the event.

Clip of the female inspect the nest to prepare for laying egg:





Clip of the female lays her first egg of this 4th clutch: