Things
to take into account: |
| Song
Thrushes are an ideal “starter”
softbill, being very easy to
cater for, the only slight drawback
being the difficulty in sexing
the birds. |
|
|
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|
Song Thrush pair
feeding young |
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| Distribution:
|
| A
familiar and popular garden
songbird, found in woods,
hedgerows, parks and gardens
across the whole of the UK
- wherever there are bushes
and trees. |
Size:
|
The
Song Thrush is slightly smaller
than its relatives, the Mistle
Thrush & Blackbird with
a length of 23 cm & weighing
between 70 & 100g In fact,
the only member of the Thrush
family that is smaller is
the Redwing, a winter migrant. |
| Feeding: |
In
the wild these birds eat Snails
and Worms in the summer months,
and then fruit and berries
in the winter months.
In captivity, very easy to
cater for, with a good universal
softbill food or high protein
dog mixes / layers pellets
as a basic diet.
Add to this some livefood
such as mealworms, and some
additions such as fruit and
grated cheese and that is
all you need.
Snails or worms from “safe”
pesticide free gardens will
be eagerly accepted as a treat. |
| Description
& Sexing: |
Smaller
and browner than a Mistle
Thrush, with smaller &
darker spotting. It has a
rich brown upper body, &
a creamy white breast with
brown spotting. Both male
& female are the same
to look at & cannot be
distinguished by sight.
The main way of distinguishing
the sexes, is quite simply
waiting for the cock bird
to sing, as the female does
not. |
| How
to Choose breeding stock: |
It
always pays to obtain your
stock from a reputable breeder
of these birds, who hopefully
will sell you a genuine pair.
Always ask for unrelated birds
(certainly not brother &
sister). You should obtain
birds that look fit &
healthy, with that sparkle
in their eyes & an active
look about them. Birds sat
in a corner, fluffed up or
with wings drooping should
be avoided.
As these birds are not easy
to sex, it may be difficult
to know with current year
bred birds, so it may pay
to obtain birds that are a
year or two old, their sexes
will be known & they will
have a few years breeding
in them still. These birds
will live up to 12 years,
but do not obtain stock more
than 3 years old. |
| Colour
Variants: |
| There
are some very nice colour
variants available from captive
bred stock, cinnamon being
a very striking one. |
| Housing:
|
Ideally
because of their size, these
birds would benefit from an
aviary of 8 or 9ft in length.
You can keep them in one as
a minimum of 6ft long. Ensure
you have a good perch at either
end, thus encouraging the
birds to get plenty of exercise.
I use chipped bark on the
floor, gives them something
to turn over & hunt for
grubs etc.
I always cover the roofs and
at least one end of my aviaries
these days, to protect from
wild bird infection and the
elements.
Always have a dish of clean
water for these birds as they
will bathe at least once a
day. |
|
Breeding:
|
These
birds can quite happily live
outdoors all year round, being
a hardy native species. If
kept as a bonded pair they
will quite simply breed when
the time is right. If you
increase the amount of livefood
& add a few more extras
to their diet, they will soon
gain peak breeding condition.
If you have bought a pair
of birds that have not bred
together, you should ideally
introduce the cock bird into
the new aviary for a couple
of weeks to let him settle
before introducing his new
mate.
There may well be a bit of
squabbling or snapping at
each other but nothing serious.
It would pay to use 2 feeding
stations at the time of introduction.
Once the eggs are laid, incubation
lasts 14 days & you do
not always see eggshells as
a sign the chicks have hatched,
start to feed some chopped
mealworms in the normal food
mix & then offer white,”skinnies”
mealworms, waxworms &
crickets in a separate container,
basically giving an unlimited
supply of livefood, topping
up several times a day increasing
quantities to meet the demand
as it increases.
After a couple of days &
the chicks are growing, start
to feed earthworms as well.
The chicks stay on livefood
& when they start to feed
themselves, place it in the
basic food mix so they become
used to this as well &
slowly they are weaned onto
it. |
| What
the Song
Thrush use
as nest also materials used: |
| The
nest site should be fixed
into position prior to the
introduction of the birds,
so that they are not disturbed
once in their home. Ask
when you obtain your birds,
what nest sites the seller
has been using, that way
you can offer something
they are familiar with.
The normal nest site is
an 8” square wooden
platform with say 3”
height around 3 sides &
the front being open. They
also will use shallow plastic
plant tubs or one of the
wicker type hanging baskets
are good.
Add some cover round the
nest site with a few conifer
branches & they will
quite happily use it.
Supply a good few handfuls
of hay or dried grasses,
and a bowl of sloppy mud
& these are all that
is required for the nest
building.
This will only take a couple
of days, and then it will
go quiet for a few days
before she lays.
|
| Other
information:
It
is always wise to close
ring any chicks you breed
and this should normally
be done at about 7 days
old, depending on how fast
they are growing. It is
not difficult & then
means that they can be legally
sold or shown & proves
they are captive bred.
|
Article
By Robb Brown ©2006 |
