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I got a second 'green singer' !

Tyrion

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Great pic :)
 

Emma&pico

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Hard to see. When I come close they tend to flatten themselves but in this picture they are reasonably well visible.
The adult is dad. For the chicks, zoom in.
View attachment 417776
Aww they are so cute lovely set up love the little rope
 

finchly

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Thanks for trying! I keep a ladder in my bird room so I can get up above and shoot photos. Sometimes you still can’t really see them. And you’re right - with the more nervous birds, better to back off than risk the parents abandoning them or something.
It’s a good photo though. :)
 

Blueszz

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Thanks guys.
The cage is not decorated. Once they were in breeding mode they wanted to use the decorations for building a nest. Which became dangerous because of the long fibers.
To my surprise one of the chicks was easy to get a picture from. Not skittish at all.

CDAFD76C-950B-49C3-8ACA-F54FAA3EFCEE.jpeg

They use that rope often
I have a stick hanging from 2 ropes, like a giant swing.
 

Emma&pico

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Thanks guys.
The cage is not decorated. Once they were in breeding mode they wanted to use the decorations for building a nest. Which became dangerous because of the long fibers.
To my surprise one of the chicks was easy to get a picture from. Not skittish at all.

View attachment 417825

They use that rope often
I have a stick hanging from 2 ropes, like a giant swing.
Such lovely colours are you keeping the babies
 

Blueszz

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Such lovely colours are you keeping the babies
No I can't keep the babies. Maybe one (male).

These are kind of aggressive birds. Males would kill each other and that is true for the females too. Because of that I have to observe their behavior well. Even the babies, especially the male ones, can be killed at a certain age by dad. Or mom goes after dad.

It takes 6-7 months until I know what sex they are, after their firs molt. No chance they can live that long with their parents. It's likely a few weeks instead of a few months.

From what I've read, once they are breeding, they are hard to stop.

If I keep them I have to house each bird seperately because of aggressiveness towards the same sex and to avoid inbreeding.

Luckily these birds are easy to find new owners for. They are rarely kept as pet indoors, so most will go to an outdoor aviary. Which I think is aweome for them.
 

jh81

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We call them Mozambique Siskins here in the Netherlands, i used to have them in the aviary, they are lovely birds to watch goign about their business :)
 

Blueszz

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We call them Mozambique Siskins here in the Netherlands, i used to have them in the aviary, they are lovely birds to watch goign about their business :)
Hi Jan,

I agree, they are lovely active birds and the male’s song is wonderful, especially when he sings for his hen while she’s sitting on the eggs.

How many Serinus mozambicus did you have in the aviary? One adult couple? Or was your aviary that spacious that you could house more of them? Please tell me more about how you housed them and in what time of the year they were in breeding mood. Did you breed them anyway! Indoors/ outdoors?

I read that it sometimes takes a few years until they start breeding, while my couple was an instant match.

One last question, is it normal behavior that the male does the majority of feeding the chicks around the age of 10 days and older?
Sorry for so many questions, I’m eager to learn more about them and I appreciate sharing your experience with them.
 

Blueszz

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Enjoy!

Both left the nest which is way too early for the youngest, at least that is how I feel about it. Put it back in the nest once but it left it again, so it be.
I hoop the parents keep feeding them! Not seen/heard evidence of that yet

Pictured the oldest chick

36278321-4CAB-4F42-9064-B588E37136E5.jpeg
F9B9E85E-D67F-4AEB-97C0-FCF97713C7BB.jpeg
4D93076F-9BCB-47B4-9575-D1B383339AB8.jpeg
 

jh81

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I had once multiple couples in seperated aviary’s. It doesnt matter how big it is, they will always find and fight eachother. Its the only downside of siskins i suppose. Depending on the couple it can take some time yes. I find siskin females to be rather picky about their mates, much unlike Canarys :) The only exception to the rules seem to be red siskins. I kept thouse in a small group and they where fun and very beautiful. You can see a post of mine here of last year when i had a single couple red siskins.

generally speaking they follow the local weather. I always kept them outdoors, but with a heated indoor cage they could access. They only did so in very cold weather, most of the year they would stay outside. But they are very prone to draft and moist. So any aviary should be free of windy, moist/damp situation.

As soon as the little siskins fly out of the nest, the man does indeed take over feeding because generally speaking the female will start laying eggs again rather soon. I had cases where the female start laying eggs again the day after the last young left. If you have a good matching couple, you can easy breed 4 times a year. Thats why a lot of breeders will seperate males from females after 3 nests. And i really believe this is the max. Otherwise the female will use up all her bones to create calcium for their egg shells. Nobody should want that.
 

Emma&pico

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Blueszz

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Thank you Jan for all the information you gave. Echt geweldig de moeite die je er voor deed ;-)
As you now probably suspect, I'm from the Netherlands too.


It doesnt matter how big it is, they will always find and fight eachother.
That's what I read too. Thanks for the confirmation.


You can see a post of mine here of last year when i had a single couple red siskins.
I never heard of that species, they are beautiful.


generally speaking they follow the local weather.
I read that some follow the seasons south of the Sahara. But there is more contradicting info about them online about this subject.

Mine got as many light as the current amount of daylight in the Netherlands. No artificial light, also not from the outdoors.
This time of the year that isn't a many hours of light and less each day. The days are short. Temperature 17-18 °C (indoors)

I was surprised the male wanted to breed her already, after 7 weeks with her, but I didn't give them a nest until she was ready for it too.

Curious what they do next.

I removed the nest today as i don't want to encourage breeding and am not giving them nesting material atm. The male is 1 year old, born about a year ago. Also not during spring/summer.


But they are very prone to draft and moist.
Thank you. For now mine stay indoors, and I will make up my mind next spring.


As soon as the little siskins fly out of the nest, the man does indeed take over feeding because generally speaking the female will start laying eggs again rather soon.
Aha!
Today I saw (no I heard) the female feeding the tiny young that is way to young and helpless for my likings. At 13-14 days old it's very fragile. The parents don't feed it as much as the young siskin that does way better. That one begs for food more often and moves around surprisingly well. It gets fed more often also.

Fingers crossed for the tiniest of the two, hopefully it will make it.

If you have a good matching couple, you can easy breed 4 times a year. Thats why a lot of breeders will seperate males from females after 3 nests. And i really believe this is the max.
I totally agree! I wouldn't mind at all if it were 1 (wishful thinking) max 2 nests.
To be honest, if I can stop them now I will. For me it's not about breeding although, can't deny it, I love witnessing the process.

As I explained, they didn't have longer daylight hours than what nature gives them and I only fed protein rich food once a week. But I prolonged the daylight hours gradually while the hen was sitting on her eggs, until 12 hours a day, that way they have more hours to feed they young. I have LED above them which fades in/out slowly, programmed with an app on my phone.

Once these young don't need to be fed by the parents anymore and need to be separated from the parents, I will reduce daylight hours again and refrain from egg food / frutti patee or live food for the adults.

Good to know that eventually separating the male and female is the only thing that can prevent them from breeding. I defenitely will do so if that is needed.


Otherwise the female will use up all her bones to create calcium for their egg shells. Nobody should want that.
That's something we should protect her from. Agree. They'll live longer and will reward you with young next season. 3 Nests is more than I hope for. Witnessing the process from mating until the young are independent of the parents is wonderful. Amazing how nature/instinct kicks in and how the adults know what to do/feed the young. Love to witness that process again but not when the animals suffer from it.
 

jh81

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Its nice to see other dutch people here :)) somehow i find the dutch community’s less pleasant :(

I firmly believe it is important we help eachother, both in knowledge and support. The rate that bird species go extinct means soon all we have left is birds in aviarys :( Its a shame really but alas!
What LED are you using? I’ve read not all LED is good for birds due to the frequency or something, you might read up a bit on that :) I’ve been looking into truelight LED, but i havent made up my mind yet.
 

Blueszz

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To start with. Both young made it through the night and are perching next to each other.



About the LED

I'm using an old Chihiros LED, originally it was my LED for a small aqua scape aquarium. I took that one down and was about to sell the small tank and the LED above, when I realized I can use the LED for the birds. At least give it a try to see how they fare with it during our dark winter months.

I think instead of frequency it's color that you you meant? Or color rendering index? The color of the light I use is about 7500 K, blue-ish. The eye can't register that, looks like bright white to me. Forgot the CRI.

Although it's more than 6500 K (daylight) I don't think it's a problem because the room also gets ambient light from outdoors and where we live it's most times of the year far below 6500 K. Birds live close to a window.

I truely believe that there is an average that is below 7500 K.

We did the same for fish tanks in the past, before LED. Combining several colors TL of to get an average that was optimum for plant growth and at the same time had a great visual aspect while watching the tank (about 4200 - 5000 K). Not saying 5000 K is optimum for birds, I honestly don't know what the optimum is.

I don't know what the color of natural light south from the Sahara is. That would the optimum color for the Mozambique siskin I guess. And then we still have the problem that in the morning and evening more red is visible. Thus I think we should ame for the color of the light mid day.
Although the more expensive LED lights can change Kelvin during the day. But I think it's useless because we don't know the actual numbers we would need to program.

What I know about the flickering from LED is that when dimming the light, it's not the individual LED's that become weaker, but the frequency goes down. At least that is what I read on fish tank forums like UKAPS
 
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Blueszz

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Eye candy.
Both are doing well now. 19 and 17 days old. I can’t tell them apart.

Dad with beautiful bright colors in the background.

91313E10-7CD4-4AF0-96A5-3684865B164E.jpeg
 
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