Yellow Mantled Whydah

[laurab]

Hi all

I have a cock yellow mantled whydah housed with my Weavers, the problem is he has now come in to his breeding season but has no hen of his own. He has now started to chase around my hen Weavers.

Do you think I should remove him from the aviary? :-?

[Waxbillman]

hello Laura

can you not get a hen or 2 for him?

matthew

[chris]

well, from the latin name: Euplectes macrourus, they would definately appear to be the same family as your weavers, and i reckon the whydah hens aren't too different so if you leave him in you could end up with a hybrid or two. i'd search for a few hens for him, 3 should do it:grin: but if you can't find any, and don't want hybrids then i'd remove him.

i think whydahs do a strange dance before mating, so it maybe unlikely that they will cross breed but should it happen there will most likely be chicks do to the close realtionship of the species

Chris:-?

[laurab]

Hi


he does do a very strange head-bobbing dance :razz: getting hold of hens is a little difficult around here.

My main worry is that he may put my weavers off of breeding.

[PAUL HEARN]

Hello all,

Chris, you are right in that the Euplectes Whydah and Weaver Families are closely related, but some of the books class the Euplectes Whydahs (including the Yellow Mantled) as Coliuspasser.:?
I would have thought the risk of Hybridisation is very low due to the Weavers and Whydahs having different courtship displays, but having said that the Whydah is in breeding condition and not having hens of his own kind he will try courting any female that looks the part.

Laura, it's very sad that there aren't any Yellow Mantled Whydah hens available at the moment, my advice would be to remove the cock and put him in your Waxbill aviary, but before you release him with the other Birds it would be a good idea to put him into an all wire cage and hang this inside the aviary for a few days to allow the current occupants time to get used to him sharing their aviary.

This would be better than the alternative of putting him in a cage in the Birdroom and you could still enjoy watching his courtship displays,:D but of course if this idea doesn't work out, then Birdroom it is.:|


What do you think Laura?

Paul.:)

[laurab]

Hi Paul


I am inclined to agree with you, I just wasn't sure about putting him in with the waxbills.

[laurab]

Just to let you all know I have now removed the Whydah from the aviary and he is currently housed in a double breeder in disgrace.

It was with luck that I arrived home early from work yesterday andI heard a lot of noise coming from the aviary. I dashed outside to see what was going on and discovered one of my hen weavers with her foot entangled in a woven nest and was hanging upside down with the Whydah bearing down on her and pecking at her :twisted:

I managed to set her free and I promptly netted the Whydah. :razz:

[hippocroc]

hi laura, i too have a problematic wydah. it's a pintail, and it does have a hen. she's in breeding condition ( her beaks gone from red to black). but he doesn't seem to want to know. however the napoleon weaver would like to be accepted by her. The orange cheek wax bills and the red ear wax bills are both nesting, an important factor in wydah breeding, so this may encourage the hen wydah to accept her mates advances.
my red billed weaver that i was looking for a hen to accompany him, turns out to be a hen and now i can't find a cock bird.:-x But the napoleon is weaving anything to anything. even wove a cover to the silver bills tunnel nest, much to their annoyance.
My neighbour was in his garden last week trying to catch a pr of 'stray 'zebra's. turns out they were his! he had a small gap in the aviary wire and he lost 5 of his 8. then a cat got 1 more. bummer eh? anyway hope the rest of the season proves to be fruitful for you :-)

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Laura,

I'm sorry to hear the news on the Whydah:-|, hopefully you may find some hens for him before next years breeding season and they could all live in your smaller aviary next year?:wink:

Paul.:wink:

[PAUL HEARN]

Hello Sue,

I'm sorry to say your Pin-Tailed Whydah is going to be aggressive all the time he is in breeding condition:-|, although your Pin-Tails may parasitize on the Orange Cheeked and Red Eared Waxbills their Natural host Species are St Helena Waxbills, the hen Whydah may take more interest in breeding if you buy a couple of pairs of these?

And you should be able to buy a cock Red Billed Weaver from Dorset Birds, they may have one or two hen Napolean Weavers as well?

Paul.:-)

[hippocroc]

hi paul,
he's not aggressive, just energetic. never rests, at least not while i'm watching!
not to sure about pairing the weavers, i'm told they can be evil to babies of other species, and i have 3 hen canaries a set of zebra's and bengalese and silver bills all nesting. what's your experience of them in a communal aviary?

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Sue,

I have Weavers in a mixed Species aviary as does Laura, there shouldn't be a problem with Weavers being aggressive toward other Birds providing the correct cock to hen ratio is available and the aviary is of a good size.

Paul.:wink: