White-rumped Shama

Competition Held On 7th November 2011

2011-11-10T14:23:00.003+08:00

Unusually, there were 2 shama song competitions held on the same day in Singapore - 7^th November. There was a contest at Bedok, Block 121, organized by Andrew Tan and another at Block 159, Ang Mo Kio.

Michael and I entered our captive bred shamas in both contests. Apache was entered in Bedok where there were more than 50 entries and Piston was entered in AMK where there were more than 40 entries.

Piston was second in the AMK competition.

The contest at Bedok was won by a young shama bred by Alan Pang. Apache only managed a consolation prize. Jimmy's magnificent long-tailed shama was fifth. It was bred by Ronald from Road Runner, a male bred by me.

Vitamin B Complex (3)

2011-09-20T15:17:00.001+08:00

Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 11:47 AM

Hi David

I think there is some problems with my shama. I noticed that the feather under the body is turning to white colour instead of brown.

It also became very still and spend most of the day on the ground of the cage. Can you please advise me

Thank you

Regards

Allan

Hi Allan,

The feathers turning white is probably due a deficiency in minerals. My experience has been that as a shama gets old, some of its feathers (usually the black tails) are unable, during molt, to absorb certain of the minerals that are required for pigmentation. The result is the white colour. The condition seems to be permanent as I have never seen feathers that have turned white revert to their original colour. Apart from the change in colour, the bird is fine.

The cause of the bird being still and spending most of the day on the floor of the cage probably has nothing to do with the lack of minerals that cause the white feathers. The most likely cause is a deficiency of Vitamin B Complex. This vitamin is needed for the digestion of protein and also for the nerves to function properly. A deficiency of this vitamin will result in the bird eating less. Where the deficiency is great, the bird will get fits from which it may not survive. Please check my blog on this topic.

Best regards,

David

National Bird Singing Competition

2011-09-12T08:35:00.000+08:00

The National Bird Singing Competition was held at Potong Pasir, Singapore, yesterday. I entered Michael's shama, Piston, for the competition. I have been keeping the bird as Michael's interest in shamas is presently very low as he has reverted to his primary interest which is Oriental White-eyes and Red Whiskered Bulbuls.

Piston was the only shama that I had available for the competition as my other birds are molting as we approach the tail end of the breeding season in the tropics. Piston placed 2nd in the competition. He is what Michael and I refer to as a "competition bird". By this we mean that he is easy to keep and to bring into form. We expect that he will continue to improve as we better understand what is required to prepare him for competition.

2011-09-07T10:05:00.000+08:00

I am happy to inform that the Shama Club (Singapore) has been registered in Singapore.
The purpose of the Club is to:

• To promote the keeping and breeding of White-rumped Shama (Copsychus malabaricus) as a hobby
• To promote the research and study of White-rumped Shama (Copsychus malabaricus) in all aspects.
• To organise exhibitions of White-rumped Shama (Copsychus malabaricus) and all equipment and materials related to shama.
• To foster friendship among local and international hobbyists and breeders.

An interim committee has been set up. The members are:
President: Dr Sun See Seng
Vice President: Derrick Goh
Secretary: R. Govindarajan
Asst Secretary: Ronald Thia
Treasurer: Kelvin Tan
Asst Treasurer: Augustine Wong
Other committee Members:
Dr Hsu Li Chieh
Eddy Cheong
Steven Lim
Paul Koh
Philip Lim
Tan Boon Hoh

The Club is now open for membership registration. Membership fee is S$50 per year. The Club invites all who are interested in the Shama to help by volunteering their services and knowledge.

You can write to shamaclub@hotmail.com for any enquiries."

Letter from Greece

2011-09-07T09:57:00.000+08:00

2011/9/4 Manos Venianakis <venianakism@yahoo.gr>

Dear Mr. De Souza,

My name is Manos Venianakis and I'm writing from Greece.
I'm an avian culturist currently breeding common canaries,saffron finches and a variety of australian
finches.

I recently acquired a pair of shamas.The birds I believe are of the copsychus malabaricus indicus subspecies.could you please verify this?

I was in search of a pair for some time but finding them in Greece was impossible.In the end I had to import the birds
from Germany and a breeder that was willing to sell a pair after the end of the last breeding season.They're about two years old.
My pair are the only shamas in Greece..I hope that this will soon change and other enthusiasts will follow.

While waiting for the birds the past few months, I had the time to do some research and was lucky enough to come across
your blog which has become my "bible" regarding shamas.Trully an excellent job there,so please accept my sincere congratulations.

It has been a week now that I have the birds.The male has been into molt since then,which I believe is due to the change of their
environment and the difference in temperature.In Germany,the temps were around 18 celcious,while here in Greece and the isle of
Crete in particular,are currently around 30+ celcious.The birds are kept outdoors.

Strangely, the female does not show any signs of molt.

The former owner kept the pair together all year round and insisted that I did the same in order to avoid future problems in breeding season.
He advised to place a box in the flight for them to sleep in when weather gets colder,the way he kept them in Germany.He also suggested a nest
and nesting material should be placed.

I did that but unfortunatelly, although they're a true pair that have raised chicks,the male twice attacked the female the first couple of days and had to
seperate them.I left the female by herself in the flight to dominate the space and placed the male close to her in a large cage.

By doing this I also had the chance to approach the male in order to make him accept food from hand.The previous owner had never done that but I knew
it was possible with shamas.At the beginning he was wild,attacking the cage bars, wings wide open.Slowly and gently I had him taking the mealworms
from pinches, after 5 days of trials.

He got the message and to my surprise,the bird only yesterday came and sat on my hand which was a delightful treat for me...
The female still is very reluctant but always excited in the presence of live food.

I offer my shamas a variety of live food every morning and afternoon.Mealworms,crickets,grasshoppers,waxworms and guppies.The only live food they were
offered by the previous owner, were mealworms and crickets.They accepted the fish as if they'd always been in their diet,which was very pleasing.
Please note that I breed my own mealworms ,waxworms and guppies.I have also started a programme of breeding my own acquatic frogs,african clawed ones in particular.
The other insects are collected from nature and safe areas not sprayed with insecticides.They've even tried cicadas!

The dry food I offer them is a mixture that I prepare and consists of the following..
Nutribird pellets,Unikomplet and C19.
Orlux insect patee.
Orlux tropic patee
Claus Green TYPE 2

They are also offered chopped apple and grapes which they seem to like very much.Again note that no fresh fruit had ever been offered to them in Germany!
B complex and multivitamins along with calcium is on their diet as well.

I send you videos with the birds.I'd appreciate any comments and advice that you may have.Especially on how to handle the agression that occured and how to get the pair together again.
Please feel free to "correct" me if you think I do something wrong.I always seek the best for my birds and shamas are a "new territory" for me..I'd also like to know your opinion regarding the quality
of my pair.

I love my birds and in order to honour you for the valuable knowledge you offer to all us shama enthusiasts, I have named my birds with malayan names..Malik for my boy and Noor for my girl...

Thank you very much for your time,I look forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
Manos

David De Souza via gmail.com to Manos

show details Sep 5 (2 days ago)

Hi Manos,

I found your email most interesting. I hope you don't mind me giving my views in point form.

1. A pair that has been separated for even a short while will treat each other like strangers.

2. Birds that are strangers to each other should only be released into the same aviary when they are both in breeding condition. Otherwise, the male will attack the female.

3. A female in breeding condition will sing and display to the male in an adjoining cage. If she squats and quivers her wings she is over-ready. This means that if she is placed in the same aviary as the male and she rapidly builds a nest, at least the first few eggs will be infertile.

4. A male in breeding condition will display and sing softly to the female which is nearby. A male that visits a nest-box in the aviary is in breeding condition. A male that is not in breeding condition will not visit the nest-box.

5. The male will come into full breeding condition about 1 1/2 months after it completes the molt. The female, about 1 month.

6. A sudden change in temperature may cause a "false" molt. That's why birds that are usually kept indoors should not be transferred outdoors.

7. Changes in temperature affect birds differently. Some molt and some don't. I suppose that's why the female did not molt.

8. The food that you offer looks fine. Shamas that have live food readily available may not willingly eat dry food. For this reason, I feed my non-breeding birds dry food until early evening before offering live food.

9. The most important vitamin for shamas is B complex. In addition, I also feed a mult-vitamin.

Best regards,

David

Shama Prices

2011-07-04T10:32:00.015+08:00

I receive many requests to buy my shamas and it may be of help if I set out the letter that I write in response to a general inquiry.

Thank you for your interest in my shamas.

I keep shamas as a hobby and may breed only a few pairs each year.

My aim is to produce birds of outstanding quality - with excellent structure, strong character, musical song, and primary tails that are at least 12”. Such birds are rare and are much sought after. They are hardly ever found any more in the wild.

It has taken many years to develop my present strain of shamas. I would discourage beginners from keeping such birds. They are more difficult to keep in perfect condition because of their long tails and they cost many times more than the shamas available from the shops.

My excess males usually go to friends and I hardly have birds for sale - perhaps 3 to 6 juveniles a year. Last year, I had no juveniles available for sale.

The price of a male juvenile, if available, is from S$3,500.00 to more than S$4,500.00. To put things in perspective, I recently paid S$7,000.00 for a captive-bred first molt male shama with tails of 11.5", and this was supposed to be a special price to me from a fellow breeder.

Because of the scarcity of the type of birds that I try to breed, there is always a waiting list of buyers for my juveniles. If you are still interested and prepared to wait, please let me know your budget and I will get back to you if I have a shama that may meet your requirement.

Best regards,

David

Zee

2011-07-01T14:40:00.003+08:00

2011-06-29T08:59:00.001+08:00

Weekend iphone photos of 2 months old captive-bred juveniles

2011-06-27T11:58:00.039+08:00

Constant attention to improving the character, structure and song of my captive-bred shamas has led to what is likely to be the most promising crop of youngsters this year than I have bred over the years. My friends who have seen my birds and the results of my breeding program over the years also share this view.

Breeding brings with it the excitement and hope each year of producing that one in a million shama.

Weekends and spare time during the breeding season are enjoyably spent placing the taimong cages together and assessing the birds as I and my friends try to see if there is a special bird and if we can spot it.

However, nothing is certain with juveniles and what appears ordinary one day may turn out to be the special one on another occasion, perhaps after the molt. That's why I and other serious breeders are so reluctant to part with our juveniles.

The accompanying photos are the result of assessing some juveniles over the weekend. They added interest to the morning as we passed our time with each person having his personal favourite and exchanging comments over which of the birds is "better" than the others.

The birds look a little scruffy as the body molt has commenced but it may be a month or more before they shed their tails.

For me, I like the juvenile in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th and last photo. As can be seen, he is showy and I took more pictures of him than of his 2 brothers as he tended to pose more readily than them. He shows attitude and if I eventually decide to keep him, I may name him, "Boss".

This is not to say that his 2 brothers are not as "good" as him. It is just that at the weekend, he looked the most promising to me but it may be different next week or in months when his brothers or others may outshine him.

In fact, on Saturday evening, I took along his brother when Jeffrey, Alan and I visited Dr. Sun's home where he had an informal gathering of some shama friends.

His brother looked really good at Dr. Sun's home and received many favourable comments (6th, 9th and 10th photo). The third juvenile is in photos 3rd, 7th and 8th. I was not able to fully catch his display and the best I could do is what you see in photo no. 8. However, as commented by Jeffrey, "he lifts his tails until they hit his head".

I had caught the birds with a net from their aviary only the day before and they had not had time to settle. I expect there will be more enjoyable weekends when we reconsider our choices and wait impatiently for the juveniles to complete their molt.

Breeding

2011-06-24T10:51:00.003+08:00

Sat, May 14, 2011

Subject: Re: Questions from Penang Shama Lover

Hi David

I studied and learnt from your blog and web since 2006, I would like to thank you as this is the most resourceful web regarding shama

In the past, I have kept 3 females but not success in breeding program.

In 2009, a friend gave me one hand-fed female. I paired her with one wild catch male 7’ tail, below are the results

· 1^st nest in 2009 June, 4 eggs, one fertile, 3 unfertile, none of them hatched

· 2nd nest in 2010 Jan, built nest, but did not lay egg

· 3rd nest in 2010 Apr, built nest, but did not lay egg. In June, to simulate her, I ask one quail egg from pet shop, I put the quail egg in her nest, she sit and it hatched, my daughter is keeping the white color quail now

Introduced the same female with wild catch male 8.5”tail

· 4th nest in 2010 Oct 2nd, built nest 2^nd day, laid one egg in Nov, unfertile

· 5^th nest in 2011 Feb, built nest, seen the male courting, sit for 6 days, stop. The pair still in the outdoor aviary, stay peacefully, till to date, the nest still in the nest box. I have given them multi vitamin 3-4 times a week, daily with worms, crickets, 2-3 grass hopper, they did not like guppy

May I know should I separate them or let them continue in the aviary?

Is there anything else I can do?

Thanks in advance

NWK

Reply: Monday, May 16, 2011 8:58 AM
Subject: Re: Questions from Penang Shama Lover

If the pair build their nest and there is then no eggs, it is likely that they may have destroyed and/or consumed the eggs. The cause is stress caused by disturbance. You need to see if this is so and take corrective action.

Infertile eggs is probably due to the male not being sufficiently fertile. I feed my breeding birds a multi-vitamin 3 times a week, B-complex 4 times a week and an oil vitamin of A, D3 and E three times a week.

If there is a shortage of aviaries, I do not separate the pair after the breeding season. Otherwise, I prefer to separate them.

Best regards,

David

Thu, Jun 23, 2011

Hi David

Updates:

I have visited several pharmacies unfortunately they don’t sell B complex in liquid form

On 27^th May, bought one liquid B complex, however, the hen start sitting on 26^th May, no chance to give her before she laid egg

I continue giving the pairs multi vitamins, B-complex every alternate day, no vitamin on every Monday

Egg did not hatch after 12 – 13 days, she stop sitting in day 23 (17 June). I have taken out the nest and found one egg. The egg was not in the middle of the nest, it was at the corner of the wooden nest.

I broke the egg, there was something inside, brown color, I believe chick died during sitting period

I have decided to change nest material. My worry is broom material too soft, egg might be pushed out from nest to the corner of the wooden box cause chick died during sitting period.

On 22^nd June, I put nest material in aviary, the hen starts build nest. Nest was built around 15% due to she had selected soft nest material (broom), she had rejected the harder material (minor nest material).

23^rd June, I found one egg on the ground near the nest material; I have moved the egg into the nest. I have put lot of soft nest material (broom), hope she continues to build the nest and start sitting tomorrow.

Regards

Fri, Jun 24, 2011

Nowadays I get most of my vitamins and supplements from iherb.com. This is an internet retailer that carries hundreds of brands. I and my friends have found it to be very reliable. When ordering, the buyer has the option of choosing a fixed shipping method which allows him to pay only US$4.00 for air shipment of up to 3 lbs in weight. The parcel will take about 2 weeks to arrive. I usually choose faster delivery of about 3 days and pay approximately US$12.00 for about 3 lbs in weight.

I think any of the liquid B vitamins will do. I prefer Twinlab because it is viscous and sticks more easily to the insects.

I occasionally have problems with the eggs being laid in a small depression in the nest cavity or not in the main cavity itself. This is more the fault of the female in the way she builds the nest than the nesting material.

An egg on the ground suggests that one of the parents removed it from the nest and is not a good sign. The pair should be disturbed as little as possible.

Best regards,

David

Flame

2011-06-22T09:58:00.004+08:00

Zee

2011-06-21T18:02:00.004+08:00

In my post of 12 May 2011, I mentioned that I had acquired a wild-caught shama through the kindness of my friend William and the owner.

When I first saw the shama (“Zee”), he seemed a desirable acquisition, There was no hint that he was likely to be spectacular but I was glad to have him anyway. He had neat curved tails of about 10”, good posture and he sang a little. It is so difficult nowadays to find a wild-caught shama with at least 10” tails. In considering Zee’s performance, I took into consideration that he was about to molt and not performing at his best.

When I returned home, I placed him in a cages instead of directly into an outdoor aviary. This was to make sure that he was eating well. After several days, I transferred him to an outdoor aviary to molt. During the time he was in a cage, he did not exhibit signs of potential greatness.

He had a good molt. By this, I mean that his old feathers were replaced with glossy new feathers and his form rose and continued to rise as his molt approached its end.

When he was in good form after the molt, I introduced a female into his aviary. They took to each other and she built a nest. I am sure she laid but there were no eggs when I inspected the nest sometime after she should have sat but did not. One of the pair or both must have destroyed or eaten the eggs. This was not surprising as the breeding birds are constantly disturbed by the songs of the other birds in my garden.

I decided to transfer the pair to the only indoor aviary that I have. They liked this aviary but the disadvantage to me was that I had to keep all my other shamas away from them. This meant that I could not even have a shama in the nearby porch as Zee would get very excited and it was not possible for me to always ensure that Zee was not disturbed.

Again, the pair had eggs and again there was none when I inspected the nest. On the morning of Saturday, 18^th June, I decided not to breed Zee for the time being and the pair were separated. Zee was transferred to a cage and it was covered to let him rest. Part of the reason for not continuing to use the indoor aviary for breeding was that I missed the free use of it to provide exercise for the 1 or 2 caged birds that I keep indoors..

In the evening of the 18th itself, Jeffrey, Alan and I were to meet Dr. Sun at his home. It was just a gathering to while away the time talking about birds and such. I wanted to bring along a shama to encourage Dr. Sun’s birds to perform. I had a choice between Zee and Apache as there was space for only 1 bird in the car. I took Zee though I did not expect much from him. This was the first time I was taking him for an outing. He had been in an aviary and I had never seen him perform in a cage. Furthermore, birds that are separated from their mates seldom do very well at gatherings.

Zee had not been taken for car rides and there was a likelihood that he might be upset by the journey and flutter about the cage but he was quiet in the car. As we walked towards Dr. Sun’s home from our parked car, we could hear his many shamas singing. At his home, I removed the cage cover and hung the cage. We were all surprised by how Zee did.

A bird that seldom travels is likely to be stressed by the journey in a vehicle. The stress can be seen from the open beak which will usually close after the ride when the bird has had time to calm down and had 1 or 2 sips of water. Birds that are stressed do not perform well. Moreover, shamas are territorial and when entering unfamiliar territory they tend to be intimidated by the resident shamas. Also, as I have mentioned, Zee was a breeder.

Zee exhibited no signs of stress from the journey. Neither did the other shamas cow him. Immediately the cage cover was removed, he straightened and opened his beak as wide as a main gate (I exaggerate a little) and belted out his songs in a variety of long musical notes.

The wide-open beak during song indicates aggressiveness and fearlessness. Very few shamas have such a strong character that they will open wide their beaks in song when challenged outside their territory. Usually, the song and display is a fraction of what it is at home. The effect of an aggressive shama in full song tends to intimidate the shamas around him. This is a great advantage in a song competition.

I was happy with Zee’s song and character but these alone did not make him a “complete” shama. There needs to be a captivating display. Here again, Zee did not disappoint. He would “run” along the perch with an upright and dominating posture and also “play” the cage all the time singing. Some birds display and some birds sing. Zee did both. When landing on the perch, he would lift his tails and fan them out in almost slow motion. Fanning of the tails is always an attractive feature. It is usually done rapidly but it is even more eye-catching when done in slow motion.

My sifu, Jeffrey, commented that Zee is the best shama he has seen this year. I suppose this is a compliment but I know that Jeff has seen more motorcycles than shamas recently.

We were at Dr. Sun’s home for about 1½ hours and Zee performed during this time. I was proud of him and decided to give him a name. I named him "Zee". He was formerly referred to only as “the bird that I got from William’s friend”.

2011-06-17T09:26:00.000+08:00

Iphone photo of Ozzie's son at 25 days of age:

Proposed Shama Club

2011-06-16T15:34:00.000+08:00

Dr. Mike Sun is an avid shama hobbyist and in an email to me yesterday, he floated the idea of forming a shama club in Singapore. For those who do not know him, Mike founded the very successful Discus Club (Singapore) in 1997 and was its president until he stepped down 2 years ago for "leadership renewal".

The shama club that he has in mind will be basically a hobbyists' club .... non-commercial, and non-profit orientated. It will probably model on the Discus Club(Singapore).

I think it is a fantastic idea to have an active shama club and I have informed Mike that I would want to be an active ordinary member.

Those who are interested in participating in the proposed club or to provide ideas for it, may contact Mike at seeseng_sun@yahoo.com.sg

Miscellaneous

2011-06-13T09:51:00.006+08:00

Photos taken over the weekend

Internet Fraud
Buyers of shamas should beware of purchasing based on what they see on the internet. Make a Google search of "jual murai lomba" (selling competition shama). Click on the video at the top of the page and you will see a recording of a shama that is being offered for sale by someone in Indonesia. The seller claims that the bird is a Medan shama that is super ready for competition.

Actually, the video is my recording of Skyhawk that was copied from the internet. Needless to say, the person offering the shama for sale is in no position to sell the bird and any money that is sent will result in disappointment.

My new shama
Yesterday, I bought the male shama below. I was with Alan in the morning when he mentioned that the bird was available for sale. I always like to view shamas that are for sale and I went with Allen to see it.

It was undergoing the molt from juvenile to adult plumage. Its body had completed the change but the tails had a long way to grow still as they were only about 4".

I estimated the age of the bird at 6 to 7 months. I liked its character and structure but unless the primary tails exceed at least 9" when fully grown, I would not want to use it as breeding stock. I decided to take a chance and acquired it.

2011-06-09T15:12:00.006+08:00

Pretty Boy's chicks from the 2nd nest at about 17 days of age. Photos taken with iphone.

2011-06-08T14:19:00.010+08:00

Flame at 68 days of age. Photos taken with iphone.

Breeding

2011-06-03T09:13:00.003+08:00

I don't know if other shama breeders in Singapore are experiencing the "problem" that I have this year. Usually, the ratio of male and female offspring is about equal. So far this year, the ratio for me from 4 pairs is almost 90% males. This is no doubt a happy problem but I would like to know if there is a rational explanation for the disproportionate number of males this year.

It could be the somewhat freak weather conditions that we are experiencing nowadays. In previous years, I would see the mynahs in my garden look for nesting material from early January. This year, while the mynahs still come to my garden, they don't appear to be courting and looking for material to build their nests. My guess is that the unpredictable violent storms in the first quarter of this year must have resulted in the repeated destruction of many nests and this has upset the hormonal cycle of the mynahs.

I mostly breed my birds in outdoor aviaries and due to the uncertain weather conditions, I only started pairing my shamas in March. Nowadays, I am not in a hurry, knowing that there is more than sufficient time to take several clutches from the birds from March to August and beyond if I want to.

Apache

2011-05-30T10:24:00.001+08:00

I entered Apache as a late entry in the shama song competition held at Block 159, AMK, yesterday. There were about 70 contestants and he came in 6th. I expect his form will improve and be much better in the next competition that may held in 1 or 2 months.

2011-05-23T08:54:00.004+08:00

I found out yesterday that there will be a shama song competition at Block 159 Ang Mo Kio, Singapore, this coming Sunday, 29th May 2011. I had not expected the competition to be held and I am completely unprepared for it. All my birds are nesting or molting.

The only shama I have that might be able to compete is Apache. He has barely completed his molt and will usually take a month thereafter to come into good form. However, he is a seasoned bird in the prime of his life and I may be able to get him into sufficiently good form in the 6 remaining days. I do not, as yet, have a ticket and will try to get one on the morning of the competition.

BTW Ah Choon's 13" shama recently won its third competition in Penang, Malaysia.

Alan's Shamas(2)

2011-05-20T08:41:00.007+08:00

I understand that Alan has had overwhelming response for his taimongs. There were 4 taimongs and 3 went to new homes yesterday morning. The last taimong is the one below. This photo and 2 additional photos of it are on Alan's blog: http://whiterumpshamacollections.blogspot.com/

No comment need be made on the remaining taimong as the picture speaks for itself. I think he has decided to keep it.

BTW I had a phone call from a friend yesterday that there were 2 first molt wild-caught shamas available for sale in Singapore. One was supposed to have a tail-length of 12" and the other 11". The prices were S$3,500.00 and S$3,000.00 respectively. I was also informed that their primary tails had shed recently but I could view the old tails. I knew the seller and he could be relied on if he said that the shed tails were formerly on the birds.

The prices seemed reasonable. I was interested and went after work to view the birds. Both did not have form so their structures and characters could not be assessed. The lack of form is not surprising as the birds were molting and their main diet was dried food.

I asked to see the tails and they were produced. One set was 9" and the other was 9 1/2" . The seller clarified that it was their fathers (and not them) that had tails of 11" and 12" so my friend who phoned me must have had mufflers covering his ears or he needs to see a ear doctor. I didn't mind making the trip, though, as I am happy to view shamas that may be of interest.

Wow, I thought, the prices of shamas in Singapore have really shot through the roof but there must be demand since this particular seller used to charge about half the sum for similar birds not so long ago.

All in all, taking into consideration the length of tails etc, the 2 birds were not what I was looking for to add to the gene pool of my birds and I made no offer for them.

Alan's Shamas

2011-05-18T10:25:00.001+08:00

I would like to recommend the juvenile shamas (taimongs) of Alan Pang to those who may be interested in acquiring a young shama.

It is now mid-May and the bird shops should already be having taimongs for sale. However, there are none or hardly any available. Shamas and other softbills cannot be imported into Singapore and the AVA has been taking drastic action to enforce the ban.

The result is that the price of a wild-caught taimong (if available) has shot up to S$350.00 or more.

I have always maintained that the captive bred shamas should be superior to the wild-caughts and this has been proven in the past months. Alan has a few taimongs that he bred. The price may be slightly higher than the wild-caughts. He has a website dedicated to shamas at:

http://whiterumpshamacollections.blogspot.com/

Interested parties may phone him at 93827850 for more information

2011-05-12T16:08:00.000+08:00

This morning I did something I had not done in a while. I transferred a mated pair with their nest-box (and an egg) from their garden aviary to my only indoor aviary.

Before I explain why, I should mention that prior to the year 2000, I would regularly transfer pairs with eggs or chicks from my home to that of my close friend, Roland Wee. He lived in a bungalow about 100 metres from my home and we had an arrangement that I would mate the birds and then transfer them and their eggs or chicks to his home for him to care. This went on for about 3 years. What we did seems crazy in retrospect, but we never had any problems with the birds.

Nowadays, Roland no longer keeps birds and he has little interest in them. We do meet though and have a meal every once in a while.

Roland and I used to band our chicks with the initials “R&D”. I still use these bands as they are the ideal size for shamas and I cannot get this exact size anymore.

The pair that I transferred to the indoor aviary had been together for some time in the garden aviary. Although the nest was built, there were no resulting chicks. I attribute this to the male being wild-caught and not being used to the close proximity of other male shamas.

I had got him some time last year through my very good friend William. The owner had obtained the bird from William on the promise that if I wanted it, he would let me have it at his cost.

After William introduced me to the owner, I inquired, how much he would want for the bird. I knew that he had purchased it at William’s cost price of S$1,800.00. He had also molted it and kept it for some time.

He said that the price was not important and that he was merely fulfilling his promise to William in agreeing to let me have the bird. I asked if it was OK for me to take the bird at S$2,000.00. He readily said “yes”.

I was touched by his sincerity and wanted to reciprocate. I told him that I would mate his bird to one of my females and, in addition to paying him for it, I would give him a male chick from the pair. It was therefore important to me that his male produces at least one male chick.

And so I took the bird. He has beautiful curved 10” tails, He also has good structure, a strong character and good song. After his molt in my care, I placed him in an outdoor breeding aviary with a suitable female. Like I said, the pair had no resulting chicks.

I transferred the pair to the indoor aviary because I have had the most success in breeding shamas in it. I think there are 3 reasons for this. Firstly, being indoors, the temperature is relatively constant. Secondly, I don’t keep in-form shamas close by when I use the indoor aviary for breeding. Finally, I can observe the pair from the comfort of a chair opposite the aviary and this allows me to make adjustments to their care and nutrition if necessary.

I will write further if I have anything to report.

2011-05-11T09:12:00.003+08:00

Skyhawk's chick at 15 days of age. He is only 4 days out of the nest but he is already showing attitude.

2011-05-09T16:15:00.002+08:00

As a serious breeder of shamas, my aim is not to produce birds in quantity. Neither am I able to do so as I have space constraints. Rather, through careful selection of breeding stock, I try to develop a small strain of shamas that is able to breed true to the type I have in mind.

The efforts that I have invested over many, many years, have now resulted in a strain of birds that is readily recognizable as descended from the line of shamas that originated from Godfather - i.e. a strain characterized by males with generally long soft curved tails, good structure, song and a strong character.

Because my focus over the years has been on breeding and not competition, there was speculation by some hobbyists that captive bred shamas may not be able to compete in the arena on equal terms with wild-caughts. If there was any such belief, it has been dispelled by the consistent successes of my birds in competitions since towards the end of last year.

Actually, even without the competition successes, a little common sense and research would have established that such claims cannot be true. In fact, if a breeder knows what he is doing, over time, the successive generations of captive breds should develop to be far superior in the characteristics that are being sought than those in the wild. This is proving to be the case with shamas as my birds have improved over the years in the characteristics that I seek.

This year, I have so far had chicks from 4 males that I had not bred from previously. They are Alpha, Skyhawk, Ozzie and Pretty Boy (my favourite shama). Except for Alpha's chicks, the chicks from the others are presently much too young to make any serious assessment. Even with Alpha's chicks, any assessment at this time must be tentative as they are still immature and have much development ahead before they are fully developed taimongs.

For my strain of birds, I would regard a taimong with fully grown tails of 6" or more as having very long tails. For instance, the longest tailed taimong I ever bred was Max and he had taimong tails of 6.4 inches. After his first molt, the tails were about 12.4" and they are now about 16".

This does not mean that a chick with tails less than 6" will eventually have tails below 12". From my experience and only with regard to the strain that I breed, even a chick with taimong tails of 4.75" (such as Super Model), can have tails exceeding 12" by the third molt. Where the taimong tails are 6" to 6.4", I can almost predict that the tails after the first molt will be 11.75" to 12.4" with the eventual length after the 3rd or 4th molt to be from 13.5" to 16".

Over the past weekend, my friends and I have been pleasantly surprised by the way one of the chicks from Alpha's first clutch is developing. Yesterday (Sunday), these chicks were only 41 days old and at this age, the average length of the primary tails of a chick with the potential for 6" taimong tails should be only around 3.25". However, I measured the longest tailed chick from Alpha's first clutch at an unbelievable 4.25" or about 30% longer than the tails of the usual long-tailed chick of the same age. Moreover, the tips of its white tails are in line with the black tails. This means that even the white tails are already substantially longer than those of the average wild-caught taimongs. It also suggests that there is still a long way to go before the primary tails are fully grown.

How long the taimong tails of Alpha's above chick will eventually be is speculative at this time. Generally, the taimongs grow their tails at the approximate same rate of 0.6" per week. Those with short tails will stop growing sooner whilst the longer tails will continue to grow over a period of about 2 1/2 months or slightly more than 10 weeks. On this basis, a long-tailed taimong will have tails of about 6".

In the case of Alpha's above chick, the rate of growth has been about 0.7" a week. This is phenomenal growth and if it continues, I may well have my first taimong with tails over 7". Of course, tail length is not everything and the bird will also need to have the other characteristics that are sought but this chick does seem to have the other required characteristics.

The uncertainty of what will be produced from year to year makes breeding rewarding. This year is proving to be especially exciting.

2011-05-03T09:55:00.008+08:00

Sky Hawk's chicks at 8 days old. The chicks have just been fed and the tissue paper has not as yet been changed. The excreta at the bottom of the photo shows what should come out from healthy chicks at this age.

Pretty Boy's chicks at 2/3 days of age.

The newly introduced pair of Max and DDS138.

2011-04-29T09:22:00.006+08:00

Below is a chick from Ozzie's first clutch of 3 chicks. It is 17 days old.

First batch of chicks

2011-04-25T09:17:00.005+08:00

I started pairing the shamas in mid-March this year because of the uncertain weather. Below is my first batch of chicks from Alpha. They are about 27 days old. Looks like 3 males and 1 female.

Bishan Night Competition-23rd April 2011

2011-04-25T08:42:00.004+08:00

Piston (No. 43) was 5th in the Bishan Night Competition held on 23rd April 2011. There were about 95 birds competing.

He was the only shama that I had available for the competition. I had originally wanted to also keep Sky Hawk and Pretty Boy for competitions but as so often happens, I did not want to wait indefinitely for a competition and decided to breed them instead. Both have had chicks or eggs about to hatch. It is unlikely that they will be available for competition soon.

However, Jeffrey's Funkie is with me. He is just completing his molt and if the next competition is not too far away, I will compete him. Otherwise, I will be tempted to see what chicks he can produce.

2011-04-14T14:18:00.002+08:00

There will be a shama song competition on Saturday 23 April 2011. It will be held at Bishan, Singapore and it will be at night - starting at about 8.00 pm.

I had intended to keep Sky Hawk and Pretty Boy for competitions this year but I decided not to because there were no scheduled dates for forthcoming competitions. They have been entered into the breeding program and will not be available for competition anytime soon.

Apache is half-way through his annual molt. There is Jeffrey's Funkie which is now with me and I intend to compete him eventually. He has only just completed his molt and will require some time to come into form. He will be ready for competition in about 1 1/2 months time.

This leaves only Piston available for the 23rd. His present form is not too bad and I hope it can still improve substantially in the remaining 9 days. I have not been able to hang his cage in my garden as part of his training as his singing disturbs the breeding pairs in their aviaries. There is also a problem with his preparation in the home as his form is adversely affected if he hears the chicks in their cages.

Anyway, Piston has a very steady character and requires little preparation to come into form so I have hope that he will do reasonably well in the coming night competition.

2011-04-01T14:45:00.004+08:00

Alpha has had a nest of 4 chicks. This is the first time that I have bred him. He is Ballet Dancer's son from 2009 and is now less than 2 years old. I wanted chicks from him as he has a strong character, long soft curving tails and an excellent display.

When he molted from juvenile, he did not shed his tail feathers. I had several unsolicited offers to purchase him but I was not keen to part with him as I felt that he might turn out to be something special if he grew long tails.

When he subsequently had his 2nd molt and shed his juvenile tails, his new adult tails exceeded 13". It will be interesting to see how long his tails will be after his next molt.

Yesterday, I took his chicks from the nest as my inexperienced helper thought, whilst I was at work, that the parents were not feeding them enough. In fact, Alpah and his mate were together feeding the chicks well. Anyway, at 3 days of age the chicks are not too difficult to look after. They are all doing well and I hope that there will be a spectacular shama from amongst them.

2011-03-31T11:56:00.002+08:00

All my breeding aviaries, except 1, are outdoors so I usually wait until the rainy season is over before introducing the pairs. Breeding was delayed this year as the rains fell until towards the end of February. The skies have now cleared and breeding has commenced.

One interesting thing is that in past years, some of the females commenced brooding after only laying their 2nd or 3rd egg. This always poses a problem as the earlier eggs hatch first and the mother is sometimes confused as to whether she should continue to sit on the unhatched egg(s) or feed the chicks. This year though, every female so far has commenced brooding only after laying the 4th egg.

I had intended to reserve my only indoor aviary to prepare my birds for competition but I eventually decided to use it for breeding as it is my best aviary for breeding. I placed Sky Hawk and a female in it. She laid her 4th egg this morning and commenced brooding.

2011-03-28T10:12:00.000+08:00

Prior to the shama song competition held at AMK, Block 159, on 13th January 2011, Apache had already shown signs of having his annual molt with the loss of some small feathers on the head and breast. Nevertheless, he is a top competitor and he performed well in the competition, coming in joint first with Sky Hawk.

Within a week of the competition, Apache dropped his 2 longest tails. They both shed on the same day. The rest of his tails dropped in the next few days. I am happy when I see a rapid shedding of feathers as this confirms that the bird is in in good condition and ready for the molt.

Apache is molting well and his primary tails are now about 4". The molt will complete in about 2 months and another month or two will be needed for him to regain top form. He is therefore out of competitions for the next 3 months.

I had intended to keep Apache, Sky Hawk, Pretty Boy and Piston for shama song competitions. With Apache having his molt, I still had 3 potential competitors immediately available for competitions. However, there was no scheduled date for the next competition and it seemed such a waste to keep my top birds idle. I therefore paired Pretty Boy and the pair should have little Pretty Boys by the end of this week. I also recently paired Sky Hawk and the female laid first egg of the clutch this morning.

Apart from the above birds, I have 2 other male shamas that I would like to compete. One is a second-generation captive bred that belongs to Michael. The other is Jeffrey's Funkie. Both are now boarding in my home and having their annual molt. They will be available for competition in 2 to 3 months.

I was informed over the weekend that a night competition will be held at Bishan towards the end of April. I do not particularly like night competitions as I don't generally take my birds to night gatherings. I might enter Piston to see how he performs.

2011-03-11T14:12:00.002+08:00

Assessing Form

Last Sunday, I took Helmet to the Sunday shama gathering at Block 534, Ang Mo Kio,

Singapore

. I wished to assess his performance in a “chai tio” or bird gathering. He had placed 6^th in the shama competition on 29^th November, 2010 but I was not satisfied that he had sung and displayed at his best and I wanted to see if I could discover why.

He had been singing very well at home and seemed to be in good form. He sang in the car on the way to AMK and this indicated that he was not stressed by the transportation. However, when his cage was hung amongst the other birds, he did not sing and display as well as he had done at home. I was not sure why his form seemed to be less than it should be. His wings were held tight to his body at the chai tio and this suggested that he was healthy and in good form so it was difficult to know what was wrong with him.

In the afternoon, a shama breeder friend kindly agreed that I could bring a shama when I visited him in his home to view his birds. I brought Helmet along. At his home, Helmet’s cage was placed on the floor and I surrounded it with my friend’s male shamas. Helmet seemed at ease and in good form but I noted that he would only sing and display vigorously when a bird beside him did so. Unless he was challenged, he did not respond.

What I saw satisfied me that his failure to respond to other birds was not because he lacked courage. He needed the stimulus of a fierce bird to agitate him. This poses a difficulty in competition since there is no assurance that the birds close to him will be performing.

I am not sure what (if anything), I can do at this time to make Helmet sing and display continuously at the chai tio. I will give the matter some thought and see what I can come up with or my friends can suggest.

Piston

In contrast to Helmet is his brother, Piston, who is younger than him by one nest. Piston is also Apache’s son. He was bred by me and owned by Michael.

The first time that Michael brought him to a chai tio after his first molt, he had sung and displayed beyond expectations. Michael had initially intended to offer him for sale but we decided to keep him after his unexpectedly strong showing. There was a competition the following week at Block 159 AMK and Michael entered him. He did not perform at his best and was placed 6^th. His lower form was no doubt due to him not having fully recovered from the exertions of the previous week.

After the competition I kept Piston as Michael was extensively renovating his new home.

Last Wednesday, my friend invited me to accompany him to the night chai tio at Bishan. I accepted and brought Piston along. This was the first time that he had ever been brought out at night and I was uncertain how he would perform. I need not have been concerned. He performed exceptionally well, opening his beak wide and to its full extent whilst he blasted his challenging songs. A bird like Piston is a gem. He is easy to care for and does not require any special preparation prior to him being taken to a shama gathering or competition. Moreover, he does not need the surrounding birds to perform well before he performs. I am confident he will do well in competitions.

Sky Hawk

I have had difficulty raising Sky Hawk to the form that I know he is capable of. I think I have found out the reason why. Last Sunday evening, I was looking at him in his indoor aviary while he was at the food cup. I noticed that he was swishing the dry food with his bill. When a bird does this, it is a sure sign that he does not find the food completely to his liking and he is not eating enough. My dry food now consists of “Three Coins” and some “chwee mang” or dried water flies. He was eating mostly the chwee mang. When a bird does not eat well, its form cannot improve. Eventually, a stress molt will result.

To remedy the situation, I decided that the dry food should be powdered and mixed with cut insects to encourage him to eat. We will see if this resolves the problem.

New Breeding Stock

At the shama breeder’s home last Sunday, one of his young male shamas attracted my interest. It has good structure with soft curving tails of about 11¾”. The tails are a little on the narrow side but I did not mind this as I know that they should broaden with age.

The structure of the bird matches what I am looking for. It also has a strong character as witnessed by the fact that in 3 competitions it placed 6^th, 5^th and 4^th. It should be better after its molt. It is a first molt bird that is just showing signs of entering into its second molt. I bought him for S$7,000.00. I thought this was a reasonable price and did not ask for a discount.

I also have 2 other birds that can add new blood to my breeding program. One is a second generation male that Michael bred. Its grandfather was capable of winning the top prize in shama competitions. The other is a wild-caught shama that I purchased.

I could go on breeding my stock of birds for several more years even without the addition of the above birds since the offspring of the birds from my captive bred stock do not as yet seem to suffer any ill effects from the line-breeding. Nevertheless, it is good to acquire likely breeding stock at any time and I am happy that I have these new birds.

Shama Singing Competition Held On 13th February 2011

2011-02-14T11:06:00.025+08:00

Yesterday (Sunday), the Kebun Baru Bird Singing Club of Singapore held its first Shama Singing Competition of 2011. The venue was Block 159 Ang Mo Kio.

Michael Leong and I entered 3 of our captive-breds. They were Apache, Sky Hawk and a young male that would benefit from some competition experience.

I had not been keen on entering Apache and Sky Hawk. Apache had been singing less and less at home. I guessed that he was going to have his annual molt soon and I was not sure that he would be able to perform on a decent level.

As regards Sky Hawk, in December 2010, we had paired him with a female in the hope of getting chicks before the female entered her annual molt. She had built a nest but then she had molted and we separated the pair. I intended to pair him with another female but the competition came up and Michael suggested that we enter him and Apache although the birds were not in their best form.

Shama singing competitions in Singapore used to be held over 4 rounds of 1/2 an hour each. This was too tiring for the birds and they did not display and sing their best in the 4th round.

Nowadays, shama competitions are usually held over 3 rounds of ½ an hour each. Three judges assess, in rotation, 1/3 of the birds in each round. The average marks decide the winners and the losers.

Yesterday's competition was supposed to be over 3 rounds. However, at the end of the 3^rd round, the contestants were informed that there would be an additional final round. It would be in 2 parts of 15-20 minutes each. There would be 2 judges and they would take turns to assess about ½ of the birds in each part. The marks would then be added.

The Final Round

Having a final round is generally popular as the number of birds will be reduced by 2/3 and it will be easier to see which birds are performing. The disadvantage is that the shamas will be really tired and will not be performing at their best. Consequently, only those birds that are in good form and have the required stamina will be able to still perform in the final round.

Yesterday’s competition was scheduled to start at 9.00am and last for 1 1/2 hours. As is often the case, the competition started ½ an hour late. By then, the birds that came in time for the competition, such as our 3 birds, had already been singing in their cages with cloth covers, for 1/2 an hour or more. Similarly, after the 3rd round, time was required to tally the marks to decide the birds that would qualify for the final round. In total, the birds would be singing in close proximity to each other for 3 hours or more.

The top 25 birds out of the 70 or so contestants qualified for the final round. All our 3 birds qualified. Sky Hawk's final round competition number was 8 and Apache was 14. The young male was No. 6. This was a front row position close to the crowds, as our intention was to use the competition to provide training for him.

Results of the Final Round

Apache and Sky Hawk were the top birds after the final round with marks of 49.8 points each. They had received identical marks in both parts of the final round.

The organizers decided that lots should be drawn to decide the positions in those cases where the marks were tied. As Michael and I do not distinguish between the birds we own, we dispensed with the drawing of lots. Logically, Apache and Sky Hawk should be deemed to be joint champions since they had identical marks in both parts of the final round.

The 3^rd and 4^th placed birds had the same 49.5 points each and their places were decided by drawing lots. I think 2 other pairs also tied for lesser positions and they drew lots.

The young male that Michael and I had entered for experience, placed 12^th. I am sure he would have done better if he had not been unsettled by the crowd.

Captive-bred Shamas Are Winning Song Competitions

Contrary to the loud declarations of some people that captive-bred birds are inferior to wild-caughts, the captive-breds have been doing quite well in competitions since my birds started to seriously compete from November last year.

Apache was 6^th in the 21^st November 2010 competition, 3^rd one week later in the 28^th November 2010 competition (when his son Helmet was 6th) and joint champion yesterday. He has improved as he has got used to competition conditions. His continuous progress confirms that he not only has the qualities of a top competitor but also, and just as important, that the methods that we used in preparing our birds for competition are along the right lines.

Sky Hawk was champion when Michael entered him in the Cyber Shama Competition organized by Dance4Rain in the Malaysian Bird Forum some time ago. Any concern that he might not be able to compete in an actual competition with the crush of other shamas around him, was laid to rest by his performance yesterday.

One further bit of news - I was told yesterday that Ah Choon’s shama with 13+” tails (that I bred), was champion in the shama singing competition in Penang about 2 weeks ago. This is his second win in Penang. The first time he had won in Penang was in early November 2010 as I reported in my post on 22^nd November 2010.

What This Proves

There is a lot of b/s in the bird forums from some people who hold themselves out as knowledgeable about shamas and freely give advice on their care and breeding. Some of the opinions and advice is really rubbish. Amongst the rubbish is that captive-bred birds cannot compete successfully against wild-caughts. Another, is the simplistic observation that line-breeding or inbreeding will result in inferior birds.

One of these experts recently also advised in the Malaysian Shama Forum that shamas bred in small aviaries lack character. G-- knows on what he based his declaration. Perhaps it was his own limited experience with the captive breeding of his own birds.

The claim of these so-called experts that captive-breds are lacking in character, song and stamina is clearly not true as proven by the fact that birds bred by Michael and me are doing well in song contests. Its all a matter of proper selective breeding for structure, courage and stamina and bringing up the birds with the right food and in the right environment. Having small aviaries close together and many shamas in the home is a disadvantage when breeding the birds and preparing them for competition but this can be overcome with care and planning.

The captive-breds with long tails showed yesterday that even when there is the stress of a final round, they can still do well. In fact, Apache (with 12” tails) was probably displaying better than the other birds in the final round. Sky Hawk’s tails well exceed 13”.

I should note that shamas with long tails compete at an inherent disadvantage against those with shorter tails, regardless of whether such birds are wild-caught or captive-bred. Whipping long tails up and down takes much effort and energy but no marks are officially given for the beauty of long tails. Where the competition takes a long time, such as where there is a final round, the long-tailed birds are at an even greater disadvantage and they need to be especially prepared so that they are fit enough to last the distance.

I have always felt that captive breds need not be at all inferior to the wild caughts. Actually, I always felt that with proper selective breeding, care and training, the captive breds can far exceed the wild-caughts in every department, including song, structure, beauty, length of tails, stamina and courage. This is now proving to be the case.

Future competitions

Michael and me entered our captive breds in the last 3 competitions to test their character, song and stamina in competition conditions and also to see if our preparations for the competition are correct. The fact that our birds did well is encouraging.

As suspected, Apache is starting to molt and he will be transferred to an outdoor aviary. He should be ready for competition around August this year if we do not breed him. We may be tempted to do so, though, as his offspring have good song and exceptional courage. We have not decided if we will breed Sky Hawk or still enter him for future competitions.

We have other birds that we could try out for competition. Amongst them is my favourite shama, Pretty Boy, who completed his annual molt recently. His primary tails are about 15". We would also like to give our other shamas a chance at competition, including 2 of Apache's other sons.

However, we have not made up our minds to compete on a regular basis. The breeding season has started and, as always, our desire to breed better birds may override our wish to test our birds in competitions.

Shama Competitions(2)

2010-11-29T09:12:00.007+08:00

The Cheng San Bird Singing Club held a shama competition yesterday morning. I entered 2 birds for the competition – Apache (Competition No. 15) and his son, Helmet (Competition No. 26).

Shama singing competitions in Singapore are held infrequently; about once every 1 to 2 months. A week ago, Kebun Bahru held its shama competition when Apache placed 6^th. The Cheng San competition, held so shortly after, did not provide much time to improve his form.

I nevertheless did what I could to prepare Apache. His form kept improving during the week and he was singing well by yesterday.

Apache sang much better in yesterday’s competition than he had a week ago. His songs were frequent, varied and forceful. However, he did not display during the competition. The marks for display form only a small part of the total marks in shama competitions in Singapore, with the emphasis being on song. Nevertheless, it is necessary to take some points for display as the difference in being or not being champion can vary by less than a ½ point.

Apache came in third in yesterday's competition. His total marks were 53.4. The 1^st and 2^nd birds tied at 53.8 points with the top position being decided by the marks of the last round.

Helmet placed 6th in yesterday's competition. It was his first competition. In fact, he has hardly ever been brought out of my home. He had been entered in the competition just to provide practice as his form was not good enough for a top prize. I was happy with his showing since I had only taken him from the garden aviary a week ago. His form had rapidly improved during the week. He had displayed and sang during the competition and a 6^th placing showed a promise of things to come if I wished to seriously enter him for competition in the future.

Shama Competitions

2010-11-22T09:36:00.003+08:00

Two weeks ago, a shama bred by me won 1^st prize at the Penang shama competition. This shama has tails exceeding 13”. It is owned by Ah Choon. I am told that it performed very well throughout the competition. Birds like this help to establish that captive-bred shamas with long tails can compete on more than equal terms with wild-caughts.

After many years of being away from the shama competition scene in Singapore, I entered Apache for the Kebun Bahru competition yesterday morning. I had had no time to train him for the competition but he was singing well at home.

Shama competitions in

Singapore

are mostly held nowadays over 3 to 4 rounds. Yesterday’s competition was over 3 rounds. Where the competition is over 3 rounds, there will be 3 judges who take turns to judge about 1/3^rd of the birds in each round. The average of the marks awarded by the judges, decides the placings.

Five minutes before the 1^st round commenced, Apache began dry-bathing, preening his wings, tails and body feathers as he would when taking a bath. This is an indication that the bird has no form or it has not been well prepared for the competition. After a few minutes, he settled and began singing. I didn’t think there was anything special about his performance but it was good enough for him to take 2^nd place in his section, losing to the top bird in his section by only 0.1 points.

I had breakfast with friends during the 2^nd round and did not see Apache’s performance. His marks were not good. He lost to the top bird in his section by 2 points. This is a lot since the top birds can be separated by only 0.xx points.

In the 3^rd round, Apache was much better than he had been in the first round. While he still did not “play” the cage, he was alert, dominating, and consistent in his song. I expected him to receive top marks in his section and he did. The final result was a 6^th placing.

I guess Apache’s poor showing was due to his lack of training. There will be another competition this coming weekend and I will probably enter him. One week is too short a time to train him and I will just take the coming competition as part of his training and use it to prepare him for competitions next year.

Male shama coming into form

2010-11-12T08:24:00.000+08:00

Video of Sky Hawk

2010-09-28T08:32:00.005+08:00

Here are 2 short videos of Sky Hawk. They were both recorded during the same session.

He has only just finished his molt. His form is starting to rise as should be the case when the shama has had a good molt. His top form is still 1 to 1 1/2 months away. When in top form his songs will increase in variety and he will "play" the cage as in previous videos.

The shama singing in the background is Max. He has a beautiful melody sung in a somewhat baritone voice in contrast to Sky Hawk's soprano. He is in an aviary about 15 feet from the recorder.

Sky Hawk

2010-09-25T12:31:00.000+08:00

Sky Hawk in beautiful condition after recently completing his molt:

Max

2010-09-13T09:30:00.000+08:00

Shama Sun-bathing

2010-08-31T14:33:00.001+08:00

Below is a photo of one of my favourite shamas enjoying a sun-bath in the large aviary in which he is molting. The aviary receives some early evening sun which enters a small section of the aviary at an angle. It can be seen that the shama has especially sought out the sunlight and he is enjoying its warmth. I do not usually sun my long tailed shamas when they are in cages as the heat tends to dry the tail feathers and cause them to curve upwards which is unsightly. However, when they are in the aviary, they can choose whether or not to sun-bathe as I make sure that the sun only shines directly on a small portion of the aviary. They usually do, spending about 10 minutes a day in the sun.

Medan type shama

2010-08-21T18:25:00.001+08:00

From time to time, when I come across a shama or other species of bird with good song, I acquire it just for the song. I got such a bird today. He is a Medan type shama from Indonesia, i.e. big head, stout body and short tail.

The idea of getting such a bird in my home is to expose my birds to the songs of birds from other regions or other species. Shamas are good mimics and in this way, my birds are able add the dialects or songs of other birds to their repertoire and their songs can continuously improve.

Below is the photo of the bird I got today:

Letter from Vietnam

2010-08-09T21:39:00.001+08:00

Hi, How are you?

I am Ivan from Vietnam who is also a white rumped shama lover.

I love to have a high qualities Shama here in Vietnam but I do not know any one here who have a great Shama.

So I wonder how can I buy a Shama from Singapore . I got on Singapore birds website and I get Interested in Shamas.

May I buy a high qualities Shama from Vietnam, How?

Thank you so much.

I am looking forward to hear from you.

Your faithfully

Ivan

Hanoi Vietnam

Hi Ivan,

Its not possible to export shamas from Singapore because of the ban caused by the bird flu. In any case, you may have noted that the demand in Singapore is so great that it cannot be satisfied. The latest male shama with 13" tails was sold for S$16,000.00 i.e almost US$12,000.00.

Best regards,

David

Max

2010-08-09T15:15:00.006+08:00

This is Max. He has not completed his molt as can be seen from his feathers which are still not tight to his body. He is Icon's son from 2007. Icon had 24 chicks that year from 1 female - half of which were male. All the male chicks had tails of over 12 inches either after the first molt or by the 2nd or 3rd molt. Four of the males had tails exceeding 12" after the first molt with Max's tails being the longest. This is Max's third molt and at a guess, his tails may well exceed 16" when the molt is completed.

Courtship Dance

2010-07-17T15:15:00.002+08:00

Breeding

2010-07-15T09:28:00.001+08:00

Q. I am considering breeding a few pairs of shama. i have a very large outdoor aviary that i would like to place a few 4' x 3' cages that are 7' tall. i would like to know if the pair in one cage should be prohibited from seeing the pair in the cage right next to it.

A. Shamas should not be kept within sight of each other. Breeding pairs of shamas especially should not be kept close to each other or to other shamas. See for example the video in the Malaysian Bird Forum under the thread: Breeding Shamas Video- Wild Caught and Captive Bred.

Since the video, there has been further report of success. I would have thought that success would be unlikely as the breeding pair will be constantly stressed by the aggressive songs of the male next door.

Shamas are territorial and ideally, the distance between aviaries should be such that the songs of the birds in one aviary do not excite the pairs in the other aviaries. This is not always possible and there must be compromise.

Food

2010-07-15T08:25:00.002+08:00

A shama that enjoys its dry food will peck and eat each granule from the cup. If a granule inadvertently falls on the cage floor, it may even hop down to pick it up. If a shama swishes the dry food with its beak so that some is scattered on the cage floor, it is not because it is a fussy or messy eater. The probable reason is that it does not recognize or fully accept that what is on offer is food. If the shama is recently being taught to eat dry food, insects should be cut and mixed with the dry food until the bird readily eats the dry food. If the bird has previously been eating its dry food well, consider the possible causes for the bird being put off its food and take remedial action.

Male shama chick at 30 days old

2010-06-27T17:38:00.003+08:00

Tail length

2010-06-27T12:20:00.003+08:00

Amongst the most frequent question I am asked about my birds is "What is the length of their tails?" I think one of my bird's tails is about 16" though I cannot say for sure as my carelessness caused the tails to break at the root when they were growing. On average, the primary tails range from 13" to 15". Below are tails that were recently shed by one of my birds as part of its annual molt.It will be seen that the spine of the feather is very thin. This results in a soft feather that enables the bird to wave very nicely during its display.

Pretty Boy's son, RnD90

2010-06-23T18:39:00.003+08:00

This is Pretty Boy's son, RnD90, at 26 days of age. He has the longest legs of any chick I have seen. The photos show that even at this very young age, the shama chick will display. A characteristic of this chick is that he stoops forward with each wag of his tails. It will be interesting to see his display when he is older.

Vitamin B Complex (2)

2010-06-23T10:27:00.003+08:00

In response to my post on the special needs of shamas for Vitamin B Complex, I received the comment below from Lac Viet. He is a successful breeder of shamas and has his own website at: http://lacvietchoelua.blogspot.com/.

You are so right about the importance of vitamin B complex to the shama. Not only is the shama vulnerable and needs lots of vitamin B complex during molt, but during grow up as well. Two of my chicks (less than 2 months old) got this fits (I believe what you describe fits is another name for "stargazing" where the bird can't control its neck muscle which cause the head tilt back, wing muscle can't work properly and feet can't perch). A few drops of concentrate vitamin B complex liquid can cure this fit in less than an hour if caught early. Thank you for sharing this story and hope the owner find another shama to keep soon. Best Regards.

I add below to Lac Viet's comments.

Shamas of both sexes and all ages in captivity need Vitamin B supplementation especially if their diet contains a high percentage of protein. Even chicks in the nest can suffer from "star gazing". This is an affliction where the head is tilted back as though the bird is looking upwards. In every instance of star gazing that I have encountered with shama chicks the cause has been a deficiency of vitamin B.

The star gazing syndrome seems to be experienced only by very young shamas. In my experience, adult birds that lack vitamin B do not star gaze but suffer a fit. They seem relatively OK but any sudden movement can trigger a fit. The movement may be nothing more than flying to the side of the cage when food or water is placed in it. The bird suffers from convulsions during which it flops all over the cage. Nevertheless, the bird is conscious and aware of its surroundings. It will peck when being fed vitamin B.

As Lac Viet has noted, a few drops of concentrated vitamin B will cure the problem in a very short time. If the bird has a fit then it should be caught and given this treatment. Otherwise, my preferred method of feeding vitamin B is either to put it in the dry food, on insects or on the ants eggs.

I keep vitamin B for human consumption in liquid form that I purchase from GNC in Singapore. GNC does not carry stock and an order must be placed. Sometimes one or more of my shamas may seem lethargic and there is no shine in the eyes. The usual cause is a deficiency of vitamin B. Perhaps my helper has failed to give it without my knowledge. Of course, there could be other causes. A possible other cause is calcium deficiency but this usually affects females during egg laying.

I only feed concentrated vitamin B directly to my birds in extreme case of need. If I think that there is a need for vitamin B but it is not critical, I put a few drops on to ants eggs from which the excess moisture has been removed. This is my preferred method of administering vitamin B. Another way is to spread the liquid vitamin B on the top 3 fingers of my hand and wipe it on the crickets. I use this method for my breeding birds since the container with about 50 to 100 crickets are placed in the aviary for 1 day's consumption.

For normal feeding of vitamin B, I purchase tablets for human consumption that I grind into powder and add to the dry food.

This post has discussed only the vitamin B requirements of shamas. It should be borne in mind that for the birds to be and remain healthy, it is necessary to provide a balanced diet. This means that all the ingredients necessary for a healthy life, including vitamins and minerals, must be provided to the birds. My wife sometimes comments that I take better care of my birds than I do of myself. J

2010-06-21T16:32:00.001+08:00

Vitamin B Complex

2010-06-21T12:05:00.000+08:00

I received the email below this morning from an old friend.

"It is with great sadness that I'm writing to you to inform you that [XXX] has pass on.

It was only a few weeks ago that I wrote to you that XXX has gone into a serious molt. I was looking for a good one, giving him a buffet of live food supplemented with vitamins. The feathers were growing out fine and he is still in a very aggressive form, posturing and singing when I open his cage cloth.

Last week I ran out of B complex tablets that I usually crush and mix with his live food twice a week. Due to heavy work commitments. I did not go to Guardian to purchase the usual vitamin B tablets. I simply used a B complex liquid that was prescribed for my son several months ago. Last evening, I saw XXX being fluffy and did not touch his live food buffet. I soaked a white meal worm in the liquid B complex but he refused to eat it. Knowing that he had a history of fits, I attempted to catch him to feed him the vitamin but that immediately set off the fit. I managed to feed him a little of the liquid B complex and place him in a small open box to prevent him from flopping around. I immediately rushed off to Guardian to purchase the tablet form B but when I returned home XXX has passed on. On hightsight, I guess that the liquid Vitamin B complex was either past its expiry date or the dosage was not sufficient. When he was molting, he obviously needed a lot more supplements than normal.

XXX has been a great pet and will be greatly missed for his song and display. I would like to take this time to thank you for giving me the opportunity to keep XXX, a shama of your fine breeding."

XXX (its real name has not been used) was about 10 years old at the time of his death. Reading the email, made me think of the large number of shama owners who still do not know or appreciate the importance of vitamin B for shamas. Only last Saturday, a visitor to my home was asking why his shamas would sometimes have fits. He said that the fit tended to occur when the bird was being transferred from its cage to the bath cage.

I would like to take this opportunity to explain when and why vitamin B complex should be fed to shamas.

Vitamin B is required for the proper functioning of the nerves. Without sufficient vitamin B, the nerves are unable to operate fully. In the worst case, the bird has is unable to control its movements and this is manifested in the form of fits. This results in the flopping around that is common with a vitamin B fit.

Apart from its effect on nerves, vitamin B is required for protein digestion. Birds that are fed dry food where the amount of protein is not high, say about 20% or less of the total food intake, have a lesser requirement for vitamin B supplementation. During breeding or molting, the captive shama is often fed more live food. In other words, the protein intake is substantially increased. There is therefore an increased need for vitamin B. Some vitamin B is no doubt obtainable from the live food itself but this is apparently not sufficient for birds in captivity. I suppose, the limited types of livefood in the form of crickets, mealworms frogs fish, pineapple beetles and grass-hoppers do not contain sufficient of the B vitamins.

If the health of the bird is monitored on a daily basis, you will be able to tell when the bird is beginning to suffer from a vitamin B deficiency. A healthy shama will always appear alert. Even a very tame bird that does not fly when you approach its cage will look at you with interest. A shama that is suffering from a deficiency of vitamin B will show little or no interest when you approach its cage. It will be lethargic. If it flies, you will observed that it seems to do so with some effort. Its eyes will also seem dull.

As vitamin B is required to assist the bird to process protein, a deficiency of this vitamin will cause the bird to eat less as it will have difficulty digesting its food. Therefore a good indication that the bird is approaching a vitamin B deficiency type of fit is that the bird starts to go off its food. A bird in good condition should eat a lot. If it starts to eat less, take care. I have a full day at the office but I try to check the health of my birds at least once or twice a day. This is easier with the birds in cages. I remove the previous day's newspaper in the morning so that whatever the bird passes out during the day can be seen. When I return from work in the evening, I check the newspaper. If the excreta is not of the amount or type that I expect, I try to figure out why and take remedial action which may involve giving vitamin me.

2010-06-19T21:34:00.005+08:00

A good indication of the form of a male shama is the colour of the inside beak. When a male shama is not in form, the colour will be a pale light brown/yellow. It will darken when the bird is in form as can be seen in the bird below. Ideally, the colour should gradually darken over a period of weeks as the bird form of the bird improves. When a bird's form improves in this way, it is indicative that its care is correct. This type of form tends to last for several months. Sometimes, a bird that is not yet in full form may get excited by the presence of other male shamas or other event and suddenly seem to come into form, with its inner beak darkening in the space of several minutes. This type of form tends not to last and the inner beak will revert to its light colour within a few hours of the event ending.

R&D89

2010-06-12T11:29:00.000+08:00

This is Pretty Boy's eldest daughter from this year. He is one of my favourite shamas and she appears to have inherited his characteristics.

Skyhawk

2010-06-11T18:20:00.000+08:00

2010-05-23T15:01:00.003+08:00

Ballet Dancer today at 9+ years of age:

DDS225

2010-05-22T11:59:00.000+08:00

Funkie's father

2010-05-19T20:57:00.000+08:00

Ideal

2010-05-15T23:17:00.000+08:00

2010-05-13T06:18:00.002+08:00

Female Shama after first molt from juvenile

2010-05-10T18:57:00.000+08:00

ham

Making a u-turn and lowering landing gear

2010-05-08T08:11:00.002+08:00

Standing Tall

2010-05-07T06:17:00.000+08:00

Care during molt

2010-05-06T12:00:00.000+08:00

Last Sunday, I had the privilege to have 3 guests at my place in the evening to see my shamas. They were visiting for the first time. At my request, Michael and Jeffrey came along.

We spent close to 2 hours chatting about shamas while the 5 birds in cages on the garden floor sang and displayed. The aviary birds provided background accompaniment. One of the guests later kindly remarked in his email that the experience had been eye-opening.

Among the topics we discussed was how to bring the shama into form and how to maintain the form thereafter. The first thing to note is that a shama can only come into form if the hormone, testosterone, is present in its system. Without this hormone, the bird will not even sing. If the bird is well taken care of before and during the molt, it will continue to have some testosterone during the molt and it will sing and display to some extent throughout the molting process although it will be less active. If the bird is fluffed or it is unresponsive when placed in the company of other male shamas during the molt, then something is wrong and you will need to review its care and maintenance.

As the shama approaches the end of its molt, the level of testosterone in its system should gradually increase. In tandem with the rise in its testosterone, the bird’s form should also rise. This rise in form together with good feathering provides confirmation that the bird’s nutrition and care during the molt are correct.

Let’s assume that all is well with the bird and it is starting to sing its primary song towards the end of its molt. It may even do so quite vigorously. Seeing what seems to be the bird’s good form, most of us become impatient to take the bird to a gathering. This could be a mistake. If the primary tails are still growing, its roots will be soft and could be damaged if the bird vigorously displays. Also, as the bird is not yet in top form, placing it in a gathering of fierce shamas could cause it to be intimidated. This could adversely affect its form after the molt.

The hobbyist should learn to exercise patience. The male shama can be expected to come into top form about 1 ½ months after it completes the molt. In the meantime, continue to have the cage in a quiet corner so that the bird is not disturbed by the songs of other shamas. The cage should be fully covered with its cloth cover during the molt and until you are sure that the molt is completed. The cover can than be removed and you will be able to enjoy the bird and its songs as you hear its songs becoming louder and its display improves.

The bird should only be brought to bird gatherings after it has reached top form. It should not be brought to gatherings too often such as once a week. If you do so the bird will be stressed. Its form will deteriorate and it may enter into a stress molt.

What's that up there

2010-05-05T02:26:00.003+08:00

Any challengers

2010-05-04T20:40:00.001+08:00

King of all I survey

2010-05-03T18:32:00.001+08:00

Catch by KK, my son and I from today's fishing in Singapore's coastal waters with Ah Poh

2010-05-01T22:01:00.005+08:00

Calcium

2010-04-30T11:44:00.000+08:00

Hi David...

It is hard to find liquid calcium here in my place... yesterday I bought calcium tablets meant for human consumption: the tablet size is just like normal Panadol Tablet... I administered the tablet(a quarter) to my young shama which readily takes everything from my hand... but I found it difficult with other shamas - in my possession specially a pair of shamas which I am trying to breed... suggestion from u is much needed, btw:

1. any risk of calcium over dosage?..is 1//4 of the tablet considered enough or less?, is twice a week enough for my breeding shama?
2. is it safe to mix calcium tablet with multivitamin tablet (crushed) and dilute it into bird's drinking water?

Thanks...

Best Regards,
Yusran

Hi Yusran,

Before supplementing the food that we feed to our shamas, we first need to consider if there is even a need for it. Only after we have concluded that there is likely to be something lacking in the diet and we have identified what is likely to be lacking, should we go on to consider how much to feed and how to do it.

I would suggest that it is preferable to feed vertebrates such as fish and froglets to the shamas rather than supplement directly with calcium. I have not found the need to supplement with calcium even when my birds are molting or breeding when vertebrates included in the diet of my birds .

Assuming that calcium supplementation is necessary, I would think that feeding a quarter tablet to the shama at one time is probably too much. The tablet is intended for the daily intake of an adult human whereas a shama only weighs about 1 once. I would only give about 1/16 of the tablet to the shama and even then I would not be sure if this is too much.

To feed the calcium, break of the amount that you want to feed the bird. Then remove the head of a small cricket and, using a toothpick or something similar, gently insert the piece of calcium inside. A large cricket should not be used as the bird will then try to break it into smaller pieces and the calcium might drop out.

The frequency of feeding should be about 3 to 4 times a week.

It is safe to mix the calcium powder with other water soluble vitamins. However, I do not put vitamins in water. The bird may not like the taste and may not drink. Also, the water may be spoiled by bacteria if the water is not changed for the whole day.

Best regards,

David

Singing like a canary

2010-04-25T00:02:00.003+08:00

2010-04-24T17:13:00.002+08:00

Pretty Boy's son at 16 days of age.

Sunshine

2010-04-15T11:30:00.000+08:00

I see in the Malaysian Shama Forum that there is some discussion on whether or not shamas should be sunned. Like any topic in which hobbyists have an interest there will always be differing views and practices. I would like to add my own.

In any consideration on the effect of sunlight on the shama, the first thing to note is that the bird itself seems to enjoy some sunshine. When exposed to the morning or evening sun, which does not burn, the shama will tend to bask on the floor or perch with outstretched wings; its head lolling to one side, its eyes closed. All in all, it is like a man on the beach, trying to put on a tan and liking the caress of the warm sun on his skin.

The very fact that the shama seems to enjoy sunshine, or at least a limited amount of it, must indicate that sunlight is beneficial to the bird in some way. This is so since biological studies have established that the wild bird gets most of its Vitamin D3 requirement from sunlight. This critical vitamin is needed to process calcium for the formation of bone. If sunlight is not available to the captive bird, an alternative source of this vitamin will have to be provided. This is not a problem since commercially available calcium products include vitamin D3.

In addition to assisting in bone formation, sunshine may also be helpful in eradicatimg mites or to reduce their numbers on the bird. Here again, any lack of sunshine can be remedied by the use of insecticides such as Frontline.

The question then arises as to whether the shama still needs to be sunned if vitamin D3 and insecticides are available as alternatives to sunlight. Let’s see what they do in Indonesia. There is a general belief in that country that the shama requires sunlight. Starting with short periods of 20 minutes a day, the time is gradually lengthened until the hobbyist suns his shama for up to 2 hours a day. Experienced shama keepers in

Indonesia

advocate exposure to sunlight to bring up the bird’s form. Such exposure is advised especially in preparing the bird for competition.

I think the tendency to sun the shama in Indonesia stems mainly from the fact that competitions there are held in open fields and last from morning to early afternoon. Obviously, a shama that has not been exposed to large dozes of sunlight will wilt in the noonday sun and stand no chance in the competition.

I would think that if short periods of sunshine can be made available to the shama on a daily or frequent basis, no harm and some good may result to the shama. The birds in my aviaries receive some sunshine and they seem to do well. In the aviary, they can choose to sun themselves or to retreat to the shaded areas. This is best since it is the shama which decides when he has had enough sunlight.

As regards those of my shamas in cages, I continue the practice of sunning those birds of Indonesian origin that I may have and whose owners have been sunning them. I do not make it a practice to sun my other shamas on a regular basis. The reason is that too much sunlight tends to dry the feathers. This is not a problem with the short tailed Indonesian shamas that are kept for their song. However, with long-tailed shamas, prolonged sunshine has the effect of drying the tail feathers. This causes the primary tails to bend upwards and spoils the beauty of the bird. I have not found that lack of sunlight adversely affects the form of my long-tailed shamas.

Temperature for hatching eggs

2010-04-11T15:54:00.000+08:00

Dear David:

Hi , I have been reading most of your threads in the forums and your blogs for 3-4 years, and i decided to try my breeding program this year in my home town Hong Kong.

I bought 2 wild shamas last year from M'sia and they molted with no problems. I guess maybe because I'm using Masuri Insect Food so that they have enough vitamin. I paired them in March and they started to build the nest on 31th Mar. I did not go close to watch them as they are quite scared of people so I cannot confirm there eggs in the nest until I do the cleaning today. There are 3-4 eggs I guess as I just take a quick look inside the nest.

I would like to ask if you think the temperature in our place will be okay for the eggs to hatch ? Now is between 19-21 degrees. (the breeding cage is placed outdoor)

Do you suggest I should transfer the chicks to indoor when they hatched ?

Sorry to bother you , but I have not anyone who has experience to ask around my area.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Best Regards

Stanley

Dear Stanley,

I am happy to assist.

It is often thought that eggs develop only when a parent is sitting. This is not so. Typically, the developing process starts when the temperature is above 21 degrees Centigrade. While development starts at this temperature, the developing process is too slow and if the temperature is not substantially increases the embryo will die. Typically for shamas, my experience in hatching the eggs in incubators is that a temperature of 37.4 degrees seems to be ideal.

When the parent sits, she (some males will share the job) will be able to adjust the temperature in the nest to maintain a constant temperature. If the temperature is too high, she will partially stand so as to lift her breast from the eggs. If the temperature is too low, she will sit tighter on the eggs.

As eggs will start developing on their own at temperatures above 21 degrees C, I would guess that a temperature that varies between 19 to 21 is not too low for the eggs to hatch. The parent will merely sit tighter and possibly leave the nest for shorter periods. The fact that the female has chosen to lay the eggs at this time and sit on them suggests that she does not consider the temperatures to be too low.

When the chicks hatch, I would suggest that they be left with the parents until they fledge. The chicks are tiny and it is difficult to hand-feed them without experience. In a tropical climate like Singapore's the parent will stop sitting on the chicks after the third day of hatching. Thereafter, the chicks body heat will provide their own warmth. By the time they leave the nest at about 11 days, the chicks will be fully feathered and able to withstand the cold.

Wishing you all the best.

David

Maintaining insectivorous birds in captivity – Part 1

2010-04-06T16:22:00.006+08:00

Being fully aware as I am of my inadequate knowledge on the nutrition, care and breeding of the white-rumped shama, I am always on the lookout for sources of information that may usefully add to what I know.

This morning, I came across an article entitled, “Maintaining insectivorous birds in captivity” by Kerry A. Muller. He holds the title of Curator of Birds, Taronga Zoological Park Trust, Sydney, NSW,

Australia

My interest was piqued as the title and the author’s job description suggested that useful information might be gleaned from the article. Unfortunately, articles in academic publications cost an arm and a leg to download and this was no different. I reluctantly paid the equivalent of S$40.00 for the online article of 7 pages without being sure that it would indeed contain useful information.

The value of such articles is not so much that they provide information which can be applied immediately, though in this case there was an appendix to the article that contained some proven diets for insectivorous birds and which I will include in Part 2 of this post. More importantly, such articles may serve to prod the mind to contemplate on matters that would not otherwise have been given a thought to.

I would like to share some aspects of the article and my thoughts when reading it.

Kerry notes that the diet for captive insectivorous birds usually consists of a combination of insects and an artificial insectile mixture. He then observes that “Birds fed on insects alone almost invariably decline and in time die.” The question that immediately springs to mind is “Is this true” and “Why is this so?”

I think that what Kerry meant is that captive insectivorous birds that are fed only insects do not do well over extended periods because the very limited species of insects that are available to the owner of such birds are unable to fulfill all their nutritional requirements. I came to have an understanding of this many years ago when I tried to apply to my shamas what I had learnt from Robert Black’s “Avian Nutrition”.

I should say at the outset that I found the book to be extremely informative and I did learn a lot from it. However, there was one aspect that Black seems to have got wrong. He had stressed the importance of Vitamin B but he concluded that birds that are fed live insects would not require Vitamin B supplementation as this vitamin would be sufficiently supplied from the live tissues of the insects.

At that time, my birds were fed a diet comprised of pineapple beetles, fish, frogs, mealworms and crickets, all of which were captive raised. In addition, I supplemented with vitamins, minerals and also Vitamin B. They were doing alright although I felt that they were not in as good form as they could be.

What Black wrote seemed reasonable to me and I stopped supplementation of vitamins and minerals. A few months thereafter, some of my birds had fits that were caused by a deficiency of Vitamin B. How, did I know this? Well, I suspected this was so and I fed the Vitamin in liquid form to the affected bird. Within a few minutes it recovered.

After some thought, I concluded that Black was likely to be correct only with regard to birds that have the opportunity to feed on a wide variety of free ranging insects as occurs in the wild. In captivity, the available insects and other live food just do not provide the amount of Vitamin B (and possibly other vitamins and minerals) that the bird requires and intelligent supplementation is required.

With the above in mind, I thought I could understand and agree with Kerry’s comment that captive birds that are fed only insects will invariably decline and in time die. What then should be done? I would think that we should first seek to determine what is lacking in the live food that we provide to our birds and try to improve the quality of the live food itself if we can.

Kerry mentions that captive raised insects have a very low content of calcium, phosphorus and vitamins D3, A, E and B complex. This was in line with my experience. Kerry also mentions that such insects are lower in protein and fats and especially lower in carbohydrates than might be expected.

To remedy the deficiencies, I should note that the quality of the captive raised insects may be enhanced by providing food to them that will in turn improve their quality as food for our birds. Take crickets for example. When purchased from the supplier, they normally come in a container with some newspaper. The newspaper is intended as bedding material – somewhere for the crickets to hide. It is not meant as food for the crickets although new owners of insectivorous birds will often not feed anything else to the crickets.

What I do is feed my crickets with pellets intended for chickens. This is the same food that the owner who farms the crickets feeds them. I buy the pellets from him at S$1.00 per kilo. In addition to the pellets, I feed carrots, apples, oranges and other vegetables and fruit to provide moisture and nourishment. The cost is not as extravagant as it seems since I can get 4 to 5 slightly damaged apples from the NTUC outlets at S$1.00 per bag.

I recently imported a 5 kilo bag of dry food from Wombarroo, Australia, that was especially formulated for feeding crickets. It was a trial order that is unlikely to be repeated because of the cost. Anyway, the pellets for chickens are probably a suitable substitute.

With regard to mealworms, the shop feeds them with bran but this has little food value. It’s much better to feed oats to them. A large tin of Nestum costs only S$4.00 and lasts a long time. Just as with the crickets, also provide fruits and vegetables to the mealworms.

Kerry observes that suitable commercial mixtures in the West are usually known as “Mockingbird food”. When offering such food it is usual to supplement with raw ground beef or beef heart and boiled egg yolk as well as adding insects.

Kerry also notes that “It has been suggested by some nutritionists that the proteins and sugars that are obtained from the amino acids of insects may differ considerably from those of mammals, and that their absorption and utilization by insectivores may incorporate complex biochemical processes not yet fully understood. However, Kerry further notes that insectivorous birds do much better in captivity than insectivorous mammals and he suspects that the problem lies more in management than in nutrition.

Eggs do not hatch

2010-03-08T11:16:00.003+08:00

Hi David,

I have come across your web-site and decided to breed the shama.

I have been breeding Shama since last year but without success. Last year, the female had sat on the nest twice with two eggs and three eggs. On both occasions, it did not hatch. This year, I replaced the male shama and paired with the same female shama. Again, the female sat on the two eggs for three weeks and it did not hatch. Would you be able to advise the reason of not been able to hatch? What should I do to increase the chances of breeding successfully. I have provided the pair with live foods, eg. Cricket, frogs, pineapple beetles and meal worms.

I look forward to your reply. Thank you in advance.

Desmond __

Hi Desmond,

When eggs do not hatch, break the eggs to check the contents. If there is a dead embryo, the reason is likely that there were insufficient vitamins for the embryo to complete its growth. If you do not see an embryo but the egg smells, it means that the embryo died at a very young age. An infertile egg will not smell.

An egg could be infertile for a number of reasons. Perhaps the pair were not fully ready. Transfer one of the birds into a cage and place it next to its mate. The pair should be very excited. If they are not, it suggests that they are not fully ready for breeding. Remove the nestbox and feed them until they come into breeding condition. The food may not have been good enough. The variety of food that you feed seems OK. Try adding a good vitamin supplement to the diet. Of special importance for breeding are vitamins A, E and B.

The male shama, like most male birds, does not have a penis. During mating, the vents of the male and female meet each other and the male squirts his semen into the female. If there are too many feathers around the vents, they cannot lock and the semen does not enter the female. Try trimming the feathers around the vent of both the male and female birds.

David

Effect of breeding on molt

2010-02-25T16:29:00.001+08:00

Breeders of shamas may know that a bird that has been bred during the year will likely have a molt that is not as good as a bird that has not been bred. I recently came across a research paper that sought to explain why this is so. The reason offered was that breeding and molt cause great stress to the bird and as the molt takes place at the end of the breeding season, the bird is in a weakened state as it enters the molt. Also, if the bird is bred late in the season, the time available for molt will be reduced. In other words, the bird will need to complete its molt within a shorter time than a bird that has not been bred.

I would accept that the bird that has been bred will have depleted its its bodily resources that are required for a good molt. However, I am not sure that the researchers are substantially correct in their hypothesis and conclusions that the period of molt is reduced, at least for birds that molt in the tropics.

The research was done in the West where there are 4 seasons but I have noticed that even in the tropics where there is no winter, the breeders tend to have an inferior molt as compared to the non-breeder. It is true that even in the tropics, there is a season of sorts and there is the monsoon or cool "season" towards the end of the year but I doubt if it has the effect of shortening the period of molt.

I would venture to think that the cause of breeders having an inferior molt is not so much the reduced period of molt but rather that breeding and molt place great stress on the bird's physiological system and they have not fully recovered when the molt commences.

During breeding, hormonal changes take place in both the male and the female. These hormones are different from the hormone required for molt. At the end of the breeding season, some of these hormones can be expected to still linger in the bird's system. Consequently, before the hormones for molt have fully had had time to properly replace the hormones required for breeding, the feathers have started to change under less than ideal conditions.

Bear in mind that feathers are comprised largely of protein and form about 20% to 25% of the body weight of the bird. In the circumstances, it is no wonder that the bird that has been bred, is likely to have an inferior molt.

There are of course things that we can do to assist the bird to have a good molt. Stopping the pair from breeding will allow some time to lapse before the molt so that the bird can build the reserves required for molt. I would also separate the pair. This has the effect of keeping the male's form at a higher level than if the pair are left together and this helps to delay the molt during which time, the bird's system can better prepare itself for molt. As feathers are made up largely of protein, a diet rich in protein will also help.

Sunday Night Fishing

2010-02-22T15:23:00.006+08:00

I hadn't been night fishing for years. I went night fishing yesterday (Sunday) in the waters around Singapore. As you can see from the photo below, it was well worth it.

Crickets

2010-02-18T20:41:00.001+08:00

Dear David ,

Inline with what u hv advised on the buffalo chewing away Jeffery's fish stomach.

The shop /tokoh owner Pak Amin hv this to comment on Crickets.

While feeding crickets to our birds , on some aggressive crickets , sometimes we do experience being

cramped n bitten by the crickets front two sharp fangs.

He strongly advd that before feeding the live crickets to birds , advisable to nip the head of the crickets

not to kill it but to disable the front fangs as once swallowed by birds that are not dead yet

n can actually do what the buffalo did to Jeffery's fish.

The two back jumping legs have to remove as they are sharp as well n can choke our birds.

Perhaps this piece of info u had alrdy knew n is nothing new to bird owners at Sin

I just felt the need to share n remind.

Bst Rgds

Hi Sunny,

Thanks for the information. Its always useful to know what others are thinking and doing with regard to bird care.

There are 2 types of crickets that are readily available in Singapore. One is black and the other is a light brown.

The black grows much faster and bigger than the brown. It is also fiercer and the legs, especially the rear ones are sharp and should be removed especially if the cricket is an adult. The brown is smaller and softer and there is no need to remove the legs. It also does not sing as much or as loudly.

Both types are sold by the cricket farm from which I buy my crickets weekly. Since the crickets are from a farm, I can choose the type and size that I want.

Needless to say, I only feed the browns to my birds. I also buy only the sub-adults. Previously, when I fed the blacks to my birds, I would remove the hind legs but not the head although as Pak Amin notes, the fangs are sharp and may bite us. I feel there is no need to do so. Unlike the buffaloes that are small and may be swallowed live by the bird with the danger that they may do harm, a large cricket is too big for the bird to swallow. It will always kill such a cricket before attempting to eat it.

Best regards,

David

Shama Care

2010-02-17T14:14:00.001+08:00

16 February

Hi Dave ,

Allow me to introduce myself.

Singaporean working in Indo JKT. Pickup Shamas about 8 months ago.

Have written to u a couple of times but have not received replies from u.

Anyway later found out that most if not all my questions , the directions from u were all in your blog.

Nowadays , I frequently visit your site on a regular basis. However, there is a reason why I wrote this am.

a. My first bird - kalimantan , went thru the first molt n came out well , stronger , chatty , braver , loud.

I went thru the whole process of what u hv written in yr blog.

b. My second bird medan , the picture attached is alrdy after his molt. -

But he is no alike the borneo bird , he sings but still whispers , his beak is not wide open.

Though the trust is there , he will eat the live food off my hands.

c.But to my surprise , last weeks ( alrdy 2mths after his molt ) he shed all his secondary white tails of course one at a time.

Fright Molt , Weather change ? I do not keep other pets , and he always sit at the best place in my terrace house. Pouch not too

hot , open , not too windy.

I kept these two birds apart. one at the bck of the hse n the medan infront , where they hear each other but never see face to face.

Please advise what shud I do to improve the situation fr my medan bird.

Remarks

The indo way , is somewhat different - they like to put their Shama direct under the morning Sun fr hours. 7 to 10 am.

they claim will improve their stamina on singing /loud n their body will be more toneup ( feathers not fluffy )

Supply of live foods is abundance here incl buffalo worms , Indo says cant be feed to Shama , they will lose all their feathers.

Need your opinion on above.

Hi Sunny,

When I first started in shamas, there was no literature available on them and I learnt the hard way through trial and error. In an attempt to shorten and flatten the learning curve for others, I have placed a great deal of information on the care and breeding of shamas on my website and blog. Nevertheless, I still get many basic questions by people who would rather take the easy way out and ask questions when the answers are already available with a bit of effort. I have learnt to stop answering questions from the start as a reply tends to invite more questions and I just don't have the time or inclination to provide personal tuition.

Now, to answer your questions. You will find that I have mentioned on my blog that if a bird receives the correct food and care during the molt, its form should start to rise as the molt comes to an end with the bird reaching top form about 1 1/2 to 2 months from the completion of the molt. If the bird does not start to come into form, then there was something wrong with the keeping of that bird. As I have also written on my blog, citing Robert Black, what may be suitable for one bird may not be completely suitable another bird of the same species.

Your shama has obviously had a stress molt. Such a molt could be caused by any number of things. Could it have had a severe fright without you knowing it? A bird that is on the floor or clinging to the cage bars in the early morning, very likely had a fright during the night. Was it eating well as observed from the droppings. If a bird is not eating well, it could mean that it does not find the food suitable. If the dry food is scattered, this is not an indication that the bird is a fussy eater, but rather that the food that is offered is not suitable for this bird. The bird scatters the food as it looks for food that it can recognize as such. If the bird is merely eating less, my guess is that it is a vitamin deficiency and the most likely vitamin that is given in insufficient quantities is B Complex. As mentioned on my blog, B Complex is required to assist the shama to digest protein and if not given in sufficient quantities the bird will eat less for the reason that it cannot properly digest its food. If you give Vitamin B, make sure that it is bright yellow in colour as this indicates freshness. A lack of Vitamin B will result in a stress molt.

When I keep short-tailed Indonesian birds, I continue to sun them the way the Indonesians do. I do not sun my long tailed birds as the heat tends to curve the tails upward. The main benefit of sunlight is Vitamin D3 and I make sure my birds get enough without too much direct sunlight.

I do not feed live buffalo worms to my adult birds. Jeffrey Low says that when he kept Lohan Fish and fed these worms to them, when one of them died and he cut it up, he found that the worms had bitten through the stomach. I do offer them to the parents of newly hatched chicks as the parents make sure the worms are truly dead and softened before feeding them to the offspring.

Best regards,

David

Saturday 9 January 2010

2010-01-10T19:32:00.010+08:00

I went sea fishing yesterday. It had been 6 weeks since I was in a boat on the in-shore waters off Singapore and I was looking forward to the respite from work. However, my enthusiasm was largely tempered by the adverse reports that I had been getting.

Just a week ago, the local Straits Times newspaper had a report of dead fish being washed up on the beach. These fish had been raised in holding nets in the sea of Singapore The cause of the deaths was “red tide”. Heavy rains followed by sunshine had caused the plankton to bloom explosively to the extent that the sea was tinged a light red. The plankton had depleted the oxygen in the surrounding sea and this had caused the fish to die.

The problem seemed to be confined to the east coast. I would be fishing at the other end of Singapore where there were no reports of any red tide.

The reports of the results of fishing trips during the week had also not been encouraging. My friend, Kirby, had gone fishing with our boatman, Ah Poh, on Wednesday. He had not had a single nibble from the type of fishes I hoped to catch – groupers, snappers and other bottom fish. Ah Poh had also gone fishing on Thursday with the same result. A trip 2 days later was unlikely to prove worthwhile.

Nevertheless, as the saying goes, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast” and no one has more hope than a dyed in the wool fisherman. As and on and off fisherman over many decades, I had hope, lots of hope but the expectations were low when my son, my law partner, KK, and I boarded the boat at a little after 8 in the morning.

The live prawns that we had bought for bait were poured into the bait-well and we were off. After a while, KK had a bite and pulled up a small snapper of about 300 grams. The mood in the boat immediately improved. At least the fish were biting. This indicated that the water quality was sufficiently OK for the fish to want to feed. Our hopes increased and so did our expectations.

The next fish that came to the boat was a snapper caught by Ah Poh. It was about 1.3 kilos and the mood on the boat further brightened. Perhaps the day would not be a waste after all.

I then had a good bite on my line and the fish fought to the surface where it jumped in a flash of silver and threw the hook. It was probably a Queen fish or a Silver Thread Fin Salmon. My son then caught a good sized Snapper. It was later weighed on baking scales at 2.7 kilos – a very good catch in Singapore in-shore waters.

A little later, he had another bite. I watched his rod to see from its arc that it made if the fish was large and would require me to bring in my line. He didn’t seem to be having much difficulty so I left my bait in the water. Whump, my rod tip went down and I was on to a good size fish. The first few seconds are critical. The fish needs to be lifted from the bottom quickly to prevent it from going into a hole or entangling itself on something. After an enjoyable fight it was netted. It weighted exactly 2.55 kilos. Below is a photo of the 2 best fish of the trip:

A little later I felt a bite. I guessed it was a snapper but not as big as the earlier one. Nevertheless it was fighting well. Suddenly, it stopped fighting. I reeled it to the boat and we saw why. Only the top half of the snapper was left. Something had almost surgically cut the fish in half. This is no mean feat. We estimate the complete fish would have weighed about 1.2 kilos and for the attacker to wrap its jaws around such a fish and cut it neatly in half with one bite could only mean that it was a pretty large predator. No doubt it was a barracuda. We speculated on the size and agreed that it had to be about 10 kilos or more and 4’ to 5’ in length. Now, you wouldn’t expect a fish like that in Singapore in-shore waters would you?

We turned the boat for home at 5 pm as both my son and KK had separate wedding dinners to attend to last night. Everyone on the boat had caught something worthwhile. The final tally is shown in the photograph below:

2010-01-06T08:48:00.002+08:00

Hi David,

Allow me to introduce myself. I am Stanley from Johor Bahru, Malaysia, and am new to the hobby of keeping Shamas.

Would you kindly offer me advice as to getting 2 of my Shamas into the bath cage? (Individually of course)

I have been unable to 'chase' them into the bath cage and would not want to try catching them by hand as it proves to be stressful.

Also, I am reluctant to spray them with a spray bottle as I read on your site it is not advisable to do so, water may get into their lungs.

Could you offer me solutions to get my birds into the bath cage?

& also, if all else fails, what would be my last resort in regards to their bathing hygiene?

I thank you in advance for your precious time and valuable advice.

Regards

Hi Stanley,

The bird that is not familiar with crossing into the bath cage will be reluctant to do so. The most effective method is to use the cage cloth to completely cover the area between the cage and the bath cage. The cloth should cover part of both cages. This seems to calm the bird and help it to cross. After the bird has crossed, leave the whole setup as it is. In other words don't shut the door and remove the cloth. Let the bird cross and re-cross if it wants to. If the bird does not bathe after half an hour, return the bird to its usual place. Eventually the bird will be unafraid and it will bathe. You can remove the cloth when the bird will comfortably cross the cage.

Another method is to place a perch in the bird's cage just at the entrance of the door.

Another method is to place a female at the other end of the bath cage. This works if the male is in form as he will want to reach the female.

David

Disruptions on Blogger

2009-12-30T16:21:00.002+08:00

In the past few months, blog sites have had quite a few disruptions with posts being completely erased or videos or photographs disappearing. Jeffery's blog had all his recent posts wiped out. My most recent post on this blog was erased and I understand that some or all of the videos have also been erased.

Jeffrey tells me that the problems seem to effect quite a number of sites and nothing and it seems that nothing is being done about it.

Do not be surprised therefore if you find that videos etc are missing from this blog.

Funky's younger brother

2009-11-22T19:11:00.003+08:00

This is Funky's brother from the nest after him. Like his 2 brothers before him, Cochise and Funky, he shows exceptional courage and character. He still has 2 brothers from later nests then him, who are now only entering their molt. From the looks so far, they will probably also not disappoint.

Letter from Netherlands

2009-11-10T14:27:00.002+08:00

Sat, Nov 7, 2009

Hello David,

It has been a time ago when I contacted you.

Everything all right with your birds ?

Now I want to start something new, but I might be going to fail. So I am going to you for info.

What I'm thinking of is to breed shamas in breeding cages of 100*50*50 cm = 50*25*25 inches. These cages have a separation in the middle, so the birds can see each other but not come close to each other.

When the birds are in breeding condition, as you discribe on your site, then take the separation away and the

male can do his job. Afterwards put the separation back. Do this every evening till the female lays her eggs.

Just as I do when I breed canaries !

(when do you think shamas have the age to start breeding, 1 year or must they have a higher age ?)

I have seen on the Malaysian bird forum that there are breeders who bred shamas in cages of 26 ich.

Do you know such breeders and if so, are they working the same as I have in mind ?

Or is this all a dream and absolutely not possible ?

Hi Roel,

I have not introduced male and female shamas in the way you mention, though I have done this with canaries. With shamas, I merely read the signs that the birds are ready to be mated and I then introduce them. If the male displays and sings when the cage with the female is close and she does the same the birds are ready.

If you do wish to try introducing the birds in the way that you mention, I would suggest that as soon as the birds seem compatible, they should be left together. We are dealing with wild birds and separating them will likely adversely affect their propensity to mate.

Unless you have a special reason for wanting to breed the shamas in a small cage, I don't see and benefit in doing so. I partner in breeding shamas did try to breed them in a 30" cage just to see if it could be done. The birds built their nest but the female did not lay. I don't see any problem with breeding shamas in a small cage if the birds are tame but like I said, I see no benefit in doing so and I have no wish to try.

Best regards,

David

2009 Breeding Season

2009-10-16T15:26:00.004+08:00

I had a bumper harvest of 40 shama chicks last year, half of which were male. The work was just too much for my home and for this year, I had decided that there would be minimal breeding and only 1 to 2 specially selected pairs would be bred.

Apache and Super Model’s Daughter’s offspring

The first pairing was Apache and Super Model’s daughter. This pair had produced only 1 male chick (Cochise) in 2008. He was outstanding in character, display and song and my friends, Michael and Jeffrey, expressed interest in each of them having a male chick from this pair. I of course tried to oblige. Altogether, I took 4 nests from the pair this year. There was only 1 male from each nest of chicks.

The first male, Funkie, went to Jeffrey. He proved to be almost all that we could have hoped for with first molt tails of 11 1/4". I kept the 2nd male, DDS243. Until 2 weeks ago, I thought that DDS243 was not of the same quality as Funkie. The main reason was that he had a large chest and seemed to be the Medan type of shama. Surprisingly, the chest has slimmed and he now looks like any other Malaysian type shama. He primary tails after the first molt seem to be slightly more than 9". Like Cochise and Funkie, he is fierce and also has beautiful song.

I had molted DDS243 in a cage instead of in the aviary. as I usually do with my birds To ensure that he was not disturbed during the molt, his cage was covered with a light coloured cloth at all times except when he taking his bath or his cage is being cleaned. His cage cloth was seldom removed during the molt as he would immediately start to display and sing even if his cage was being carried.

The 3rd clutch of 2 chicks (a male and a female) from Apache and SuperModel's daughter went to Michael. The male looks promising but it is too early to be sure how he will turn out.

I had wanted to separate Apache and his mate after the 3rd clutch. However, having seen how Funkie was turning out I decided to take one more clutch from them. Unfortunately, I was replanting my front garden and there was constant movement of 6 gardeners around the aviary during the time that the female was sitting. On the day that the first eggs from the 4th nest were due to hatch, I was told on returning home that 2 of the eggs had hatched but the parents had removed the chicks and placed them on the aviary floor. They were dead.

There was 1 egg left in the nest. As the parents would probably have also killed the chick that hatched from the egg if it was left in the nest, I removed the egg for hatching in the incubator. Before placing the egg in the incubator, I checked to make sure that there was indeed a chick that was about to hatch.

I first candled the egg. I could tell from the dark mass in the egg that there was an almost fully developed chick. To confirm that the chick was alive, I prepared a bowl of slightly warm water and placed the egg inside. After the ripples caused by the placement of the egg in the water had subsided, I noted gentle ripples moving outward from the egg. These ripples are caused by the unhatched chick moving in the egg and this in turn causing the egg to move. Satisfied that the chick was alive, I placed the egg in the “hospital cage” that has proved itself in my use for the past 10 years.

Below is a photograph of the hospital cage with the egg in the container.

#

At about 1 a.m. that night, I happened to be awake and looked into the incubator. The chick had just hatched. I knew from past experience that there would be no need to feed the chick until much later in the morning if it was kept quiet and in the dark. The chick was fed in the morning and this is what he looked like on the 2nd day:

#

The chick has grown well and he has been transferred to an aviary for exercise to ensure his full and proper development. Before I leave off, I should acknowledge that although my dear wife has no interest in my birds, she ungrudgingly takes care of the chicks from day 1 until they are able to eat on their own when the need arises. I am really grateful to her.

Ballet Dancer’s Progeny

The other pair that I bred this year was Ballet Dancer and a female that had not been tried with him in previous years. I took only 2 nests from him and obtained 2 male chicks. The chick from the first nest seems really special and seems superior in structure to Apache’s offspring.

The other male chick from Ballet Dancer is still too young to access his potential accurately.

After 2 nests I separated Ballet Dancer and his mate although they were still in top breeding condition. In retrospect, in view of how his eldest male chick is turning out, I must say that I have some regret at having done so.

A Beginner's Puteh Experience

2009-10-01T10:22:00.003+08:00

It’s been 1 ½ months since I got my Putehs (Oriental White-eyes). During this time, my knowledgeable friends have tried to teach me the ropes of Puteh care. I think I have learnt something and I thought I should pass it on as a possible help to other beginners who might benefit from the learning process of another beginner. Of course, each of you will still need to decide if you should adopt what I am doing or if some other method is more suitable for you.

In this post, I just want to talk about Puteh sh…

I know from keeping shamas that the state of a bird’s excreta should be observed daily as it provides a good indication of the bird’s health and the suitability of the food that the bird is getting. It’s the same with Putehs. Additionally, I am told that the state of a Puteh’s excreta may also indicate its form.

Those of you who have read my posts on shamas will know that ‘good’ faeces for the shama is a patch of white that looks like chalk with some darker matter in the centre. The white is urea, which is a by-product of a high protein diet which the shama requires while the darker matter is the actual excreta.

Unlike the shama, whose main diet is insects, the Puteh is a fruiteater. It does not need (nor will it thrive on) a high protein diet. Instead, what the Puteh needs is plenty of calories to provide the energy it requires for its very active lifestyle. To get the calories, the Puteh must process a great deal of calorie rich food through its digestive system. This in turn, results in a large amount of excreta comparative to the size of the bird.

Diarrhoea

A Puteh that has been deprived of water for a large part of the day will thereafter tend to suffer from a condition of having watery faeces. The faeces seems very much like diarrhoea. For want of a better word, I will refer to this form of excreta as watery faeces. The excreta can get so wet that it may even dribble off the cage floor if the cage is tilted. The cause of watery faeces is oversight in not providing the Puteh with sufficient water for the day.

When water is eventually provided, the Puteh tends to drink much more than what a healthy Puteh would consume. I do not know if the condition is medical or psychological but a Puteh suffering from watery faeces seems to always have an incurable thirst.

I am reliably told that there is no permanent cure for watery faeces though it is possible to mitigate the problem. One proven method is to offer a light unsweetened tea instead of water. The Puteh will drink less of the tea as it will not like the flavour and its excreta will be less watery. However, if water instead of tea is subsequently provided, the problem of watery faeces will immediately return.

One thing that should not be done in an attempt to treat the problem of watery faeces is to reduce the amount of water that is available to the Puteh. There was a bird forum not long ago that had a newly “resident” vet to offer advice on medical problems. One of the first questions he was asked was how to cure a Puteh that had a drinking habit? His advice was to limit the water daily available to the bird as it would then be forced to drink less and would eventually get used to drinking less water. Now, as any experienced Puteh hobbyist knows, withholding water from a Puteh with a drinking problem will only worsen the situation.

[to be continued]

Cataract

2009-09-03T15:58:00.003+08:00

On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 2:14 AM, juan guillermo alvarez zuluaga wrote:

HELLO MR DAVID,

I AM an amateur keeper of insectivorous birds, especially the White-rumped Shama AND MY INQUIRY CONCERNS THIS BIRD. THE BIRD IS APPROXIMATELY ONE YEAR OF AGE AND PRESENTING THE PROBLEM THAT IN ONE OF ITS EYES IS CATARACT that covers all of it.

At first it was almost not noticeable but now it looks white because of this problem. IF YOU CAN ADVISE ME ON THIS HUGE PROBLEM BECAUSE I would appreciate ME DA MUCHA PENA who became blind.

IS THERE ANY REMEDY OR TREATMENT OR Who can I contact. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION AND INTEREST. I congratulate you on your birds that ARE AN INSPIRATION FOR NATURE LOVERS WITH NOT SO MANY YEARS OF EXPERIENCE OF SUCH BIRDS IN THEIR CARE.

SEE YOU SOON AND THANK YOU AGAIN.

ATTE: JUAN GUILLERMO ALVAREZ ZULUAGA
LIVE IN MURCIA-SPAIN

Hi Juan,

I am afraid there that the only reliable cure for cataract is to have an operation to remove the spoilt lens and replace it with an artificial lens. This is routinely done with humans and there have also been successful trials on dogs. As far as I know, it has never been done with birds.

What happens with cataract is that the lens in the eye oxidises and gradually becomes opaque until vision is completely blocked. The effect is somewhat like placing an egg in hot water. The egg-white will turn from clear to white. The process cannot be reversed although there are claims on the internet that this is possible with eye-drops.

Best regards,

David

Blackthroat010909

2009-09-01T21:59:00.008+08:00

Below is a video that I recorded today of my Blackthroat Seedeater. I purchased it about 1 1/2 months ago.

P28 Dry Food

2009-09-01T15:24:00.002+08:00

By David de Souza » First posted on the Malaysian Shama Forum on Wed Aug 26, 2009

In view of the enquiries in this forum, it may be useful if I share my experience of using the P28 brand of dry food for insectivores and also set out my criteria for choosing a dry food for my shamas.

Need to feed dry food

I have found that feeding purely live food to my shamas does not give the best results. The reason, I think, is that the limited variety of live food available in the form of crickets, mealworms, pineapple beetles, fish and froglets do not satisfy the complete nutritional needs of the shama.I therefore decided that a good dry food would need to be the shama's staple food and the live food would only be fed as a supplement. This requires that the dry food be as complete a food as possible if it is to serve the intended purpose.

Having tried many commercially available dry foods and finding none of them completely to my liking I ended by making my own dry food for my shamas. They were doing very well on this food but I have many shamas and the need to make dry food at periodic intervals proved to be a nuisance. I therefore looked around for a suitable readily available dry food.

I began to hear good reports from users of P28 and I finally decided to give it a try.

Over a period of several weeks, I gradually converted my birds to P28. I use it as the basic food and I add whatever I think might be useful.

My birds seem to do much better on P28 than other dry foods I had tried and I can assure you that I have tried many over more than 40 years. I now feed all my shamas except the breeders with a staple diet of P28 and some live food in the evenings. The breeders get only live food from the time they are paired.

I have 4 main criteria for choosing one brand of dry food over another and I consider them below.

The dry food should be scientifically formulated

It is desirable that the dry food be scientifically formulated by nutritionists who know the requirements of insectivorous birds such as shamas. This will ensure as far as possible, that the food has the proper balance of protein, fats, carbohydrates, vitamin and mineral levels etc that the birds need.

My research showed that there are several brands of imported food available in Singapore for insectivorous and softbill birds. Amongst them is P28. This is a scientifically well formulated pellet food for insectivores.

I should mention that there is an insect based food that was in the market long before P28 and which is still available. I had tried it many years ago when it was first introduced into Singapore. I had rejected it as it did not satisfy my criteria for a suitable food. In any event, even the local distributor has admitted in this forum that he does not use his insect based food as the main food for his shamas but makes his own concoction and uses the insect food only as one of many ingredients. It seems to me that if the importer himself has no faith in his food, it cannot be much good.

I do feed dried insects to my birds so why did I find the commercially available insect based food to be unsuitable? I cannot be sure but my guess is that to reduce costs, the manufacturers of such food tend to purchase the lowest quality dried insects that is available.

Make a Google search and you will find that bulk sellers of dried insects offer them in several grades, say, A, B and C with C being the cheapest and lowest grade. Grade C will comprise of insects that are of very poor quality because of incorrect processing methods or overlong storage. If this grade of insects forms a major part of the composition of a food, the bird is not likely to find the insects palatable or nourishing.

Long usage

Even though a food may not have been scientifically formulated, long availability in the marketplace and usage may establish its suitability. This is in fact the position with the local brands known as Synlin and Three Coins. My shamas seemed to do much better on these 2 brands than other commercially available dry food. Unlike the imported insect based food, my shamas found these 2 brands palatable. If a food such as P28 is not available and I do not wish to make my own food, I would probably use 1 of these 2 brands.

Excreta

You can easily tell from the excreta of a bird whether it is insectivorous, or a fruit or seed eater.

The excreta of an insectivorous bird that eats live food will take the form of a patch of white with a bit of darker matter in the centre. The white matter is uric acid which is the result of a high protein diet while the darker matter is the actual excreta. A suitable dry food should result in the excreta being as close as possible to the excreta of a bird eating live food. P28 and the 2 local brands of dry food satisfy this requirement.

Molt

The best test of the suitability of a food is how well the birds do after eating the food over the course of the molt. If the food is correct, the birds should be singing even during the molt and by the time they complete the molt, their feathers should be in perfect condition and they should be singing well and in good form. One of my shamas has completed his full molt on P28 and I am happy with his condition and form. Three of my other shamas are molting on P28 and I am also happy with their progress.ConclusionI am no expert and there are many things that I still have to learn about the care of shamas. I nevertheless feel that it might be useful for others to share my experiences and whatever knowledge I have managed to acquire about shamas. Almost invariably when I do so, I set out the basis of my advice and/or the source of my information so that the reader can assess for himself if the advice is sound. I have unfortunately found that this is not always the case with advice that is often so freely given in the forum.

Letter from Belgium

2009-08-27T16:32:00.006+08:00

26th August 2009,

Hello David,

I have kept shamas since 2 years ago. Everything I learnt about them was from your site and blog. Lets be honest, if there is somebody that knows his birds on this planet it is you. Thanks very much for your patience of making a wonderful site like yours and teaching us how to care for this beautiful birds. Without that, Ii think there would be a lot of dead shamas in captivity everywhere or not in such good condition.

Well this year I'm trying for the first time to breed shamas. The couple I have is 2 years old and this is the first time they are being bred. I now have 5 little shamas from 20 egs and the female has 5 more egs. One of the eggs was not fertile. The rest were well but the female kills the young when they are born.

I give plenty of live food, buffalos, crickets, red runners, phoenix worms (they don't like this very much) and others. To have success with the breeding, I have to take out the male when the chicks are born otherwise the female kills them. When she throws them out, I put them back until she stops. Well the last time is going better. We will see what happens now with the last eggs.

Now my problem is this, a few days ago between the 4th and 5th egg I noticed that the female cant fly. A few hours after she laid the egg on the flour and I put it back in the nest which I placed on the floor, it was strange that she accepted, amazing.

Today I saw that the female could not fly again. This is the second time this happened. Last time for 4 to 5 days in the beginning of the season this time lucky only 2 days.

I never saw a fight with the male so is this just a small injury on the wing because she gets scared with something? Something wrong in the food that causes he to be too week when laying eggs? Is it possible there is injury as the birds are so fragile with their wings?

I send 3 pictures, one from the aviary with the nest in the normal height, a picture with the nest down and 2 of the chicks. Now that the female is good again, I don't know if it is better to put the nest in the normal position. Very difficult to feed like this. I have to do it ninja - keeping very quiet and low so as not disturb her.

Greetings from Belgium
Thanks,
Louis

27th August 2009,

Hi Louis,

Thank you for the kind words.

My guess is that your female shama is not getting enough calcium. This mineral is required not only to make the shell of the eggs but it is also needed for the muscles to function properly. In extreme cases of the calcium being insufficient, the female will lay soft-shelled eggs or she will suffer from egg-binding. The female's inability to fly is also likely to be due to insufficient calcium since without it the muscles will not be able to properly expand and contract.

I note that your live food does not seem to include vertebrates such as fish and baby frogs. It is useful to provide vertebrates as their bones will provide the calcium the bird needs. If it is not feasible to feed such food, I would suggest that you supplement the food with calcium. The most effective is liquid calcium. Spread some on the fingers and wipe it on the insects. Feed calcium not more than 4 times a week since too much calcium can also cause problems.

If there is a deficiency of one mineral, it is likely that other minerals and vitamins may also be lacking. You may therefore want to feed a vitamin and mineral supplement to your birds in addition to calcium.

Best regards,

David

On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 2:28 AM, melro 8 wrote:

Hallo David,

Thank you for writing back. I found it strange that the problem of the female is calcium because I give a very good product that includes calcium, vitamins etc. I give this to all my birds; shamas and other thrushes, but like I said in my other letter, nobody knows better the needs of these birds than you so I'm going to take care of that - more calcium.

I also read that extra vitamin b complex would be better. I bought one product but I didn't like that one. After giving it to the birds, they throw up everything they eat so I'm going to look another. Well my other thrushes get extra calcium not only from the powder but also from earthworms cos they eat a lot of that but my shamas don't like it(or take very little) so I'm going to give some more powder and again some fishes.

Sometime ago,I gave baby trout. The male only kills them but does not eat them. The female eats a few. Starting from tomorrow I'm going to buy more and give occasionally. On the eggs i didn't find nothing unusual until now. The female laid 25 this season. I never had a bird that laid so many. My wife says that she look like a chicken hehe. But yes a lot of the calcium goes into that and the body may be weak after that.

I'm also going to put the nest back to its place for the bird to have more rest. The product I give is Aves-Insect dustingpowder from Aves Products http://www.avesproduct.nl/. I send 2 pictures, one from the eggs and a funny one from my male shama he likes a lot of his daily sun, my other shamas not so much.

Well sir I don't take any more of your time. It was a pleasure for me to talk with you. I will give news from this last clutch of the season, I hope her hormones are better and that she save more chicks this time(one more of the many things that I learnt from your site).

Best Louis

28th August 2009,

Hi Louis,

Large amounts of calcium are required to make an egg. The calcium must be readily available and must be provided within a very short time. The food that the female consumes during the day will not have sufficient calcium to make the egg and the calcium is in fact drawn down from the bones which is the storage place for calcium that the bird does not require for immediate use.

If the birds consume insufficient calcium, there will be little or no calcium to store in the bones. On the other hand, if the bird consumes a great deal of calcium daily, the message that the brain sends is that calcium is plentiful and there is no need for it to be stored. For this reason, I had advised that calcium should not be fed to the bird more than 4 times a week.

By not feeding calcium 3 days a week, the bird's brain will pass the message that calcium may not always be available and it should be stored in the bones. Whether the bird is fed too much or too little calcium, the effect is the same. There may be insufficient calcium to make the egg in which case the bird will lay a soft-shelled egg. Or, there may be sufficient calcium to make the egg but the bird is so depleted of calcium thereafter that there is insufficient calcium to work its muscles and this results in the bird temporarily losing its ability to fly. The fact that your female is unable to fly after laying the 4th or 5th egg suggests that the cause is calcium deficiency.

David

Oriental White-eyes

2009-08-24T11:53:00.018+08:00

The most popular cage bird in Singapore and Malaysia is the Oriental White-eye
(z. palpebrosus). For shamas, having 50 birds in one place would be a good number but it is not unusual to find 300 to 400 Oriental White-eyes at each of the more popular gathering places in in Singapore on Sundays.

The cages for these birds are very small and each owner can comfortably carry 2 to 6 birds. Canvas bags can even be purchased for the specific purpose of carrying cages for these birds. These bags look very much like large shopping bags with each bag being able to hold up to 3 cages. This enables the more enthusiastic hobbyist to personally transport 6 cages at a time with the help of 2 of these bags, one bag in each hand.

The Oriental White-eye is also known as Mata Puteh (i.e. “white eye”) in Malaysia and Singapore. This name is derived from the ring of white around the eyes which thicken as the bird gets older. I will refer to the Oriental White-eyes as Putehs (for short) in the rest of this post.

On Sunday 15th August 2009, I purchased 8 Putehs that were selected from a communal cage. When Putehs are chosen from a communal cage, there is always the hope that one of the selected birds will eventually, with proper care, develop into an outstanding specimen, with a value many times the price of the original purchase.

There is no guarantee that any of the birds from a communal cage will turn out to be special so a great deal of time and effort may be invested in the birds without any worthwhile success after many months of effort. I suppose that's what makes this hobby interesting - a possibility of finding a rare gem, which was acquired at a very low price.

I kept Putehs many years ago. Then, as now, I do not keep Putehs in the usual way. The conventional method is to house each Puteh in a small cage and to bring the bird often to Puteh gatherings to get it used to the company of other Putehs. The outings also test the courage of the Puteh as it is a brave bird that will sing its territorial song when in the company of many other Putehs who may also be singing their territorial song.

I neither have the time nor the inclination to keep Putehs in this way. Rather, I prefer to house new Putehs in a small aviary and to select a few at a time and place them in individual cages to assess how each is progressing and its potential from the hobbyist’s point of view. Those that are not up to the criteria that I have in mind, go to new homes and new Putehs may take their place so that over a period of say, a year, I might eventually end up with up to 12 Putehs that meet my requirements. These birds will continue to be primarily housed in the aviary with perhaps a few in cages at any one time.

It was with the above in mind that I started with 8 Putehs. I placed them in a small aviary in my garden in a location which is likely to be safe from lizards and other nuisances that could disturb them at night. Over the next few days, I checked the birds in the morning to see if they were OK. Two had some blood on their noses. I was not too concerned as these birds had probably injured themselves in the course of housing in the new place rather than that they had been frightened at night. In the course of the week, the birds got to know their new home. They seemed fine on the whole.

Last Saturday morning, my good friend acquired one of the Putehs from me. This left me with 7 Putehs.

On Saturday evening, I spent 2 relaxing hours selecting Putehs from my aviary. I eventually kept 2 of the Putehs in individual cages. Putehs are very curious birds and it is easy to trap them from the aviary. Just place a cage in the aviary with a papaya or other fruit in it and, within minutes, one or more Putehs should enter it. Calmly approach the cage, close the door and remove the cage with the Puteh in it. Trapping the Puteh in this way and observing it for a while to decide on whether I wished to keep it in a cage, I eventually decided on the Putehs to keep in the 2 cages I had at the time.

Yesterday morning, my friend and I took our new Putehs to the guppy farm where I buy the food fish for my shamas. There must have been other Putehs around the farm although we could not see or hear them for our birds got excited and my friend’s bird and one of mine sang their territorial song. We were pleased that our birds showed such promise as it is important that the Puteh be willing to sing in a strange place for this shows courage. Many birds may sing at home but are silent when out of their familiar surroundings. I would not keep such a bird.

My Puteh’s call was also the very desirable ‘tshew’ and he showed promise. All in all, it was a satisfying morning. On Sunday evening, I kept the Puteh that had performed well in the morning and trapped another 2 Putehs for assessment in individual cages. I intend to keep these 3 Putehs in individual cages and assess them during the week. I hope to let you know how my Putehs turn out in a future post.

Ballet Dancer's son, Toadhead, practising his line dancing moves at 21 days of age

2009-08-15T17:37:00.007+08:00

HerryAcheh's Blog

2009-08-13T16:41:00.003+08:00

Scroll down the list of blogs on the left of the screen until you reach "Murai Batu Acheh" (i.e. The Acheh Shama) and click on it to read HerryAcheh's blog on shamas. He is one of the most knowledgeable people on shamas that I have come across and there is much to learn from his posts. Amongst others, he has articles on how to tame the shama and how to get it to eat dry food. Unfortunately, Herry writes on his blog only in the Indonesian language and those who don't know the language will need to find a translator to benefit from his writings.

Herry's interest in shamas is mainly in its song. He is a main contributer to the Indonesian shama forum, Kichaumania, and his writings are much respected.

DDS243@43 days

2009-08-06T17:07:00.005+08:00

This is DDS243 at 43 days of age. The tails of my taimongs may continue to grow until they are 65 days of age so his tails may still have quite some growth left in them.

As he matures, he is starting to lose his baby fat. He is also starting to display more.

He practices his sub-song throughout the day but he will only be able to sing his adult song after he completes his first molt.

Letter from Korea

2009-08-06T14:20:00.001+08:00

Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 9:56 PM
Hi
I'm a Korean, my name is Ki _____.
I saw your bird by YouTube(White-rumped Shama)
I interested in this bird so much.
So I wonder..... Can i buy this bird and how much is it?
I have tried to make contact with you repeatedly.
(can you speak korean???^)
please let me know your opinion about my suggestion.(can i buy your White-rumped Shama bird and how much?)
I will wait your e-mail..Bye!!

August 6, 2009
Hi Ki,Thank you for your interest in my shamas. I regret that I do not export any birds.
Best regards,
David

Letter from Germany

2009-08-06T14:10:00.003+08:00

August 3, 2009
Dear David,
My name is Rainer ____. I‘m 45 years old and live in the region of Heidelberg in Germany. Since 30 years I breed birds. Last year I got a couple of schamas, but the female died in February. Now I am looking for a new female. In the Internet I found your address.
I’m very interested in schamas with long tails that we can see on your pictures.
Is it possible that I get 2 couples from you.
Regards
Rainer

August 4, 2009
Hi Rainer,
Thank you for your interest in my shamas. I am sorry to inform that I am only a hobbyist breeder and do not have shamas for export. Anyway, the bird flu makes it not possible to export. Best regards,
David

August 4, 2009
Hi David,
many thanks for the quick answer.
It is a pity that the current export is prohibited. Can I ask again if the situation changes into positive?
I'm really very interested in your Shamas. This morning I fed my cock. Here I have your animals with long tails in my mind and I was again very impressed. One couple would have been fantastic.
Regards
Rainer

August 4, 2009
Hi Rainer,I am sorry that any spare shamas that I have need to go first to my close friends as I do not breed the birds for sale. There is also a great local demand for my birds at high prices that I am not even prepared to try to satisfy. Further, I understand that exporting birds requires a great deal of paperwork, visiting government offices to fill forms, engaging vets to certify the birds health, having the birds quarantined for a month or so immediately prior to export (a facility I do not have), finding out about packing and export requirements, making arrangements with the airline, delivering the birds to the airport etc, all of which I regret I am not prepared to do. BTW, the local hobbyists are prepared to pay much higher prices for the birdsthat they want than the Westerner. For instance, even for a wild-caught shama with 12" tails and with the aspects I am looking for, I am prepared to pay US$6,500.00 or more.
Best Regards,
David

August 4, 2009
Hi David,
Thanks for the answer.
But US$ 6,500 is not really to much for me.
I will be keep your contact for when I have a special question.
Thanks again.
Best regards
Rainer

DDS225

2009-08-05T18:49:00.008+08:00

This is DDS225, Icon's son from last year. He is deep into his 2nd molt from juvenile and looks pretty disheveled. However, this is normal for a shama in molt .

His basic dry food is the commercially available brand known as P28 in Singapore. He gets this food for most of the day with some guppies, mealworms and crickets at the end of the day.

In the next 2 weeks, DDS225 will complete his body molt leaving only his tails to continue to grow. I expect that they will eventually be well beyond 12". Although he is not yet in his best coat, his alert look suggests to me that he is getting the proper nourishment that he requires to ensure a good molt. The molt places a great strain on a bird and a shama that is improperly fed during this time will often look pretty miserable.

The feathers will grow more quickly along their spine and this may cause the tips of the tails to temporarily outpace the growth of the rest of the feather as can be seen in the photo.

The molting shama requires plenty of rest and I ensure this by covering his cage with a cloth cover all the time except when he is having his bath and the time to dry after that.

Although his cage is covered, he tells me with his sub-songs and occasional loud songs that all is well with his molt.

2009-08-02T19:34:00.004+08:00

Above is a photo of "Broken Wing" taken in January 2008, before he broke his wing. I don't think I have posted it on my blog. His wing has completely healed. His molt is about due and I am taking special care of him as I expect him to turn out really well after the molt.