Nighthawk (DDS267)

The end of this year's shama breeding season is approaching but I still have a few breeding pairs. Most of the birds that were hatched this year are in the midst of their first molt and this is the time that breeders await with anticipation the completion of the molt of the young birds.

Michael, Jeffrey and I molt our birds in aviaries if we can.  During this time, we try to let the birds have a quiet time so that they can have a good molt.  Any serious assessment of their song, character, display and structure needs to await the completion of the molt and the bird's rise in form.  It is only then that it can truly be assessed.

While the molt is a quiet time, this does not prevent my friends and I from speculating on how the birds are likely to turn out.  In the course of our discussions over the phone, photos or videos may be sent so that the person at the other end can have a better idea of what is being discussed.

The photos below are of Nighthawk (DDS267), which is owned by Michael.  Its taimong tails were about 5 1/2". It is about 7 1/2 months old - the son of Falcon and Funkie's daughter. This pair seem to produce the type of shama that my friends and I like.


The photos were taken by Michael (under dim light) and sent to me in the course of our phone conversation last night when I enquired how DDS267's molt was progressing.

Its molt is approaching completion and Michael will transfer it from aviary to cage in about 2 weeks.  Both of us are waiting with anticipation to see it in a cage so that we can better assess it.

2014 Season

This is Falcon's son, Shogun.  He is 6 months old.

This female is the result of an outcross from one of my favourite males with a female that I had acquired at a high price.  I have high hopes that she will add new qualities to my line of shamas in the coming year.

Shama chicks

The chicks from Flame's last clutch are all doing well.  Here they are at 8/9 days of age:

Shama chicks

Flame and his mate are proving to be very productive. Below is a photo of their latest offspring. The female laid a clutch of 4 eggs. All were fertile and all hatched.

When there is a pronounced difference in the size of the chicks in a clutch that I am hand-raising, I separate them as seen in the photo. Otherwise, there is every likelihood that the older chicks will get on top of the younger chicks which may suffocate. In a day or two, when the chick at the top right is bigger and stronger, I will transfer him to the container with the chick on the left. To avoid overcrowding, I do not place more than 2 or 3 chicks in a container.

The 2 chicks at the bottom of the photo hatched on Tuesday morning. The chick at the top left hatched yesterday morning and the chick at the top right hatched yesterday at 2.30 pm.  There is slightly more than a day's difference between the older chicks and the youngest but the earlier chicks are almost twice the size. There is even a clear difference in size between the single chick on the right and the chick on the left which hatched only a few hours earlier. There is only a one meal difference between the 2 chicks. The chicks show how quickly they can grow when their environment (temperature and humidity) and nutrition are correct.

This is what happens at hatching. The chick will squeeze itself into the narrower part of the egg and occupy about 60% of it. It will then pierce the membrane separating it from the air sac in the wider part of the egg.  This allows the chick to breath. It will then use its egg-tooth to chip at the egg-shell.  The chip can be seen and felt by running a finger over the egg-shell.  At this stage, the membrane separating the egg from the outside is still not broken.

I made the mistake once of "assisting" the chick by removing a small part of the shell above the air-sac. The chick hatched very quickly after that but there was blood in the shell and a part of the yolk was outside the chick.  As I had no problems with my other chicks, the cause could only be due to the larger hole that prematurely let in humidity.  BTW, the chick survived my bungling.

After the chick has made an initial hole in the shell, it will use its egg-tooth to chip the shell, turning slightly each time until it has chipped around the entire shell.  It will then make repeated heaves of its body upwards against the shell until the top half comes off. The lower part of the chicks body will still be in the bottom half of the shell (the narrower part) and it will eventually struggle out of it.

It will take about 2 1/2 months for a chick to grow to its full juvenile size.

Below are photos of one of my chicks from this year at the age of 33 days.  He looks promising.  Not only does he flick his tails high but, even at this young age, he is already dropping his wings and this is a trait that I am trying to breed true in my strain of shamas. He also has long legs, good posture and a nice head. I also think that he will likely have long tails. At this stage, he seems to have the potential to be a top class shama.

Juvenile feathers

This is a photo of the wings and tail feathers of my juvenile male shama, DDS261, at 37 days of age. It shows what can be achieved through careful selective line-breeding over many generations and proper nutrition and care.

 The feathers of wild-caught and captive-bred juvenile shamas (taimongs) are often ragged and lack shine.  Here the feathers have a health and sheen usually seen only in well kept adult shamas in top condition.

DDS261's father, Firefly, had taimong tails of 3.75" when he was 37 days of age.  These grew to the very great length (for a male taimong) of about 6.75" at 65 days.  The length of Firefly's taimong tails indicated that he would likely have very long first molt tails and he did not disappoint.  His first molt tails were 13.5".

In comparison, DDS261's tails at 37 days are 4" i.e substantially longer than his father's at the same age.  His brother from the same nest, DDS262, also has very long taimong tails of 3.75" at 37 days i.e. the same length as Firefly's tails at the same age.

Not only are the taimongs' tails long but they are also "piped" suggesting that this desirable feature may have been incorporated into my strain of captive bred shamas through selective line-breeding. It remains to be seen if the tails will remain piped (as in many of my shamas and all of Skyhawk's progeny), when the taimongs become adults.

The taimongs' tails still have a long way to grow.  Hopefully, they will be as long, or longer, than their father's tails when fully grown in about a month. I should mention that their other physical aspects are also not lacking and they have good heads and conformation.

What is exciting Jeffrey, Michael and I is not so much the length of DDS261 and DDS262's tails but the prospect that Firefly may be that one in a million bird, a "super male".  By this I mean that he may have the ability to pass on his attributes and exceptionally long tails to his offspring even when he is mated to females with short tails that do not carry the genes that produce long tails.

The mother of the taimongs is a wild-caught with primary tails of only 5". Firefly was outcrossed to her as she possesses certain characteristics that I want to have, or fix, in my shamas, including "piped" tails and a very good head.

The genes for long tails are recessive as they must be since, otherwise, all shamas would have long tails.  When a long tailed shama is mated to one with short tails that does not carry the gene for long tails, the resulting offspring should have short tails as the short tailed shama's genes will be dominant over the recessive genes for long tails.  The subject of genes and inheritance is more complex than this but this explanation suffices as an introduction to the subject.

I expected the offspring from the mating of Firefly and the short-tailed female to produce taimongs with short tails. Imagine my surprise to see the very long tails of his male offspring.

How is it possible that such long-tailed taimongs were produced from a mating with a short-tailed female? Jeffrey suggests 2 possibilities.  One is that the short-tailed female carries the genes for long tails which are not expressed in her features.  I think this is unlikely as the female was wild-caught and there are hardly any long-tailed shamas in the wild that could have bequeathed the genes to her.

The other possibility is much more exciting.  Jeffrey notes that generations of selective inbreeding and line-breeding would have resulted in a concentration of genes for long tails (and other desirable features) in my strain of shamas.  He speculates that such a concentration of genes could have resulted in the chance production of a "super male" in the form of Firefly that has the ability to beget male offspring with exceptionally long tails regardless of which female he is mated to.

If what Jeffrey speculates is true then Firefly is priceless but this is all conjecture at this time as it is much too early to come to any conclusions.  Nevertheless, the possibility that Firefly may be a super male makes for interesting conversation and endless discussions when we meet.

BTW, Andrew Tan mentioned to me yesterday that the taimong with 5.7" tails that he had acquired from me had tails of 12" after the first molt and 15" after the 2nd molt. He should be congratulated on the care of his shama.  I understand that the 2nd molt was in an outdoor aviary and this may have assisted the molt.

Breeding Season 2014(1), shamas for sale

For this year as in previous years, my captive shama breeding program has as its aim the production of top quality birds that will be a joy to own.  For me, shamas have always been a hobby and I breed shamas to satisfy my own need to have the type of shama that I want for myself.  I do not, and never had, any wish to breed shamas indiscriminately to supply the market. 

Photos and videos of my shamas can be found in this blog. Below are photos of 2 random examples of the type of male shamas that I strive to consistently breed:

In early March, I paired my top males that were in breeding condition, Ballet Dancer, Falcon, Firefly, Apache and Flame to carefully chosen females. The selection was made on the basis that the birds in the chosen pairs would complement each other so that certain desirable characteristics or features may be improved or retained.

The first crop of male chicks arrived in late March.  Below are photos of 3 of the 4 male taimongs (juveniles) that were hatched in March.  I think they are likely to be males from their bright  markings and very dark colour.

[By the way, the poop on the floor of the cage above is from 4 taimongs at the end of one day.]

[In the photo above, the hind toe of the chick on the right has slipped into the band.  This often happens when the chicks are very young.  Its a simple matter to ease the toe out of the band.]

April should be a very productive month.  All the 5 pairs are sitting on eggs.  As far as possible, I try to let the parent birds incubate the eggs.  I believe that this is the best way of ensuring that quality offspring are produced.  While robbing the nest and artificially incubating the eggs may result in more chicks, the possible long-term detrimental effects are just not worth it.

I candled the eggs of Ballet Dancer, Falcon and Firefly. They have, respectively, 4 eggs, 4 eggs and 2 eggs and all the eggs are fertile. Its too early to candle the eggs of the other 2 pairs as signs of the developing embryo may only appear from the fourth day of incubation.

I have been trying for years to achieve 100% fertility in my breeding shamas and it would seem that the lessons I have learnt are bearing fruit. Another reason for me to be happy with the fertility of my shamas is that poor fertility could indicate that the birds have been over-bred and the fact that my shamas are more fertile than ever suggests that my breeding methods are along the right lines.

The eggs of Ballet Dancer and Falcon should hatch today or tomorrow and Firefly's eggs should hatch in the middle of next week.  The eggs of Apache and Flame should hatch in about 10 days.

BTW, Ballet Dancer was hatched in 2001 and at 13 years of age he is more productive than he ever was.  I attribute his continuing fertility to the lessons that I have learnt over the years in providing good husbandry and management. 

If I continue breeding my shamas at the rate I am doing this year, I will have more birds than I have space for and I will need to find homes for the birds that are surplus to my needs.  There may therefore be male shamas for sale later in the year.

The birds will mostly be sold as taimongs and they should become available to go to new homes from around September this year when they are at least 3 months old. At this age, the taimong tails will be fully grown and the character and type of display will be more evident.  Also, at this age, the taimongs will have had the time and opportunity to learn the songs from my many adult birds.

The prices for the taimongs will range from S$2,500.00 to $6,000.00 or more, depending on my assessment of the potential length of the tails and the bird’s other qualities. 

I price my taimongs on the basis that, with proper care during the molt, the buyer can expect to own a shama that he will not only be proud to own but which will likely also have a market value that is not less than the price that he paid.  

In many cases, the market value after the first molt should be substantially more than the price paid. Be aware though that whilst I price my birds according to my assessment of them, it is not possible to be always correct and things may turn out differently.  A shama that I price low may in fact turn out to have longer tails and be worth relatively more than a higher priced shama as the true potential of a taimong will only be proven after the first molt.

If you are interested in acquiring one of my captive bred male taimongs, please send me an email at daviddeso@gmail.com.  I would be grateful if you could indicate the quality of shama that you are interested in purchasing using the above indicative prices as a guide. If you are a serious buyer, I will place you on the list of potential persons who are interested in acquiring a shama from me and I will contact you when a shama becomes available that meets your requirements. It will help if you provide your mobile number.

N.B. I regret that I do not export my birds and delivery must be taken in Singapore.