Falcon, temporarily out of the breeding aviary

I think this is the first video recording that I have made of Skyhawk's son, Falcon.

Sunday Chai session

Below is another video of the chai session that my friends and I had last Sunday at Michael's home. The camera first focuses on Michael's 9 months old shama.  It then moves slightly right and lingers on NGTC's shama in front and my shama, Jazz, behind it. The camera then moves slightly right again to showcase Michael's eight months old shama (in front of the urn) before finally moving right again to show Darren's shama (banded AP144) in front, and behind it, the other shama brought by NGTC.

There will be a shama competition on 28th April 2014 and Michael intends to enter his 8 months old shama.  It has a very strong character and loves to compete.  I am sure it will do well although it is so young. I will post on how it performs.




Below are some photographs that I took last weekend of Falcon in the breeding aviary.  The female is Funkie's daughter.

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This video of Skyhawk was recorded yesterday evening, 3 days after the competition in which he took 2nd place.

He seems to have recovered remarkably from the stress of the competition but his inner beak, while darkish, is still not completely dark as it will be when he reaches top form.  I expect that his form will continue to improve and he may reach top form in time for the competition on 29 December 2013.

Looking through my records, I find that Skyhawk hatched in June, 2005.  He is therefore about 8 1/2 years old.  Shamas reach full maturity and their competition prime at about 4 years of age so he is past his prime for competition. He is now less active in his display than when he was younger.

Apart from a less vigorous display, Skyhawk hardly shows his years and can be mistaken for a bird that is less than half his age. Look, for example, at his legs and toes and you will see that they are smooth and missing the scales that even a 2 years old shama may have.  Skyhawk's lack of scales on his feet is completely natural as I have never removed (or had the need to remove), scales from the feet of my captive-bred shamas. Skyhawk's youngish look and ability is an example of what can be achieved with proper selective breeding, care and conditioning.

Video of captive bred shama

2013 Season

Seven months old captive-bred shama (DDS344) practicing his songs and display:

Reviving a lifeless puppy

As readers of my blog will know, I frequently discuss with, and/or consult, Jeffrey Low on matters relating to the health, care and nutrition of my shamas.

Below is text and a video that I took from Jeff's youtube.  It was published yesterday and shows his miraculous efforts to revive a lifeless newly born puppy.  While the text and video are not about birds as such, they do show Jeff's knowledge and ability in animal care.

Here in Jeff's words is what happened, followed by the video:  "This was the last of the 9 pups from a rottie bitch whelping for the first time. It wasn't an easy one with 4 breech deliveries. This last pup was huge and the contractions were weak. The bitch was already exhausted by then (and so was I). The last pup was stuck near the exit for quite sometime and the sac was already broken. It had suffocated and came out without any signs of life. Good thing I didn't give up on him.

The whole process of delivering the 9 pups took about 10 hours. A total of 6 cc of calcium gluconate in 3 divided doses were administered intra-muscularly to support the contractions. Oxytocin was only injected im after the last pup was delivered.

I am happy that all 9 pups survived and are doing well as of now. 2 were fostered to another bitch with a smaller litter."

Phoenix

Below are 3 videos of Phoenix that were recorded yesterday.  The first video was recorded by Michael on his handphone and sent to me by Whatsapp, so its not very clear. It shows Phoenix and a little of Skyhawk which is the only shama beside him. The other 2 videos were recorded by me on my handphone.

I have not measured the length of Phoenix's tails but for those who want to estimate how long they are, they may wish to know that the size of the cage is 30 inches.  A 30 inches cage has a diameter of 30" i.e. 15" on either side of the perch.  If the shama is standing in the centre of the perch, he will be at the widest point of the cage. Give an allowance of say 1 1/2" for the rear end of the bird before the start of the tails.  This means that if the tails are straight like a ruler and they touch the bars of the cage, the tails will be approximately 13 1/2".  In Phoenix's case the tails protrude well beyond the cage bars so I would estimate their length to be 14 1/2" to 15".

The cage is a little small to accommodate his long tails.  However, because the tails are soft, they tend not to fray.  This is the type of tails I try to line-breed for - not too soft and not to stiff.  I don't want the tails to be too soft as they tend to droop.

Skyhawk191113

Yesterday evening, Mark visited with 2 of his shamas.  One is about to moult and therefore not in form.  The other shama performed very well and displayed and sang during the chai session of about 1 1/2 hours.

I took the opportunity to train my young birds and also to raise Skyhawk's form. Below is a video of Skyhawk which was recorded more than 1 hour after the start of the chai session.

The shama is an open-ended learner and it can learn new songs throughout its life.  Skyhawk has learnt some of the songs of the Samyong (Bare-throated Whistler) and he has incorporated them into his repertoire.  Skyhawk's interpretation of the Samyong song can be heard about half-way through the recording - immediately before and after he pauses to check his feet.

Dato at 7 months of age

Below is a video of Dato at 7 months that Jeffrey recorded.  It was bred by me and acquired by Amir from Jeffrey.

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Michael is now keeping and training Phoenix after his third moult. He hopes to prepare him to be in time for the night competition at Bishan on 22nd September.  Its now only 2 weeks since Phoenix completed his third moult.  Usually, it will take about 1 1/2 months or more for the shama to reach top form and I doubt that Phoenix's form will be able to rise sufficiently by the time of the competition for him to do well, but you never know as Michael is really good at training shamas.

I am also entering Dragon for the competition. He is easy to train but he is still not used to night travel so last night, I took Dragon for a drive to Michael's home to get him used to travelling at night. Also, I need to expose him to new surroundings - in this case, Michael's home.

At Michael's home, we placed the cages some distance apart so that the 2 birds could hear but not see each other.  We switched on all the lights where the birds were to make the place as bright as possible.  We then played bird songs from You Tube to encourage the birds to sing.  Without doing this, our birds would have gone to sleep as it was way past their bed time.

Below is the video of Phoenix that I recorded with my handphone. He is not yet in top form but there is still slightly more than a week before the competition.  In the interval,  in addition to trying to raise the form of the birds, Michael and I will need to bring the birds for vehicle rides to get them used to travel.

Firefly and Dragon videos

Firefly Video
This video of Firefly was recorded in March this year under artificial lighting:



Dragon Video
The video below is of Dragon at Jurong East where shama hobbyists gather on Friday nights. It was recorded with my hand-phone on 6th September, 2013.

I got Dragon from Dragon House Birds and Accessories in August 2011. I have since used him to cross with my birds.  He has recently completed his moult and his tails are much shorter than before the moult - probably because he had been used for breeding.

This was his first outing to a bird gathering since I got him.  Considering that it was his first outing and at night, his performance was not bad.

Male shama coming into form

Video of Sky Hawk

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.

Video of DDS204

DDS239

The video below of Jeffrey Low's DDS239 was taken yesterday. It is just over 3 months old and it is now in heavy molt. When the nutrition and care are correct, the bird will molt quickly with the feathers dropping and regrowing fast but the bird will still have energy and not appear to be a fluffy ball.

Look closely at the bird and you will see that its body feathers are changing. It has lost all the feathers on its head and new pin feathers are growing. It should have a full head of feathers in about a week but the rest of the body will take many months before the molt completes.

Even at this very young age, the potential of a bird can be gauged by the discerning eye. Despite its advanced molt the strong character of the bird shines through. Its display pattern of rapid tail wagging and fast movement can also be seen.

An attractive feature of DDS239's display is the sideways fan-like opening and closing of his 8 white tails. He also flips his wings at the same time that he fans his tails but this takes place in a blink and is barely perceptible. Even in slow motion, the opening and closing of his wings is only seen as a blur of movement. He also mixes moments of stillness with rapid,varied and eye-catching action. I have slowed parts of the video so that this display can be more clearly seen.

Gifted

My friend wanted to borrow Gifted to mate with his female so I trapped Gifted from the aviary in a cage for transportation. Below is the video of him prior to transportation in a cage that is way to small for him. I estimate his tails at 14".

Songbird keeping in Malaysia

Click on the title "YouTube - Witty Wings" on the left for an entertaining and educational perspective of Shama and Magpie Robin bird keeping in Malaysia. Part 1 shows how Shamas and Magpie Robins are kept. Part 11 shows how they are trapped and part 3 shows Shama and Magpie Robin competition.

Video of Longbow

'Lion Whisperer' Tempts Faith

Click on the words 'Lion Whisperer' Tempts Faith on the left of the screen and enjoy the video.

Video of Skyhawk