This was my first season with these magnificent
soft-bills.
Where I live in Suffolk, this large migratory
thrush arrives in huge flocks in late autumn, to escape the harsh
Scandinavian winters. The orchards near my house are home to
hundreds of these vocal and stunning looking birds. Feeding
from the fallen apples and pears, that the farmer leaves to rot,
these shy birds rise from the ground en-masse as soon as you enter
the field.
I have been interested in keeping these birds
(and their migrating partners, the Redwing) for a while and decided
to try to find a pair for breeding. This was my first and
biggest challenge. Asking around the bird-keeping network,
and putting various wanted adds out on social media and The Cage
& Aviary newspaper, was proving fruitless. I am sure
there were a few being kept in the UK, but nothing was offered,
none were being shown and nobody seemed to know anybody who kept
them. It seemed this was a variety of bird had fallen off the
radar of UK aviculture.
In
September 2017, I advertised for breeders on the continent. I
put a ‘wanted’ add on a Dutch website, (in Dutch thanks to google
translate) which gave a result. A nice couple from Antwerp
contacted me and I managed to buy a, current year bred, cock
Fieldfare. All I needed now was a hen. After a long
campaign of searching I gave up hope for the forthcoming
season. To my surprise, and quite out of the blue, I was
contacted by another breeder in Belgium who could sell me a current
year hen. Thanks to a good friend who collected my hen from
Zwolle in February, I had a nice pair of young Fieldfares ready for
the forthcoming season.
Housing
I put the birds together immediately in a 10x6x6
flight. They had 3 solid walls and a half covered
roof. It was lightly planted and has an automatic
watering system for daily fresh water. This made plenty of
mud on the natural earth floor. Various half open nest boxes
(8”x 8”) and baskets were supplied. Some in the open and some
under cover of large conifer branches.
Diet
Like all my large soft-bills this pair received a
dry diet of Remline pellets, cat/dog pellets and a few halibut
pellets from the local tackle shop. Apples and Pears were supplied
during the winter months. At the beginning of April they started to
get a few mealworms, however they showed little interest in
them.
Nesting
At the start of the season, I watched the couple
every-day and observed no activity to make me think they would
nest. Although they seemed to have bonded as a pair, no
carrying of material or fussing over a particular nest site was
noted. At the end of April, I went off to work for a couple
of days (I often work away from home and thanks to my wife I can
keep these birds at all). On my return I was amazed to see a
huge nest, built with a lot of mud and hay. It was very
large, crude and very scruffy. They picked a site closest to
the aviary door with no cover whatsoever. The box had a small
roof but the sides were open. They laid a clutch of 6
eggs and started to sit when the clutch was completed. My
first observation was that the hen did not sit as tight as my other
birds. Whereas my blackbirds and thrushes would sit very
tight, I would almost have to lift them to ring the chicks, the hen
jumped off the nest as soon as I came near the flight for daily
feeding. She spent a lot of time off of the nest and the cock
bird seemed to scorn her with constant chattering. I was
convinced that she had lost interest, or just immature and this
round would fail.
To my delight mid-May found four chicks hatch,
albeit three days late. The parents were fed mealworms and
earthworms for raising the chicks. The mealworms were hardly
taken and it was obvious that earthworms were the preferred rearing
diet. They were BBC M size rung at five days (now only three
chicks) which were found to be a little tight. The birds were fat
and healthy. The daily regime of feeding mealworms and
earthworms continued. After two weeks it was time for the
chicks to jump. The hen had already built another nest in a
different nest box (again in an exposed
position).
At this time of fledging, it became obvious that
something was not right. One chick died (and left in the
nest) and the remaining two seemed to be weak and not in
full-heath. The parents appeared to be acting as normal but
they just seemed very slow in their development. A further
chick died just after leaving the nest and we got one survivor
(this bird never seemed strong and later died at 6 weeks
old).
I contacted both breeders in Belgium to see if
they could give some advice on what had gone wrong. I found
out that both breeders hand-rear their Fieldfares, from 10 days
old, due to the amount of live-food they consume during rearing and
wanting more clutches. The most experienced breeder suggested
that the chicks suffered due to the parents being more interested
in the new clutch and they just simply lost interested in them.
This made sense as the second clutch had been started before
the first had fledged.
I felt frustrated by the loss and determined to
try to get the next clutch raised by their parents.
The second attempt.
By now, I found a couple of breeders in the UK
who had experience of these birds. They helped with their
advice. One raised their clutches on mealworms and pinkies
and the other on mealworms and plenty of earthworms.
I felt this time I would double the amount of
earthworms. After some searching I found a couple of places
where I could buy earthworms at very competitive trade
prices. This now made the ability to feed 3 handfuls of
earthworms a day, viable.
At 12 days, the second clutch hatched (sooner
than the first round, but the hen seemed to sit tighter) and four
chicks were alive and well. I rung the birds at four days as this
breed seems to grow very fast. The parents raised this lot
faultlessly and fed the young on earthworms, maggots and
mealworms. The maggots I cleaned, added a couple of drops of
cod liver oil and dusted with vitamins and calcium powder.
All four fledged at 14 days and seemed very healthy. To my
surprise within a week, mum went down on another clutch and again
raised successfully another four youngsters (first four removed at
two weeks from fledging). Due to the usual summer mealworm shortage
the last clutch was raised on earthworms and maggots only.
Conclusion
My first season with these birds was a real
education, sometimes heart-breaking, but overall a great
success. These are the most beautiful of the thrush family
and a joy to keep. They are very placid when not
breeding. When a nest is present then the cock bird is more
agitated and raises the alarm call at anything that comes near the
aviary. Feeding is the critical aspect, making sure that you
get a good supply of earthworms at a reasonable price is, in my
experience so far, the key to success. Some people colony
breed these birds or certainly keep them with other softbills and
finches. For me, I always prefer my birds to be kept on their
own as it cuts out at least one variable when trying to work out
best practice with breeding your stock.
I will add, that I am far from an
expert, but happy to discuss my experiences with anybody who wants
to give these birds a go.
