SONGBIRDS

BLACK FEET, WHITE SHIT - MY VIEWS

2011-06-03T21:20:00.000+08:00

As I was quite busy with personal matters lately, I was unable to write much. I would like to thank all my good friends here for their kind concerns and their emails to me asking if I am well. I am still kicking...hehehe. Thanks again. I think I may not be able to continue writing in this blog, at least for a while, partly due to personal commitments and partly because 2 of the fingers on my left hand are getting to be quite useless and it can be quite annoying trying to type. They will be operated on sometime this month and it could take a while before I can know if they will be good again.

Meanwhile, for friends that do not visit the forum, these are taken from my recent postings there.

MY THOUGHTS ON BLACK FEET SHAMA

I also heard that black feet shamas are more aggresive. Personally, I won't judge a shama by the color of its feet (but of course I am no sifu). Black feet can come from anywhere, malaysia, indonesia or even those wild singapore shamas seen in the olden days, some will have black feet too.

Medan shama or langkawi shama, how many are truly what they are claimed to be? Almost every other newbie shama owner will believe that what they have bought is a langkawi bird because bird shops and dealers, who seem to have endless supplies of 'langkawi shamas' told them so. How many of these shops really know what is a langkawi type shama? One can buy a thousand shamas from medan but not one will be true medan bird because all are taken from somewhere else in Indonesia and yet any shamas that came from Indonesia are sold by some shops as medan shamas. How many bird shop owners really know how to distinguish a medan type? I am not trying to run the shops or dealers down and I have no wish to to claim that I know better. I only wish to point out that there are very very few true langkawi shamas or true medan shamas left out there. That, I know is a fact.

I don't see any mention so far about old school Penang shamas from the 70's. They are among the best shamas as far as I know, whether black feet or pink feet. Tail length of 7 inches plus but with posture, display and character that few shamas these days can match.

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One can say that locality has nothing to do with whether or not a shama is superior. I can agree with that but only as far as with populations of shamas that are found in a vast piece of land. Take for example the malayan peninsula. There will always be good birds and not so good birds from any given area, from north to south.

On the other hand, if there is a race of shama with black feet found in only certain areas and they are superior to shamas in other areas, I can also agree that black feet is an indication of a superior bird. However, in the mainland, no single race superior or otherwise can remain locality specific forever. If there ever was a superior race of shama with black feet, unless these are isolated in an island, they will interbreed with the other race at the overlapping boundaries where 2 races will meet and in time to come, the genes responsible for the black feet will spread and there will be black feet shamas in other localities of the mainland and so there will be not-so-good black feet shamas as well. Other genes from the neigbouring non black footed race will also spread into this locality and dilute the original desirable traits of the black footed race and in time to come also, the original black feet race will not be always as good as they use to be. How did the black feet gene come about, we don't know but the fact that they are not locality specific means that black feet alone cannot be used as an indication that the bird is superior.

If originally there are shamas in one of the langkawi islands or in Penang Island and the the environmental conditions in these islands resulted in shamas that had evolved to have very desirable traits, then these desirable traits will be very strongly bred into the birds in these islands. Assuming that there is no interference by man, such as introducing birds from the mainland and shamas from elsewhere are not strong enough to fly into these 2 islands, then birds from these localities will on the whole, be more superior than those from the mainland.

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MY THOUGHTS ON SHAMA DROPPINGS

White shit is actually the result of protein metabolism by the kidneys. Ant eggs, mealworms and any other live food or even lean beef are rich in protein and will produce white shit (urates) which is actually the waste from the dietary protein.

When white shit is associated with feather pulling or difficulty to molt, that will mean to say that a diet rich in protein is the cause of these problems. To me, feather pulling and jammed in molt are the result of hormonal disruptions. A bird that cannot drop form when it is time to do so will not go into molt because the testosterone is still high and the other hormones for molting cannot kick in. This I believe is due to environmental causes rather than a diet rich in protein. In the wild, the shama is triggered by environmental changes such as a change in weather, temperature, humidity and etc during certain time of the year to go into molt in preparation for the coming breeding season. Some captive environments may be working against the instincts of the bird causing disruptions to the normal hormonal cycle. Exposing the bird to too much confrontational situations, prolonged lightings late into the night, for examples, are unconducive and unnatural and can cause hormonal disruptions. On the opposite end, some indoor birds that are abruptly switched to the outdoor aviary may go into a molt even when it is not due yet because of a sudden change in temperature or humidity. There could be lots of other causes of hormonal disruptions in captivity that we have yet to understand.

Feather development and growth is very demanding on the body's store of protein. Feathers are mostly protein (keratin) and in order for the bird to molt well, there must be sufficient protein in store long before the molt commence so that the feathers can draw from it. Therefore the bird's regular day to day diet should always have sufficient protein and not be subjected to peaks and troughs of the availability of this vital nutrient.

The term 'Heatiness' to me is always vague when used in discussions and is often associated with a white shitting, no-form bird and yet we know that a bird that has no form can come into form by feeding a higher protein diet or by giving more live food. This is therefore quite contradictory. Heatiness is also sometimes associated with a puffed up bird passing white shit when the condition of puffing up could be due to any illness that the bird may be suffering from and when passing white shit is never known medically as a sign of avian illness.

The other term that we often use is 'high protein diet'. A high protein diet could be sufficient or excessive. Perhaps we should say 'diet sufficient in protein' instead. There could be some truth in thinking that excessively high protein in the diet could overwork the kidneys and may cause problems especially on a long term basis and in older birds. However, white shit by itself may not necessarily indicates that the bird is on an excessively high protein diet because it is known that all pure insectivorous birds in the wild will pass out droppings that consist of lots of urates due to their type of diet.

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Whenever a newbie asked the question as to what is the best diet to feed his shama, it is often difficult to answer. Each individual bird will respond slightly differently on a given diet. One way (perhaps not the best), is to look at the shit and provide accordingly. Even with the correct dry food, it will take some time before the bird's digestive system get accustomed to it to produce the right proportion of digestive enzymes to utilise the diet and that is why once the newbie keeper got the dry food right, he should not change it unnecessarily or abruptly. Livefood can be increased if there is a need to increase the protein level and tailed down gradually when there is need to do so later. Other soft food to increase the protein level are egg yolks, ant eggs and lean beef. Be moderate in the quantity of each and in order to maximise the chance of providing for better balanced protein, it is always better to provide various types of supplemental protein food, each in small amounts than to use a single type in large amounts.

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Greenish shit can be caused by many underlying medical conditions but this type of lime-green tinge is a clear indication of starvation. It is the result of the gastro intestinal tract being empty or having very little food to mix with the bile that is produced by the gall bladder. A starved bird will usually produce shit that has a lime-green tinge. There may be an increase in urine as well. Do not always think that green shit means that the bird is frightened. A frightened bird will produce 'stress shit' which is mainly just urine.

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Besides dividing the shit into 3 parts, the feces, the urates and urine, the shit can also be divided into components based on the sources of the shit. This can be useful sometimes when we want to understand the shit a bit further, especially when the shit don't look right.

Other than dietary nutrients, there are also substantial quantity of of digestive enzymes, mucosal secretions and exfoliated cells that enter the lumen of the digestive tract and these are also subjected to digestion. They are referred to as the endogenous source.

The dietary component of the shit: This comes directly from the diet and they are the undigested fiber and unabsorbed minerals. Usually for the shama, it is brown or black. The waste from the dry food of the shamas will usually be reflected in this component of the shit in brownish color. Sometimes the first big blob of shit in the morning may have some very dark green part on it and that is usually quite ok. Fibers from indigestible parts of fish and froglets will usually show up in black in this component of the shit.

The endogenous component of the shit: This comes from epithelial cells shed from the intestinal wall, mucus, bile acids, residual enzymes and metabolites. The white urate is the metabolite of protein and forms part of this component of the shit. If the urate is always greenish or yellowish, there could be an underlying cause and the owner should be concerned. Occasionally, there may be some mucus and it is ok as long as it does not persist. Similarly, occasional foamy urates is ok only if this condition does not persist.

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It is difficult to answer your question. First of all, my knowledge is too limited and therefore I am in no position to make comments regarding the suitability of any of the commercial brands available in the market. Secondly, I have been feeding my shamas with home made dry food for a long time now and therefore do not have sufficient experience with these commercial brands.

To answer your question partly, I can only comment on commercial dry food in general and not on any particular brand.

Generally speaking the brands that are widely acceptable are usually proven to be good enough, at least as a basic diet. I divide commercial dry food into 2 categories. One is formulated based on traditional recipes and the other scientifically formulated. Each has their own good points. Traditional recipes are proven over long period of time to be suitable, otherwise these recipes will not be around anymore. Scientifically formulated ones are usually marketed by big companies with highly qualified nutritionists behind their products.

One way of deciding which brand to go for is to base your choice on how your bird would respond to the dry food. No 2 birds are exactly the same and that includes their response to any given diet.

You may also want to take into consideration the total diet and not just the dry food alone when it comes to feeding your bird. At different stages of your bird's life, you may want to work out the right combinations of dry food and supplementary food to cater appropriately to its requirements. If you believe that this is the right approach, then you will have to work out the right combinations taking into consideration the yield from your dry food and adjust your supplementary food accordingly. In this sense, as long as it is a proven brand, it is good enough because how well it will work for you will also depend on how you supplement.

As to the volume of shit, there are 2 ways to look at it. Some experts believe that the lesser the quantity of output, the better is the quality of food. This can be true but not always so, as far as I am concerned. Birds in captivity will generally consume up to the amount that will provide for its energy needs and will stop once this is satisfied. Therefore, it is possible in theory to provide a high energy food in order for the bird to consume only a small quantity and have lesser output. It is fine if this small quantity is also adequate to supply the nutrients required. Otherwise, the bird will be nutritionally deficient. Hence, judging by the quantity of shit may not always be the best approach. Most importantly, the diet must be a well balanced one in order for the bird to derive nutrients adequately from the amount it is able to consume. This is of course easier said than done.

Regarding high fiber in the dry food, again there are 2 schools of thought. Manufacturers of some dry food will include some amount of fiber. One school of thought is that the amount of fiber present in these commercial dry food is because fiber is cheap and will lower the cost of production. The other school of thought is that the fiber present is to simulate the chitin component in the diet of an insectivore in the wild. The amount present is usually justified by what is considered to be the equivalent of the chitin componenent.

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Although I do have some concerns regarding a high fiber diet for the shama, these concerns are NOT because of the amount of shit that is passed out by the shama that is fed on high fiber diet. I think there may be a misconception when a newbie thinks that the large volume of shit means that most of what is eaten is not digested and is being excreted. This is not true and I will attempt to explain it with my limited knowledge on fiber.

I would think that when a newbie compare the amount eaten to the amount shitted, he would probably come to this conclusion because the newbie did not take into account that fiber has very high water-holding capacities. Some dietary fiber like pectins, gums and some hemicelluloses are especially high in absorption of water and when these are passed out in the droppings, the bulk and volume would seem to be so much or even more than the dry food that is being consumed. The volume seems large because of the high water content so do not be alarmed by the volume of the shit if the volume is caused by the fiber in the diet. Whether substantially high fiber in the diet of the shama is good or not, may be controversial depending on how each of us look at it but its effect on the volume of shit is not a concern to me.

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The dietary fiber that comes from the dry food originates from plant sources. Chitin is the fiber originating from the exoskeleton of insects. Fibers provide carbohydrates.

1)Dietary fiber from plant sources is mainly non-starch polysacharrides. They cannot be digested (hydrolized) using digestive enzymes. Dietary fiber can only be utilized by birds through a digestive process involving fermentation (using microbial enzymes) to obtain fatty acids (a source of energy).

Shama being an insectivorous species rely on digestive enzymes to digest its food. This form of digestive system is known as autoenzymatic digestion. Herbivorous birds like the ostrich or emu rely on another form of digestive system to ferment fibrous plant matters. This form of digestive system is known as alloenzymatic digestion. Herbivorous birds will usually have a large ceca in their digestive tract where fermentation will mostly take place. In between the faunivorous (which include insectivores) and herbivorous, there are the omnivorous which will have some alloenzymatic ability in their digestive system.

Dietary fibers in humans are known to have beneficial effects of preventing chronic illnesses. In non-herbivorous birds, dietary fibers are known to have anti-nutritive effects instead. The anti-nutritive effects come about due to soluble dietary fibers causing intestinal contents to be more viscous. Higher viscosity of the intestinal contents will interfere with interation of digestive enzymes and the digesta (food). It will also impair the absorption by hindering diffusion of nutrients.

2) Chitin (exoskeletons of insects): Chitin is a mucopolysaccharide. It is the main source of carbohydrates for wild insectivorous birds. Unlike dietary fiber from plant sources, chitin can be digested autoenzymatically. Whether it is pure insectivorous or omnivorous, birds that eat insects will need a certain types of digestive enzymes in order to hydrolyse chitin to obtain the carbohydrates. The digestive enzyme called chitinase will hydrolyse chitin into chitobiose which in turn will be hydrolysed by chitobiase to glucosamine from which the bird will derive carbohydrates. Different species of birds have different levels of chitinase activities in their digestive system, ranging from high to none. King penquins for example has the ability to digest 85% of the chitin it consume (the chitin comes from squid in this case). Pigeon on the other hand (a granivore) has no chitinase activity in its digestive tract. Chicken (omnivore) has low chitinase activities. Even within the group of insectivorous birds, different species has different ability to digest chitin. To add to the complexity, different insects have different chitin contents. Different stages of the life of an insect species will also determine the chitin content. The amount of chitin also affects the digestibility of protein.

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I strongly suspect that the shama utilises very little or nothing from the chitin present in their diet as compared to some other species of insectivorous birds. This is only based on my own limited experiments and experience. When I feed only crickets and mealworms to shamas, they will regurgitate substantial amount of pellets. When I feed this same diet to certain other species of insectivorous birds, they do not seem to regurgitate pellets. This small scale experiments may not be conclusive but it does show that chitin will pass through the digestive tracts in some insectivorous birds while in others like the shama, most if not all of the chitin will be regurgitated. I think those insectivorous birds that will allow chitin to pass through, will probably have better ability to digest chitin then those that will regurgitate them. I cannot be sure that all that is regurgitated represents all the chitin consumed but nevertheless, the fact that shama regurgitate substantial quantity could have some indication of the lack of ability to fully digest all the chitin they consume.

From another observation, I noticed that shamas will always pick out white mealworms first when offered a choice of both white and non-white ones. Could this preference be due to their natural instinct to avoid chitinous prey due to the lack of chitinase activities of their digestive system? When my magpie robin was offered the same, there seems to be no preference between white and non-white worms. Perhaps, if more of us were to observe the same, then we may be able to have a better picture.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird

FEATHER PULLING IN CAPTIVE SHAMAS

2010-10-28T20:52:00.026+08:00

Unlike parrots, shamas do not indulge in feather pulling out of boredom.

Feather pulling is sometimes attributed to 'heatiness' due to feeding of mealworms but I also do not believe that this is so. I had come across many occasions when the owners had stopped feeding mealworms to their birds that were having this problem but the feather pulling did not cease. On several occasions, I had observed that the birds exhibiting this behaviour were also fed mostly on a low protein, grain based dry food with very few mealworms as part of the diet. I would think that if diet has anything to do with this behavior, a diet which is too low in protein will be more likely to trigger this than one that provides a substantial amount of protein from the mealworms. Feathers are made of keratin, a type of protein. Although it may sound remote, there may be a possibility that a diet too low in protein may drive the instinct to seek out an alternative source for this nutrient, resulting in the bird pecking at its own feathers, especially the soft down feathers.

Lack of humidity is very often the cause of shamas pulling out down feathers, usually those near to and above the thighs. Moving the bird to an area of the house that has sufficient humidity will often solve this problem. Spraying the bird lightly during bath time will help in some cases.

The cage that is placed in an area of the house that do not have sufficient light during the day could also sometimes trigger this behaviour of feather pulling. Exposing captive shamas to prolonged lighting during the night such as bright ceiling lights being turned on late into the night is equally unnatural and may also result in abnormal hormonal changes which may bring about the onset of a premature molt or cause feather pulling of the down feathers.

Not all shamas are suitable to be kept as captive birds. Some male birds will respond violently during an acute rush of testosterone such as during a chai session, setting off a self destructive behaviour of tugging and pulling at their own wing and tail feathers. Once started, this habit of attacking its own feathers will usually recur each time the bird is into confrontation mode.

Feather pulling in captive shamas may also be due to bacterial, fungal, viral or parasitic causes.

THE COMMON FAULTS OF LONG TAIL FEATHERS AND THEIR POSSIBLE CAUSES

2010-10-19T20:37:00.011+08:00

With long tailed shamas, many things can go wrong during the growth of the pair of longest tail feathers:

1) Fret lines indicate insufficient intake of food during the period they were formed (this can also happen to short tailed birds).

2) Wavy tail feathers are caused by an improper diet (this can also happen to short tailed birds).

3) A scissors tail is usually caused by the shorter tail feathers coming in between the pair of longest tail feathers during the growing out period, causing the latter pair to be forced apart and altering the direction of their growth. This may sometimes be the result of vigorous tail play during the molt when the tail feathers are not yet fully grown. This condition is not seen on shamas in the wild. I have also suspected that a lack of humidity in the surrounding area during the molt may have also contributed to this condition in captivity. A cage that is too small can also contribute to this.

4) One or both of the longest tail feathers can sometimes grow out in an abnormal way. The entire feather is turned about 90 degrees with one edge of the affected feather facing upwards and the other facing downwards. The reason for this is unclear. Improper diet, follicle mites and lack of sufficient humidity could all be among the possible causes for this abnormal growth of the tail feathers.

5) One of the longest tail feathers may sometimes be permanently absent. This is sometimes caused by repeatedly pulling out the feather causing permanent follicle damage resulting in the feather being unable to be replaced.

MY THOUGHTS ON CARE OF THE TAIL FEATHERS OF LONG-TAILED SHAMAS

2010-10-02T00:54:00.078+08:00

The satisfaction and pride of being able to own a beautiful long tailed specimen of the white-rumped shama comes with a price which is much more than just spending the money for that beautiful specimen. Money alone can only buy short-lived satisfaction if one is not prepared to also spend the time and effort to maintain the beauty of such a specimen.

Long-tailed shamas are not as easy to come by nor are they as easy to care for like the short-tailed specimens. Many things can go wrong with the tail feathers of a long-tailed specimen, sometimes during the molt which will result in an imperfect tail for the rest of the year. At other times when follicle injuries occured or are inflicted, the results may often be irrevisible, rendering a beautiful specimen to be permanently flawed.

The aesthetic quality of the entire tail of a long-tailed specimen rest mostly on one pair of tail feathers, the longest black pair. The length, the softness and the way this pair of feathers curves will, to a greater extent than any of the bird's other physical attributes, define its overall beauty. The flaws of the entire tail if there are any, will also mostly be found on or be seen through this pair of feathers. For these reasons, the owner of a long-tailed specimen should spare no effort to maximize their growth potential while minimizing the chances of any imperfection in their development and growth during each and every molt and to provide for the best possible care afterwards, to maintain the fullness of their vanes and the softness of their shafts until the next molt is due.

Pics of Nim (left) and Funkie. Both pics were taken soon after they had completed their 1st molts, showing satisfactory results in achieving the maximization of the growth of their long tail feathers. I would think that their flawless tail feathers upon completion of the molt were also the result of the efforts put into the proper care and feeding throughout the period of the molt.

With continuous efforts, the lengths of their long tail feathers had since increased with each subsequently molt.

GOOD ENOUGH TO BE BRED FROM ?

2010-09-14T14:36:00.003+08:00

3 year old Santana with tail length of 12+ inches. Contemplating if I should breed him.

THE UNEXPECTED PHONE CALL

2010-08-12T00:40:00.043+08:00

Out of being bored during the last weekend, I'd decided to do some housekeeping. There is this spare room in my flat that has served as a store room all this while and there are boxes and boxes of stuffs in there, some of which must have been unopened for more than a decade or so. I've always wanted to clear out some of those things that are of no use to me anymore and so I started off by checking out a few boxes that were labeled “doggy stuffs”. They were mostly dog grooming tools, piles of pedigree certificates, photos of dogs I'd owned in the past and etc, going back to those days a long time ago, when I was breeding and showing dogs. Going through the contents of these boxes had brought back some memories, of things that had happened in the past. Among those that I'll surely remember for a long time to come, was this unexpected phone call that I'd received not so long ago.

This happened about a couple of years back. A gentleman had called and as soon as he'd established that I was the person he was looking for, in a very serious tone, he'd started off by saying, “Mr. Low, I have gone to great lengths to find out your phone number. You see, I have to tell you that my wife is in distress and I think you are the person I should be talking to."

I can tell you now, that the Chinese saying, "If you have done no wrong, you will not be alarmed by the knock on the door at midnight" is not always true. For at that moment when I heard what was being said and in that kind of a tone, I was actually more than being alarmed, even though a decent man like me has got no reason to be so.

As it turned out, it had nothing to do with that sort of a misunderstanding that I'd at first feared it was, much to my relief (phew!). What had actually happened did have something to do with my past though.

It seemed that the lady who was very attached to her pet dog of 15 years was very distressed when it had passed away a few months back. That dog was bred by me. I was told that she'd adored the dog so very much, for its breed temperament, its intelligence and its loyalty. The passing of her constant and loyal companion, which in her own words, she'd loved like her own child, was difficult for the lady to come to terms with.

When she was finally convinced by the husband to get a replacement of the same breed, she'd wished that it could be from the same breeder so that she can be more assured of having one that could also have the same character and temperament, hence the phone call. I was told that they had been through a lot of trouble during the months that followed, trying to get in touch with me because my phone number and address were not the same anymore as the information that was given behind the pedigree paper.

Unfortunately, I'd stopped breeding dogs since a long time ago and that dog was one of the last few that I'd bred. Being already very out of touch with the dog breeding community, I was also not able to help very much. As sad as I was for being unable to help, it was also one of those rare moments that had brought me great satisfaction from whatever little that I'd achieved in the past.

Here are a few pictures of some stuffs from the boxes I'd cleared out during the weekend. I thought they would add some color to the post.

Uriah Heep - Stealin'

NIM'S BREEDING PLAN POSTPONED

2010-08-08T16:31:00.023+08:00

The breeding of Nim and Lorraine had to be put aside for the next few months because they both went into molt soon after the temporary separation.

I had estimated Nim’s tail to be 11.7 inches and was pleasantly surprised when I measured the dropped long tail feathers to be about 12.5 inches instead (I have the tendency to underestimate the tail lengths of my own birds). Hopefully, the tail will grow even longer from this molt.

It seems the recent unusual weather here had affected some of the more experienced breeders as well. There had been too much rain, even storms that had caused flash floods over here during the last couple of months. This is quite unusual as mid-year over here is usually the driest and hottest period of the year. From what I had learned, this abnormal weather could cause the breeding period to cease prematurely and the breeding birds to go into molt earlier than expected.

Lorraine was returned to DDS and to save some face from my failure to breed from her, I had 'accused' DDS of providing me with a female which is not even good enough to hold on to her feathers for a little while more. I had even tried to claim for a ‘full refund’ but was gently reminded that I was never charged in the first place for borrowing her. Of course, I was merely testing my luck, in case the weather had affected my old friend's memory as well....hehehe. Being a good friend like I had always been, I had promised to take Lorraine in again after she has completed her molt, to 'help lighten his load'.

Meanwhile, I am crossing my fingers for my other breeding pair. Funkie was recently paired with Ballerina (daughter of Ballet Dancer). Funkie is now 16 months old. His tail length was measured to be 11.5 inches from the first molt and 12.75 inches from the second molt. His tail feathers were quite stiff from the first molt but were much softer from the second. Ballerina is still a virgin, well endowed with a soft and curved tail, measuring 8.5 inches. I had insisted on choosing Ballerina from DDS’s pool of females. Surely, he can’t be expecting me to accept anything else less elegant to be matched to my funky prince.

Funkie seems to be in top breeding condition right now but there is suspicion that Ballerina may be going into molt. Hopefully, if luck is on my side this time, she would be able to produce a clutch before that happens.

Thanks again David, for your generosity.

MY THOUGHTS ON THE WILD-CAUGHT WHITE-RUMPED SHAMA IN CAPTIVITY - PART IV

2010-08-04T20:20:00.015+08:00

PREPARING AND CONDITIONING THE NEWLY WILD-CAUGHT SHAMA TO EAT DRY FOOD IN CAPTIVITY

Newly wild-caught shamas that were kept by their trappers or the shopkeepers for some time before being sold would have been taught by these people to eat dry food. For those that are freshly caught and arrived without knowing how to eat dry food, the following may be useful to the novice keeper.

Upon acquiring the freshly wild-caught shama, the novice keeper should first of all, try to provide nourishment quickly to build up its strength before attempting to teach the bird to eat its dry food. Ant eggs are relished by most wild-caught shamas and they are ideal to be used as the first food in captivity to nourish the newly wild-caught bird. Thawed ant eggs should be offered several times each day and drinking water must be available at all times.

Many newly wild-caughts will not be able to seek out the food and water from certain types of food cups that we may use. The food and water must be made visible to the bird by using transparent cups such as those made from plastic instead of porcelain cups. Even then, do not expect a wild bird that is freshly taken from the forest to know how to reach the food from the opening at the top of the cup. It is not unusual that the freshly wild-caught bird will try to get at the food by pecking at the sides of the transparent cups instead. By removing the top of the plastic cups to allow for a wider opening will make it much easier for the bird during this initial period. Alternatively, transparent feeder dishes can be used instead of cups. If there is still difficulty for the bird to access the food and water, place them in small shallow dishes and leave them on the cage floor for the first couple of days.

The bird must be observed to be eating the ant eggs, otherwise, it may be one of those rare occasions where a wild-caught shama will refuse ant eggs. Some captive bred shamas that are never fed ant eggs before as well as the occasional wild-caught from certain localities may not recognize ant eggs as a food source.

After a couple of days, when the bird is observed to be eating well, mix in a drop or two of liquid multi-vitamins and minerals into the ant eggs. A dose of this every couple of days at this stage will help to strengthen its resistance against diseases. Do not be tempted to supplement right from the beginning because if the bird had refused to eat the ant eggs right from the start due to the taste or smell of the supplement, thereafter, it may sometimes take a while to coax it into accepting ant eggs again. It will require a couple of days for the bird to form a strong and positive link to the ant eggs as its source of food. Its desire to feed on them must be strong enough for it to be able to ignore the strange taste and smell of the supplement. Building up a strong reliance on ant eggs will also work well towards using them as the medium to introduce dry food into the bird's diet later on.

When it is time to introduce the dry food into the bird's diet, the keeper may want to bear in mind to do this gradually. I would think that this is important not just only towards successfully training the bird to eat dry food but also to allow the bird to have sufficient time to adjust and produce the required digestive enzymes to cope with a food that is quite foreign to its digestive tract. It may sound trivial to some but over the years and through the trials and errors of raising numerous wild-caught white-rumped shamas, I have often suspected that the instances where I had succeeded well were correlated to the gradual and proper digestive acclimatization of these birds during their early days in captivity.

The dry food must be ground into fine powder and in the beginning, only a small pinch is thoroughly mixed into each serving of the ant eggs. In powdered form, the dry food will adhere better to the moist, thawed ant eggs. After each serving of the mixture, it is usual in the beginning for most of the powdered dry food to be left behind in the cup or to be strewn on the cage floor. Despite the bird’s insistent efforts to shake off the dry food, be assured that some of it will still inevitably be taken in together with the ant eggs. This will be evident in the droppings which by now, instead of being mostly white, would have taken on in some parts, a similar colour to that of the dry food. A few days is needed to feed the bird in this way, after which, the frequency of serving the mixtures of ant eggs and powdered dry food will have to be reduced.

The reduction of the serving frequency is to encourage the bird which will then be quite hungry between the feedings, to go for the dry food that is left over from the mixtures. There will be some taste and smell of ant eggs still lingering on these left-over crumbs and when the bird is hungry enough, it will attempt to feed on these. Once they started feeding on the left-over crumbs of dry food, it is the start of the conditioning of the bird to associate the dry food as a food source to satisfy its hunger. When they are observed to be eating up every thing from the ant eggs and dry food mixture, place a separate cup into the cage that contains only dry food. These need not be ground up but should be in their original pellet form.

The frequency of feeding the mixture of ant eggs and powdered dry food should then be further reduced to only once or twice a day to encourage the bird to feed from the cup of dry pellets, which should be by now recognizable as a food source by the bird. If all goes well, the droppings will show more colour of the dry food during this stage, confirming to the keeper that the bird is indeed eating the dry pellets. If the droppings show slight tinge of green, it is a sign that the bird is starving and not taking sufficient dry food from the cup. When this happens, the frequency of serving the mixture of ant eggs and powdered dry food would have to be increased again, for a while more.

Upon confirming that the bird is feeding very well from the cup of dry food, it should then not be given anything else in the morning. Ant eggs can be reserved for feeding only once in the evening. The ant eggs should also continue to be made good use of as a medium to supply supplements to the bird during this period of stress. Live food that is planned to be part of the captive diet should only be fed in very small quantities each time and from the afternoon onwards or withheld until later, after the bird is well conditioned to consume sufficient quantity of its dry food on a daily basis. This will help to ensure that its apettite for the dry food during this period of conditioning will not be distracted by the presence of other more appealing food sources and will also allow the digestive system to be better adjusted to the dry food which will henceforth, be a substantial part of the bird’s captive diet.

Partly because of the stress associated with conditioning the bird to eat its dry food and partly due to its not being well acclimatized to the captive environment, the newly wild-caught male shama will not be expected to come into form anytime soon. However, if all goes well, the newly wild-caught that is better acclimatized to the captive diet and well cared for during the molt will also usually thrive better and come into form faster in captivity.

Unless it is absolutely necessary, once the bird’s digestive system is acclimatized, the dry food should not be changed from one brand to another as this would mean having to put the bird through the stress all over again.

Yankovic - Eat it

MY THOUGHTS ON THE WILD-CAUGHT WHITE-RUMPED SHAMA IN CAPTIVITY - PART III

2010-08-02T19:02:00.050+08:00

THE CAPTIVE DIET AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION

A good captive diet should be one that is practical for the keeper, nutritionally adequate, compatible to the bird’s digestive system and palatable enough so that the bird can be easily conditioned to consume it in sufficient quantity. In this part of the world where the shama has a long history in captivity, it has been shown that a combination of a good dry food supplemented by some live food daily can serve this purpose well.

Protein is the important component of a nutrient compact diet that is required by the shama in order for it to thrive in captivity. Traditionally, most dry food that are made in this region for the shama will supply this nutrient partly through a combination of ingredients that are rich in plant based proteins, such as beans, legumes and peanuts. Since any single source of plant protein will be incomplete and lacking in one or more of the essential amino acids required, a combination from the various sources will help to ensure that the essential amino acids that may be lacking in one will be made up by another. Apart from these ingredients, generous amounts of egg yolks are usually included in these dry foods. Egg yolk besides being a very rich source of animal protein is also very rich in other nutrients. It is also very agreeable with the digestive system of the captive shama. Fish meal or other ingredients of equivalent nutritional values are sometimes included into the dry food to provide additional animal protein and to supply the necessary calcium. A good dry food besides having a good combination of ingredients that are compatible to the digestive capabilities of the shama for the nutrients to be easily assimilated, must also be consistent in its components from batch to batch so as not to cause unnecessary digestive stress to the birds.

It may be worth mentioning here that ant eggs are very useful when included in the captive diet of shamas and other insectivorous birds. It is a source of nutrient compact food that is also very compatible to their digestible system and most wild-caught shamas will consume these as eagerly as they would consume live insects. Here in this region, ant eggs are available either fresh or frozen. Frozen ant eggs must be thawed and the excess moisture to be soaked up by paper towels before being offered to the birds. In this way and when only a small quantity, such as a teaspoonful is offered each time, it will be eaten up before it can turn rancid in our hot weather.

The usefulness of thawed ant eggs as part of the captive diet goes beyond being a good source of food. The eagerness of most wild-caught shamas to consume them makes them a convenient and effective medium for mixing vitamins or oral medications into, when these are required to be administered to the birds. The appropriate use of ant eggs as the first source of food to quickly nourish the newly wild-caughts and then subsequently to introduce the dry food to the birds through mixing them into the ant eggs, will usually result in faster and better acceptance of the dry food by the birds than the other methods. Similarly, when the need arises to change the dry food from one brand to another, the use of ant eggs will help in enabling a smoother transition to minimize digestive stress that is often associated with an abrupt change of the dry food.

Live insects form an important part in the captive diet of the white-rumped shama to provide for a good source of protein. The convenience of obtaining crickets and mealworms these days will make for easier provision of live insects as part of the diet. Grasshoppers collected from the wild are often regarded to be one of the best live food for the captive shama. Earthworms that are collected from uncontaminated soil will be useful additions to the variety of live food that can be offered in captivity. Live insects that are high in chitin should not be fed in large quantities at a single feeding. It may be worth the trouble to pick out the white molting mealworms to minimise feeding the bird with too much of the indigestible skins. Given the choice, the captive shama will also indicate that whenever possible, its instinct is to avoid the skin (chitin). When offered a mixture, it will always pick out the white skinless ones first.

Live insects should be gut loaded to maximise its nutritional value. Crickets can be fed with chicken feed and other food high in calcium prior to being offered to the captive shama. This will help to make up for the imbalance of calcium to phosphorus ratio in the food value of these insects. They should also be given some carrots or leafy greens to gut load them with beta-carotene to supply some vitamin A which is quite often found to be lacking in the diet of the captive shama. Mealworms will not survive well in chicken feed but can be gut loaded with Nestum family cereals or other equivalents that are fortified with muti-vitamins. They can also be fed with some carrots prior to being offered to the captive bird.

While some of the other species of songbirds we keep may grow fat from their rich captive diet and their sedentary lives, often the white-rumped shama in captivity appears to be undernourished. This is sometimes due to the captive shama not eating enough of the dry food provided. For the caged, non-breeding male white-rumped shama that has already been successfully trained to eat its dry food, under normal circumstances, live food and ant eggs should not be offered to the bird during the early part of the morning. The bird is most hungry at daybreak and when not given the choice, will consume substantial quantity of dry food during this period of the day. This must be encouraged so that the captive shama will be conditioned to always regard the dry food provided from the cup as a source to satisfy its need to eat. It must form the habit to eat sufficiently from this source. By offering live food during the early period of the morning, especially if the quantity is quite substantial, it may result in having the bird reverting to some extent, back to being unwilling to eat its dry food. The bird that is not keen to eat its dry food will not consume them in the sufficient quantity that is needed, preferring to wait for the live food instead. This habit of reluctance to eat its dry food when prolonged, will result in the bird being unable to thrive well in captivity. For this same reason, the quantity of live food for the day should preferably be spread out over a few times during the afternoon and evening and in small quantities each time, instead of being given at a single feeding session so that the bird will be encouraged to eat the dry food in between. This will further reinforce its conditioning and ensure that it will eat sufficiently and evenly throughout the day instead of gorging itself with a large feeding of live food at one go, overloading its small crop and then eating insufficiently at other times of the day.

MY THOUGHTS ON THE WILD-CAUGHT WHITE-RUMPED SHAMA IN CAPTIVITY - PART II

2010-07-29T01:09:00.022+08:00

THOUGHTS ON FEEDING THE CAPTIVE WHITE-RUMPED SHAMA

Facultative insectivorous wild birds of temperate regions will switch between feeding on insects and other food sources depending on seasonal availabilities. Unlike these birds, the food sources of the tropical wild shama is not affected by climatic fluctuations in the same way. Hence, it has evolved to be a specialist feeder that feeds only on insects and small invertebrates that are found in its habitat throughout the year. When taken into captivity, the specialist feeder will not willingly feed on unfamiliar food items (such as dry pellets), even when forced by extreme hunger. This feeding instinct of the newly wild-caught shama that is so well tailored to its natural habitat will have to be altered by its keeper if it is to survive in captivity. Its digestive system that is so well adapted to its natural food sources will have to be adjusted to accommodate and utilize the captive diet. It has also to be conditioned to eat sufficiently from the captive diet that must also provide adequately in order for it to thrive.

Although it is not difficult these days for the keeper to provide a captive diet that is made up of commercially farmed insects, this alone will not be adequate. Commercially farmed insects are nutritionally inferior in comparison to the natural prey items found in the wild. The lack of variety in commercially farmed insects will also render such a diet to be nutritionally inadequate. The commonly available farmed crickets and mealworms are high in fats and chitin and lacking in many other nutrients. Such a diet will quite certainly cause nutritional deficiencies in the long run. Therefore, the novice keeper should not think that by providing such a diet, he will be providing one that will be closest to the natural diet of the wild shamas.

Within the group of birds classified as insectivores (specialist feeders), the dietary habits and digestive capabilities may still differ to some extent, from one species of this group to another. Their different habitats that support different types of prey items could possibly be the reason behind these slight differences of their digestive adaptations. Therefore, when one species of insectivorous bird thrives on a certain captive diet, it is not necessarily so that all other insectivorous species will do well on this similar diet. An example from my own observations of the commonly kept insectivorous birds shows that the digestive capabilities of the white-rumped shama and that of its relative, the oriental magpie robin can be quite different. When both are fed on a captive diet that is high in chitin, shamas will regurgitate substantial amount of indigestible chitin throughout the day. Regurgitating pellets of undigested chitin is a common behavior of many species of insectivorous birds in the wild. However, the observation that chitin is better retained by the magpie robin and allowed to pass through its digestive tract, suggests that the magpie robin, when compared to the shama, may have a digestive system that is far better equipped to utilize the chitin component of the diet. In the case of the shama that do not retain them in its digestive tract at all, quite clearly, chitin has little or no nutritional value for this species.

Apart from the purpose to expel indigestible matter through the mouth, there are really no other significant benefits to birds from the behaviour of regurgitating indigestible food. In captivity therefore, there is no reason to encourage this natural behaviour in birds like the shama. Hence, if its captive diet comprises of too much indigestible chitin, it will be of no benefit, since it is also shown that shamas do not utilize whatever food value that may be present in these. On the contrary, regurgitation requires convulsive efforts and in the case of the shama, there seem to be significant amount of discomfort associated with this effort. They also seem to be affected by the presence of indigestible pellets that had formed in their crops and are yet to be ejected, often becoming inactive and unwilling to sing or eat until these are regurgitated. Even though the discomfort associated with a high chitin diet may not adversely affect the health of the captive shama, it will at the least, interfere with the performances of a male shama that is raised for the arena. Therefore, it is in my opinion that unlike some other insectivores, the shama should not be fed on a diet that is high in chitin. For this reason, food such as crickets and mealworms which are high in chitin should only be used sparingly when included in the captive diet of the shama.

Certain brands of dry pelleted food for insectivorous birds that are popular in the west may not necessarily be good for the captive shama. For one thing, some of them are tailored to the needs of insectivores from the temperate region and will include substantial amount of dried fruits. Although the digestive system of the captive shama can be conditioned to accomodate such an inclusion in its diet, it is however not a species that will thrive on nutrient dilute food such as fruits. Unlike the temperate insectivore whose digestive system is adapted to consuming nutrient dilute food during certain time of the year, the white-rumped shama, being a specialist feeder that feeds on a nutrient compact diet throughout the year, is by nature, a small eater that do not have the required capacity in its apettite for a nutrient dilute diet. Some of these pelleted dry food contains substantial percentage of crude fibre, often advertised to be necessary to simulate the chitin component of an insectivore's diet. In the case of the captive shama, I do not think that this is beneficial.

MY THOUGHTS ON THE WILD-CAUGHT WHITE-RUMPED SHAMA IN CAPTIVITY - PART I

2010-07-27T14:14:00.013+08:00

UNDERSTANDING THE NEWLY WILD-CAUGHT WHITE-RUMPED SHAMA

By the time the newly wild-caught shama reaches the shop or its keeper, more often than not, its physical and mental well being would have already been compromised to some extent, due to hunger and due to the cramped and perhaps, sometimes even torturous condition during its storage and the journey. It is extremely terrified and can even be quite disorientated when placed into its cage. The subsequent frantic and seemingly endless but futile attempts to escape from its confinement and from the terrifying new surroundings will only add on to the physical and mental stress to drain the bird further. In this very delicate state, its health and immune system will be further compromised if it also did not receive nourishment quickly. For those that perished during the early stage in captivity, the combination of stress and starvation is usually the primary cause of death.

The novice keeper that is fortunate enough to be able to keep his newly wild-caught bird alive, only to be disappointed months later down the road by its inability to thrive well in captivity, should try to understand that his frustrations were most likely brought about by his failure to acclimatize the bird properly to captivity. He should also try to understand the importance of the early transition period, during the first week or so upon acquiring the bird. Often, laying a good foundation during this initial period goes a long way towards a successful acclimatization of the bird to captivity. For every male wild-caught white-rumped shama that has made it to the arena and fulfilled its purpose in captivity, there will be many others that could not. Often, when they do not make it, the blame is on the birds for being unable to make the grade. Perhaps the novice keeper should also see it from another perspective: that the full potential of a captive male white-rumped shama cannot be unveiled if it is not in good health and that it will also not come into optimal form if it is not fully and properly acclimatized to its captive diet and the captive environment.

A newly wild-caught green leaf bird will quickly adapt to captivity and most will become very tame within a short period of time. A newly wild-caught hwamei, although will be as difficult to tame down as the shama, will rarely starve to death because it will readily eat the dry pelleted food offered in captivity. The wild-caught white-eyes and bulbuls will also easily take to the fruits and the sweetened dry food very quickly and both are by nature, able to withstand very well, the stress associated with captivity. Among the popularly kept songbirds of Asia, the wild-caught white-rumped shama is however, one of the most difficult to adapt and thrive in captivity.

HOLY SHIT! I HAD A HEART ATTACK!

2010-06-24T14:50:00.029+08:00

Just as I thought I had already paid the price in full, for all the years of self inflicted abuse on my health, the kelong referee from above had without good reason, decided to show me another yellow card last Saturday morning - 19th June, soon after the England-Algeria match.

"Bad refereeing! Curry chicken! @#$%^&*+_*%$#@!!! "
"HEY REFEREE! CAN I BRIBE YOU? WOULD YOU PLEASE NAME ME A REASONABLE PRICE?"

For smoking, I was already punished with a pair of bad lungs. My liver is bad too, from past indulgence in alcohol and panadol. I don’t sleep much, probably a habit formed from many years of gambling through the nights and for whatever other sins that I am not aware of, I have been continuously suffering the pains from a slipped disc. But I have no high blood pressure, my cholesterol is only slightly higher than what is deemed to be the good level and I am not even overweight like most people my age. SO WHY THE **** DO I HAVE TO GET A HEART ATTACK AS WELL?

It must have been sometime around 5 a.m. and I had just fallen asleep when the first wave of pain came. It was bad, like a knife being thrust into my chest pushing the pain right to the back. I had thoughts at first that it was all just a bad dream but the pain was too real and building up fast. I found myself clutching the chest with one hand and propping myself up with the other. As the pain subsided after a few minutes, the first thought that went through my mind was whether if it was an angina pain or just simply heartburn. I was pretty sure it wasn’t heartburn. Other thoughts soon followed quickly in succession.

You see, death is not something I am terrified of. Of more concern to me is that dying from a heart attack for a person that lives alone would be a bad way to go. I often read in the papers of dead people being discovered only after the stench of death was noticed by the neighbours. To me, that would be the most impolite way of announcing one’s demise.

My daughter who stays in the university hostel do come back to see me every now and then but I can never be sure if she will come back soon enough if I were to go this way. Then there is always a remote possibility that my friends may come and break down the door if I have not answer their calls after a few days but a few days may be all it takes for the body to start to decompose. Believe me, all these were running through my mind then.

As I was putting on my clothes, the second wave of pain came. I knew I have to act fast. This time the pain was worse than the first. I wanted to get out fast but somehow, the pain was slowing me down both physically and mentally. I could hardly move towards the door and I had difficulty trying to concentrate. I had managed to get the keys and the cell phone and fighting against the excruciating pain, I tried to think straight, contemplating whether or not to call the ambulance. The nearest hospital is only about 15 minutes away and I would have a better chance of reaching the hospital faster if I were to catch a cab from downstairs. The last time I saw someone called an ambulance from my block, they took like forever to arrive. I would be damned if I were to depend on those assholes. This is not the same as someone having an asthma attack. Time was running out fast.

The thought of getting out of my flat quickly, kept on ringing inside my head like an alarm bell gone crazy. If I were to collapse, at the least it would have to be outside my flat. I must certainly not allow myself to die and stink inside my own home. But it was getting increasingly difficult and the pain was reaching unbearable, as if someone had his hand inside my chest and was squeezing down on the organs. Out of frustration and anger, I heard myself swearing out loud and then the second wave of pain disappeared.
By the time I had gotten downstairs, the pain had already returned for the third time.

At this hour, there are usually lots of empty cabs plying the main road just outside of my block. I had counted on this to be the fastest means of getting to the hospital and sure enough, as soon as I had stepped out of my block, I saw one approaching from a distance. Just then, a man ran out from about 50 feet in front of me, stopped the approaching cab and boarded. I sat down heavily on the curb by the roadside, once again drained and exhausted by the clutching pain coming from the inside of my chest. I had wanted to lift up a hand to show the middle finger to the guy who had beaten me to the cab as it drove by but I could not. So I sat there confused by the pain, regretting not calling the ambulance and desperately wishing not to be left to die by the roadside.

The pain had again disappeared by the time the next cab came along. I had wondered then, how many rounds of pain I would have to endure before I will finally succumb. All the swear words uttered in protest must have been heard by someone up there and so I was in a way, blessed with a cab driver who drove like I was his own brother when I told him that I was having a heart attack. He had passed a few red traffic lights when he was sure it was safe to do so and we arrived at the hospital in less than 10 minutes.

For the fifth time that morning, the pain came again, half way to the hospital. This time round, it returned with a vengeance as if in protest for my surviving the previous rounds. Cold sweat was breaking out all over and I was finding it difficult to breathe as I stumbled into the emergency room. I was barely able to tell the nurse that I was having a heart attack and had to try very hard not to collapse into her arms. I was put on a wheelchair and pushed into a room to be given a quick ECG. A patch was slapped onto my left chest to ease the pain. I was also fed some dissolved aspirin through a straw but the pain only subsided when I was given some morphine later on.

They had put me on a bed and I was wheeled into what I thought was a preparation room. There were conversations going on outside the curtain partition and for a while, I was straining my ears trying hard to hear what the cardio doctor was saying to a junior medical officer regarding something on the reading of my ECG. What the **** is wrong with medical schools? Do they really have to train doctors to write prescriptions in hebrew and speak in martian tongue?

A lady doctor with pretty eyes gave me some papers to sign. She was wearing a mask and her face came quite close to mine as she explained very quickly that they would need my consent to proceed. Just as well that she had a mask on for I thought my breath must be smelling worse than my fart as I had not brushed my teeth that morning. Someone else was fussing around putting me on a drip and having a tube wrapped around my face to supply oxygen through my nose. By then, they had also taken some blood and had a few more ECG readings churned out. I was being prepared for a procedure called percutaneous coronary intervention to relieve the narrowing and obstruction of the coronary arteries through the insertion of a balloon catheter via an artery at the wrist. I had also given consent for them to do an open heart surgery if necessary. The lady doctor was very comforting as she assured me that the risk involved for the procedure will be minimal. She had this ugly doctor’s gown over her but I could tell she was voluptuous and those eyes were sexier than I had thought earlier. Then someone started to strip me down.

Naked and covered only with a thin blanket, I shivered a bit. The nurse that had stripped me began shaving my inner thighs all the way up to where they meet the scrotum. She had explained that the catheter could also be inserted through an artery via the inner thigh areas should there be difficulty doing it from the wrist. That was how my sexy 'sideburns' were gone.

It was getting really cold in that room and I was thinking that something might have shrunken a great deal in size due to the cold, as it always does. I wished that the nurse would not make a ‘small’ joke out of it during the morning break. Holy cow! she ought to know better that it was freezing cold in there!

The procedure was completely painless, to my surprise. I was fully awake and could see what was going on from the monitors. As it turned out, one of my arteries had completely collapsed and another in very bad shape. The cardiologist performing the procedure was a nice guy and he took me through each step of the way. He inserted two stents to support the arteries. They act like scaffoldings to hold up the walls and will remain there for the rest of my life. There are other areas that were also partially blocked but for those, I would have to rely on the oral medications.

So I survived my first ever heart attack and joined the ranks of those who carry sublingual nitroglycerin tablets in their pockets.

Humble Pie - I don't need no doctor

TRAINING SHAMA TAIMONGS FOR BETTER VARIETY OF SONGS

2010-06-13T00:47:00.022+08:00

Good singing ability is very much an inherited trait, as I have found out with captive-breds. From my experience, training can also improve variety of songs to a certain extent.

Sharing my method of encouraging the build up to a better variety of songs for taimongs:
The taimong is first exposed as much as possible to the songs of adult male shamas that are good songsters. If there isn't any good adult shama songsters at home, borrow from friends or arrange to board the taimong for a few days every now and then with friends that own good songsters. When the taimong is exposed to the songs of other good shama songsters, he will remember the songs. Until they are into first molt, taimongs won't be intimidated by adult males nearby but it is still best not to be in close visual contact with adult males for long periods of time, especially when they are approaching the first molt. The taimong can also be exposed to other songbirds if the owner wishes for him to learn the songs of other songbirds. The earlier the age this is started, the better will be the songs when they mature. If a nestling is taken from the nest, hand raised and isolated from the songs of other shamas throughout the taimong stage, he won't be a good songster.

I prefer shama songs to have variety and I do not care very much about melodious quality. I do not mind them having rough songs and so I expose my birds to all kinds of sounds, natural or mechanical. I also take them to park fringes and road sides filled with traffic noises and all sorts of foreign sounds. If this is not desirable to the owner, they should be minimised.

After a period of time of exposure this way, and when the bird is approaching his first molt, he is then kept in a room, near to a radio with the music channel turned on for many hours during the day. The cage should preferably be covered with the cloth cover and distraction should be minimised throughout the molt. This is to encourage him to sing his subsongs.

These are what I believe and they form the basis for my training method for a better variety of songs:
Besides being able to learn easily the songs of other shamas, a male shama is also able to pick out the sounds in his surroundings that are suitable to be used as song materials. At any time during the day, he may pick out the songs of other species of birds and some other foreign sounds from his surroundings and match them to the song template in his brain to select those that are suitable as song materials to be used to form shama songs. He will then add these into the existing store of song materials in his brain. When he sings his lengthy subsongs (which will be when his stomach is full and when he is not threatened by his surroundings and in a relaxed mode), he is in fact, mixing and combining song materials from his store in a way much like a musician/songwriter composing or arranging songs. Guided by the song template in his brain, the selected songs of other species and sounds from his surroundings when included into his repertoire will be arranged in such a way that when they are sung, they will sound typical of the songs of his species. Perhaps limited by his vocal range when he is singing his loud songs, some of these song materials will always remain only in the subsongs and will not be reproduced in the loud songs. Others will be used to form loud songs or added into formed songs. He may sing some of them soon or store them in the brain until the right time to recall and reproduce them vocally.

An additional thought to share:
Each male shama will have his own set of primary songs. These are the songs which he will sing often. When he is not in-form, he is often heard singing mostly only his primary songs. When he is in-form, he will be very willing to sing much more than just the primary songs as well as adding more vocal aggression and loudness to the songs, all these to intimidate his rivals. This is why a no-form bird can be quite often repetitive and an in-form bird is more varied, especially when the latter is challenged vocally by other males.

'MOUNTAIN FIRE'

2010-05-21T23:06:00.010+08:00

Every once in a while, we will come across a freshly wild caught male shama that although still bashing around wildly in his cage, will 'chai' fiercely when he is brought into the arena. Such a newly wild caught is described in our local term as having his 'mountain fire' (form from the wild) still intact.

A very dominant and in-form male shama in the wild, that has his gonads (testicles) fully enlarged and his testosterone at peak level, is at a stage when he is almost fearless and most willing to take risks. Driven by the super high level of testosterone within him, he will readily confront any intrusions into his territory or challenge the most threatening of situations to establish one, with little to fear. His super high form at this stage will see him often disregard the risks of injuries or death during confrontations. Birds at this stage are often seen to be bold enough to come out into the open to confront approaching trappers from low hanging branches, in reaction to the whistling from the trappers or the sounds of another shama played from taped recordings. I have even heard of one that had such super high form, he had for a short while, sang fiercely while in the clutch of the trapper's hand. (This bird died during the long journey to a buyer who is a friend of mine).

Upon being captured and despite the ordeal, the form and the level of testosterone of a bird in this stage may not recede immediately. He may still be able to perform impressively in the arena, as he would in the wild because his super high form is so overwhelming that for a while, not even the frightening ordeal of being captured and the fear of the new environment could affect the 'mountain fire'. This form that may sometimes be carried over from the wild is however, usually short-lived when the bird is taken into captivity. It is only a matter of time before the overpowering fear of a new and threatening captive environment will sink in deeper and suppresses the 'mountain fire'.

JudasPriest - Reckless

WILLIAM AND HIS SHAMAS

2010-04-21T22:38:00.008+08:00

My Indonesian friend William recently bought 2 captive bred taimongs:

This taimong (yet to be named) has a longer tail. At 1.5 months old, his tail measured 4.5 inches. His father has a 11+ inches tail and his mother has a 7+ inches tail. William hopes to be able to breed from him someday, for his long tail genes.

This is LT, the father of the taimong above. He is in my opinion, a very handsome male.

This taimong was named Isamu (Japanese for courage and bravery). At 2.5 months old, his tail measured 3.1 inches. William was told by the breeder that he was bred from a Sumatran champion male. William had witnessed the Sumatran champion performing at competitions and described his songs to be very "tajam" (high pitched). William described Isamu to be very loud voiced and alert to his surroundings.

Isamu fell sick not long after arriving at William's place. He deteriorated quickly and had became weak and was not eating much. At this stage, I had thought that he was not able to pull through.

Sometimes we can feel very helpless when our birds fall sick because usually, for most of us, there is no avian vet around that has experience in species like the shama. Despite what seemed to be a hopeless situation, William did not give up hope and spared no effort in giving the debilitating bird all the supportive care that was needed. Miraculously, Isamu is now recovering and going into his first molt. I received an email from William and among other things, this was what he said: " it opens up my eyes that bird keeping is not just about beauty and sound. It is also about caring and nurturing."

I think my young friend William will one day be a great shama keeper. He is now planning to acquire another taimong from a famous breeder in West Java.

MY THOUGHTS ON SUNLIGHT, CATARACTS AND THE CAPTIVE SHAMA

2010-04-18T14:22:00.017+08:00

It may be logical for us to think that since the habitats of wild shamas are densely forested, captive shamas by nature are not accustomed to bright sunlight. After thinking deeply about this, I am now not too convinced if this is really true. Even densely forested habitats will surely have pockets within them that will allow direct sunlight to pass through to the forest ground. I have been into shama habitats during my younger days and had seen areas like this. This is also confirmed by DDS who had also been into shama habitats in the past. Will birds like the shama that lives in densely forested habitats seek out these areas to bask? We couldn't really know for sure but judging from how captive shamas will indulge in sun-bathing whenever there is opportunities to do so, there is a likelihood that they could have. We really know very little of what is happening in the wild. If a nocturnal bird will sun-bath in the middle of the day, there is really no reason to believe that the wild shama will not seek out the opportunities to do so. (http://besgroup.talfrynature.com/2010/04/20/spotted-wood-owl-sunbathing/)

Humans as well as animals can develop cataracts when their eyes are over-exposed to strong UV rays of the sun. When some shamas are more prone to develop cataracts, old age and genetic predispositions must also be taken into account when considering the underlying factors that may have contributed to this condition.

Most birds will indulge in sun-bathing and the captive shama is no exception. When placed under direct sunlight, strong enough to induce the shama to sun-bath, it will spread out its wings and fluff up its body feathers to allow the sun to penetrate into the skin. The shama, like other captive birds will even sun-bath under very strong mid-day sun to the extent of overheating itself, as can be seen from their panting when this happens. If sunlight will cause cataracts in the captive shamas because they are more sensitive to the sun than other species in captivity such as the red whiskered bulbuls and the zebra doves, hobbyists in Indonesia, where the shama has a long history in captivity, would not have continued to advocate this practice today. If the sun is no good for captive shamas and they are by nature not accustomed to it, why do they indulge in sun-bathing like the other species instead of having a natural aversion and avoiding hot sun?

What benefits are there to make birds in the wild as well as birds in captivity indulge in sun-bathing? There are various theories offered by scientists. One of them is that sun-bathing will reduce the metabolic energy needed to maintain the constant body temperature of around 40 degrees C. Another is that it aids to rid the body of parasites and a third one is that it allows the UV ray to stimulate the precursors of vitamin D that is found in the preen oil of birds.

I practiced sun-bathing my shamas in the past, usually in the mid mornings, whenever I can. I have kept birds since I was very young and in my 40 over years of bird keeping, I can remember having had only one shama that had developed cataracts among the many I have kept. I also had another bird of a different species developed cataracts as well, not too long ago. In recent years, since taking an interest in long tailed shamas, I have not been sunning them as much. Because I took great trouble to ensure that the long tails grew well during the molt and are maintained well after that, I do not want to have them curling upwards, which is what tends to happen when they are sun-bathed. There were occassions when I had suspected that some of my birds may had feather mites and I will sun-bath them. I will normally do this before giving them a bath and not after a bath. This is because I feel that a cool bath after sun-bathing helps to some extent in restoring the curled up tail feathers back to their original form. I would not bring a bird from a dimly lit area indoors to be immediately placed in the open under very bright sunlight as I think this would at the least, cause great discomfort to the eyes.

Nazareth - Sunshine

TEMPORARY SEPARATION OF THE PAIR

2010-04-18T12:43:00.007+08:00

This is the picture of Nim taken this morning. I had decided to temporarily remove him from the breeding cage. Meanwhile, Lorraine is still sitting on the unfertile eggs but in a few days time, she will abandon them. This time round, I will try to make sure that the timing is right before releasing Nim back into the breeding cage.

CANDLING RESULT

2010-04-16T22:35:00.011+08:00

I candled the eggs when Lorraine came out of the nest-box early this morning for her first feeding. The last time I counted the eggs was on the day she started sitting and there were 4 of them. As expected, she had laid another the next day but the candling shows that all 5 eggs were infertile. This was also quite expected because although Lorraine was ready to be bred at the time the pair was introduced, Nim wasn't and no mating took place before the eggs were laid.

I will remove the nest-box and the eggs when the time is up, in a few days time and will observe the pair to decide when to put it back. I would expect that the next clutch will be fertile. Hope this expectation will come true just like the others so far.

Although they were not fertilised, having 5 eggs in this clutch, all of normal size, had indicated to me that Lorraine's diet prior to laying was ok and she was in pretty good physical condition.

Lorrain is a very good hen in many ways. She has a stable temperament. With a little effort, she was quite easily conditioned to allow me to remove the nest-box periodically for inspection of the eggs. I think not all shama hens will tolerate this and some may even abandon the nest when disturbed this way.

LORRAINE HAS BEEN A GOOD HEN

2010-04-14T09:06:00.011+08:00

It's been a week since Lorraine started sitting the eggs. She has been doing a very good job, only coming out of the nest box for short periods during the day to feed and bath. Before she started sitting, she will feed during the night, up to the time the lights are turned off at about 9 pm. I had already installed a dim night light to ensure that there is sufficient light for her to find her way back to the nest-box, in case she is still out when the main lights are turned off but that seems to be quite unnecessary. Ever since she started sitting, she has never leave the nest-box after 6 pm even though the lights are on at night, as usual. Perhaps the incubating hen senses the drop in temperature as night approaches and instinctively will not leave the eggs even for short periods.

I have not candled the eggs to check if they are fertile. I was advised by DDS that even if they are not, it is best to let the hen incubate the full period instead of discarding them which will stress the pair and may cause the hen to shortly lay another clutch that is likely to be unfertilised.

Uriah Heep - Sweet Lorraine

4TH EGG

2010-04-07T19:13:00.003+08:00

Lorraine laid the 4th egg earlier today. When I came home, she was in the nest box and it appeared that she has started sitting the eggs. If that is so, it would mean that this clutch will consist of 4 or 5 eggs.

If any of the eggs are fertile, they will hatch in about 11 days time. The only way of finding out if they are fertile is to candle them. I was told by DDS that the best time to do this is after 4 days from the time the female starts sitting the eggs.

Will update again when I can confirm whether they will become chicks or omelette.

3RD EGG

2010-04-06T13:26:00.009+08:00

Lorraine laid her 3rd egg.

Up to yesterday, the pair was fed only live food consisting of crickets, mealworms, pineapple beetles and froglets. The insects are gut loaded with dog food, chicken feed, Nestum cereals, carrot and a little powdered calcium. The egg shells of the 3 eggs were well formed, suggesting that there were sufficient store of calcium in the female bird so far. I am afraid that she may be quite depleted by now and I will also be supplementing with a liquid calcium from now on. Additionally, small guppies will also be included in the daily diet.

2ND EGG

2010-04-05T13:08:00.002+08:00

THE FIRST EGG

2010-04-04T10:19:00.017+08:00

At around 10am, Lorraine came out of the nest box. Here's the pic of the egg.

4TH DAY AFTER NEST BUILDING

2010-04-04T09:07:00.016+08:00

I haven't been paying very much attention to the pair for the last few days. I woke up early this morning, replenished the feeder boxes and sat in front of the breeding cage watching the pair in anticipation (as if I knew something will happen). At about 8.15am, Lorraine entered the nest box. I had seen her entering the nest box occasionally, since the nest was built but had not seen her stayed for very long inside.

It's been more than half an hour and she is still inside as I write. She is laying the first egg.

WILL NIM BE READY IN TIME?

2010-03-31T11:43:00.038+08:00

Sometimes, I am not quite sure if the female shama is merely a passive party awaiting to be wooed during the courtship. Lorraine was observed yesterday to be repeatedly taking off from the perch and making quick u-turns in mid-air to return back to the perch. This type of flight in the presence of a male, I would think, signals the female's readiness to breed, although so far I have not seen any males reacting to it.

The following is David's point of view, extracted from an email I received from him:

"The female shama in top breeding condition tends to exhibit a distinctive flight pattern that is quite different from her normal flight. Usually, in the confines of an aviary, the shama (male or female) will fly from perch to perch and from floor to perch. In other words, there is purpose in the flight - to travel from place to place. However, the female that is really ready to mate, when in the company of the male, frequently flies from her perch in a quick but seemingly fluttering flight that takes an elliptical loop and returns her to about the same place on the perch without her first landing anywhere else. She may do this again and again. Her action seems reflexive and pointless as, all the while, the male appears unconcerned with her antics. The lack of reaction from the male suggests that such flights are not part of a courtship display or intended to stimulate the male's sexual interest. I am not sure of the function of such flights in the mating process and only wish to observe at this time that the ready female will tend to have such flight patterns. "

(Perhaps, if Lorraine could learn to sashay like the sexy lady passing by DDS , she too would succced in arousing Nim).

Lorraine was very busy throughout this morning building the nest from the nesting materials provided. I hope Nim is up to it.

EARLY INTRODUCTION OF THE PAIR

2010-03-29T18:33:00.008+08:00

Lorraine showed signs of readiness and was introduced to Nim. I had taken the necessary precautions to prevent serious injuries to Lorraine and to minimise stress to the pair should they need to be separated quickly.

During the initial 20 minutes or so, Nim went at her fiercely but stop short of pecking at her whenever she was cornered. Lorraine is a very matured and aggresive bird herself and in her stage of readiness, she soon began to relax. This also causes Nim to relax slightly. An hour later, she was relax enough to start eating and will stand her ground whenever Nim advances aggresively. In about 2 hours time, they were observed to be taking turns to bath at the bath tray provided. The introduction was successful.

AN UNFORGETABLE MISTAKE FROM THE PAST

2010-03-27T21:02:00.013+08:00

It is expected that when a female white-rumped shama is introduced to a male who is not ready to breed, he may attack her violently. I would very much want to share a very unpleasant experience that I had sometime ago, when a female was introduced to an unready male. On that occasion, the male did not attack the female violently but had just did enough to prevent her from having access to the food and water. I had not realised this in time, thinking that all is well. Since there appeared to be no indication that the female will come to any serious physical harm, I had left the pair together. As a result of this carelessness in observing the pair during the introduction, the female died 3 days later, not from physical injuries but from starvation. Sometimes it is hard to forget a mistake, no matter how many ways I looked at it afterwards. Perhaps, by sharing this mistake, I will have to bear with the disgusts of the more experienced but I hope that it could also be of some use to others who are less experienced.

PRE-BREEDING CONDITIONING

2010-03-24T10:14:00.015+08:00

So far, the pair of white-rumped shamas Nim and Lorraine seems to be far from being ready to be introduced to one another. I have already started the pre-breeding conditioning. They are given lots of livefood daily. Twice a week, they are supplemented with multi-vitamins and minerals and on all the other days, vitamin B-complex. In addition, they will be given vitamin E once a week. The feeder insects are also gut-loaded with food rich in calcium before feeding to the birds. Hopefully, all these will bring them into breeding condition soon and also give them a better chance to succeed.

There is a reason for Nim to be out of condition at this time of the year, when he should be in good form and breeding condition. Not long after his recent 2nd molt, Nim was hand-caught from his cage to cut the overgrown toe nails. As he is not used to being handled this way, he seems to be quite affected by the stress. At about the same time, I had also switched him from my home made dry food to commercial pellets. This change of diet although done gradually, must have further stressed him. As a result, Nim went through a partial (stress) molt. Only the tail feathers were shed and he had just completed growing them. Luckily, all seems to be well now and his form is gradually returning.

THE BREEDING CAGE AND OTHER STUFFS

2010-03-22T13:27:00.042+08:00

This indoor breeding cage was constructed with the help of my friend Osbert, another shama hobbyist.

There are 4 doors. The small door at the extreme right upper half of the cage is to enable easy access to the nest-box. Another small door at the lower half of the cage is for easy movements of the feeder boxes in and out of the cage. The largest door at the bottom is to allow for a bamboo cage to be placed inside whenever it is necessary. An additional large door at the top half was constructed so that when the birds are removed and all the doors are opened up, every part of the inside can be reached for cleaning or for disinfecting purposes.

The roof and 3 sides of the cage were covered with light plywood over the wire mesh, leaving only the front open to provide for a better sense of security for the breeding pair. The height of the cage is only 4 feet from cage-floor to roof and about 3 feet from floor to nest-box. This low height from floor to nest-box is to minimise injuries to newly fledged chicks. Later on, additional perches will be added to some areas below the nest-box to further minimise injuries to falling fledglings.

This nest-box was given to me by David DS. (If the breeding is not successful, I could always put the blame on the ugly nest-box).

This plastic guppy tank measuring approx. 13" long and 8" tall is ideal for using as a feeder box. A variety of insects such as crickets, mealworms and 'pineapple beetles' can be placed inside. It is tall enough to prevent the crickets from jumping out. Some birds may need a little encouragement initially to enter the box but in no time, they will be jumping in and out of it with ease.

This plastic turtle tank is just right for feeder froglets. The cover was cut leaving a narrow strip around the edge, overhanging the opening to prevent the froglets from climbing out.

THE CHOSEN MATE FOR NIM

2010-03-20T21:59:00.023+08:00

This is Lorraine. She will be introduced to Nim when the time is ripe.

Lorraine possesses a good neck and was observed to be very willing to flick her 8 inches tail quite high. I would think that it may not be easy to breed from her but with the encouragements from David DS, who is also her breeder, I look forward to the challenges in the coming months, with the hope to be successful in this pairing and to producing offsprings of decent quality.

PREPARING TO BREED NIM

2010-03-10T22:30:00.007+08:00

I spent the last couple of days preparing a breeding cage for Nim. Nim is almost 2 years old and among the shamas that I have kept during the last few years, he is my favorite in terms of physical structure, posture and songs. He has no glaring faults and is overall quite a stylish bird when in form. However, he is slightly lacking in one aspect during display. Although he has an aggresive style of display that comes with multiple tail flicks, Nim do not flick his tail feathers high enough for my liking. This could be partly due to his 11.7 inches long tail feathers being too broad. I would have to keep this in mind when selecting for a suitable female. She would also have to be equally sound in her overall physical structure.

It is always easier said then done. Still, I would hope to be able to produce offsprings from him that are equally good in physical structure and better in tail-play.

HWAMEI

2010-01-31T23:29:00.032+08:00

The Hwamei (leucodioptron canorum, formerly garrulax canorus) was once amongst the most popularly kept songbirds in my country, until their availability was greatly affected by the restrictions imposed on this species. Most Singaporeans today live in flats and the popularity decline could also be partly due to the fact that the hwamei is too loud to be kept in these homes without sometimes annoying other family members as well as neighbours.

The ones commonly kept here is the nominate subspecies, leucodioptron canorum canorum. They are native to southern China and Indochina. There is another subspecies, leucodioptron canorum owstoni, native to the Hainan island. The Taiwanese hwamei, leucodioptron taewanum is now considered a separate species. In Taiwan, introduced l. canorum hybridises with the native species of l. taewanum. The Taiwanese species is now classified as "Near Threatened" by Birdlife International largely due to the extent of hybridisation with the mainland species (http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=32317&m=0).
The native Taiwanese species do not have the white eye-brows and are generally inferior to the mainland species in terms of song qualities. Some of the hybridised specimens have shortened white eye brows in comparison to the mainland species.

Hwameis are omnivorous but I also consider them to be facultative insectivores because they feed mainly on insects during the crop season when these are in abundance. After the crop season, they will switch to feeding on plant seeds. They are quite often described in published journals and articles by foreign authors to be also feeding on fruits found on the forest ground, a description that I think is quite frequently used for most ground feeding thrushes. From my understanding of a research paper done on the crop contents of this species and from what I had learned from good old-timer bird keepers from China, I had formed the opinion that fruits do not constitute a significant portion in the diet of the hwamei in the wild.

In captivity, non-breeding hwameis are known to do quite well on dry pellets formulated from grains and chicken feed, supplemented with live insects. Besides chicken feed, unpolished rice fried in egg yolks were also used in the past to feed this species and quite possibly could also be included as part of the recipes of the commercial pellets formulated for the hwamei here today. Unlike the shamas, they are not fussy eaters and most newly wild caughts will readily feed on the commercial pellets or plain chicken feed without much need to train them to do so. A chicken feed based dry food supplemented with live insects daily seems to be a close match to its natural wild diet. Unlike in the west, hwameis here are traditionally not given fruits as part of their diet. I would think that the people who had passed down the methods of feeding the captive hwamei to us here, knew the bird well enough, for it is afterall a native species of the land from which they had came from.

THE CHINESE BAMBOO CAGES

2010-01-20T14:56:00.037+08:00

When the Chinese migrants came to Singapore, they brought along with them their skills and methods of keeping songbirds. Their influences on the ways to keep and appreciate songbirds are still deeply rooted in the hobby here today. The use of circular chinese bamboo cages here, originates from these early migrants.

SIZES OF CAGES FOR EACH SPECIES: The sizes of circular chinese bamboo cages are defined by the diameters of the cages which is similar to the lengths of the centrally placed perches. The tradition to use the appropriate size for each species has changed very little over the years. 8 to 9 inches cages are used for oriental white-eyes, 10 to 12 inches cages for most finches, 14 inches cages for hwameis and magpie robins (slightly larger cages are sometimes used for these species today) and depending on the length of the tail feathers, cages 16 inches and above are used for white-rumped shamas.

VARIATIONS OF BAMBOO CAGES: There are slight variations at the lower part of the circular bamboo cages used for the different species. These slight variations take into consideration their different style of movemments. For examples, the bottom part of a 9 inches cage will come with a circular landing perch that will be raised a few inches from the cage floor to cater to the smooth 'play' of the oriental white-eye. This provision of a circular perch below also takes into consideration the arboreal nature of this species and will prevent the birds from being forced to make unnatural and awkward landings on the cage floor. A 14 inches cage for the hwamei is provided with two flat landing areas at two opposite ends of the cage bottom, parallel to the perch. These will provide comfortable and appropriately spots for which the hwamei will naturally target to land with their typical up-down movements from the perch. Larger cages for the shamas do not have provisions for landing spots or perches below. These cages are provided only with a single central perch. There is no hinderance all the way down to the cage floor so as to cater for the ground-feeding natural behavior of the shama to feed on the cage floor. It is also a natural behaviour of this species to sometimes display and move about on the cage floor.

AN APPRECIATION OF CHINESE ART AND CRAFTS:
This hobby in my country also includes to a certain degree, the appreciation of traditional chinese art and crafts, often evident on the bamboo cages. Bamboo cages are crafted with traditional chinese designs or figures depicting chinese legends and folklores. These are carved onto the cages' legs and some other parts of the cages. In the past, well-knowned craftmen in China would take many months to hand craft each cage and these are the ones most valued today. Just like antiques, higher monetary values are placed on old cages that are still in good condition. Machines are mostly used these days in China to make bamboo cages and to carve the designs.

Accessories for bamboo cages are made for practical as well as decorative purposes, usually serving dual purpose at the same time. Accessories made from elephant task ivories are most valued. Whether they are made from wood or ivories, these accessories are also crafted with designs to compliment the main design themes of the cages. Old porcelain cups for birds are valued just like old handcrafted cages.

WHY WE DO NOT PREFER AVIARIES OR LARGER CAGES: Unlike in the west, birds are being kept in bamboo cages without much consideration to sufficient space for exercise. As can be seen from the above sizes used for each species, there is only enough space for a bird to just move around and perhaps at best, with a slight flutter of the wings for exercise. Throughout the history of bird keeping here where birds are kept in the confined spaces of bamboo cages, there has not been much cause for concern for the lack of flight exercise. Granted that they are fed well and cared for, once acclimatised, these birds usually will live to a ripe old age, many exceeding a decade.

A bird that is well acclimatised to its surroundings and to its bamboo cage will over time, develop a 'cage play' (movements within the cage) that is most natural to its species. The size and variation of the bamboo cage will also help to define the type of cage play. Good cage play is highly desirable to the hobbyists here. Over time, a bird well acclimatized to the small space of a bamboo cage will also be conditioned to channel most of its energy into its songs and physical displays. The limited space within the cage can only heighten the intensity of the performance of an in-form bird with an abundance of energy. The same bird if kept in a spacious aviary could not have developed the desired cage play nor will it perform with the same intensity in the aviary where the abundant space will provide other options to dilute the energy during a performance.

SPECIES OF SONGBIRDS THAT ARE NOT KEPT IN CHINESE BAMBOO CAGES HERE: The keeping of the zebra dove as a songbird here in Singapore is the least influenced by the bird keeping traditions originating from the Chinese. The appreciation and methods of keeping this species is heavily influenced by the Thais who popularised this species of songbird in south east asia. Chinese bamboo cages are not used for these birds. The hobbyists of the red-whiskered bulbul in Singapore also do not use traditional chinese bamboo cages. The ways to appreciate the red-whiskered bulbul in Singapore has somewhat evolved over the years and has found its own unique form that requires the bird to be kept in tall cages, quite different from those used by other hobbyists of this species from our neighbouring countries.

HOW WE APPRECIATE SONGBIRDS HERE

2010-01-18T11:23:00.039+08:00

In my country, the most popular species of songbirds kept are the oriental white eye, the red-whiskered bulbul, the white-rumped shama, the zebra dove and the hwamei. The main focus of our hobbyists of these species is on the abilities of male birds to perform well both at home and in gatherings, the latter having a very much higher priority. In this sense, it is almost taken as a sport, where the goal is to be able to do well at organised competitions or at casual gatherings.

The basic singing skills of a male song bird becomes almost unimportant if it cannot exhibit this in the presence of other male birds of the same species in the arenas. The worth of a songster lies not only in its ability to sing well but also in its showmanship, its physique, its stamina, its courage and willingness to perform, outside of its homeground and under the most intimidating and unnatural environment, packed with other male birds of the same species, sometimes numbering by the hundreds. An uninitiated wild bird watcher taken to the arena for the first time could just be amazed at the abilities of some of our better captive performers to defy the limits set by their wild cousins that he had witnessed in their natural environments. To achieve this, the ways songbirds here are chosen, kept and trained are quite different from those of the conventional western hobbyists. In some ways, the differences in appreciation and approach to the hobby is quite comparable to the differences between those of raising chickens for the fighting pit and raising chickens for the table.

NIM - SHOWING AN INCREASE IN TAIL LENGTH AFTER THE MOLT

2009-12-03T17:24:00.050+08:00

These pic of Nim was taken today to have a clearer look at his tail length after the 2nd molt. His longest black tail feathers before this molt was measured to be 10.5 inches. They are now estimated to be at least 11.5 inches. The tail feathers of a young white-rumped shama will increase in length after each molt, up to its 4th molt. There must be sufficient protein in its diet to enable the tail feathers to grow to its genetically determined maximum length.

A JUVENILE SHAMA NAMED VOO

2009-12-01T16:36:00.020+08:00

4 months old Voo still hanging on to his taimong tail feathers.

Voo attempting to pose like the adults.

Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child

NIM UPON COMPLETION OF 2ND MOLT.

2009-11-30T18:17:00.039+08:00

Nim coming into form upon completion of 2nd molt.

same old style.

ANOTHER FANTAIL-DANCING JUVENILE SHAMA PART WAY THROUGH ITS FIRST MOLT

2009-11-13T22:51:00.114+08:00

The Rolling Stones - Harlem Shuffle

SHAMA BODY LANGUAGE - THE POSE

2009-11-06T03:47:00.031+08:00

An in-form male white-rumped shama will
instinctively adopt a pose when another male of its kind first appears in sight. This is part of its body language signaling to the rival of its readiness for battle. Posing requires the muscles of its entire body to be tightened. During an impressive pose, the neck is stretched, the head is held high with the beak pointing slightly upwards, the legs are straightened to hold up the pose and the wings tightly folded over its body with the wing tips meeting just beneath the vent to fully expose the raised white rump. The pose is part of the display and may also be observed to occur momentarily in between the movements during the display.

seven and a half months old Funkie, posing

Queen - Body language

BEWARE OF THE SPARROW HAWK

2009-10-28T12:24:00.239+08:00

It's sparrow hawk season again. One of my friends just had a nasty encounter while hanging his bird at the park. They are coming in earlier than usual these days.
I'm always alert to the dangers at the park. Besides sparrow hawks and cats, there are also women preying on good looking bird keepers.

Uriah Heep - Bird of prey

MISTAKEN IDENTITY OF THE BLACK BELLIED ORIENTAL MAGPIE ROBIN

2009-10-19T14:15:00.035+08:00

On several occasions recently, I have came across local advertisements selling the black bellied oriental magpie robins as seychelles magpie robins. I am quite sure that the sellers did not have intentions to mislead but had mistakenly thought that their birds were actually the seychelles magpie robins, the confusion arising from pictures on the internet.

The seychelles magpie robin (copsychus sechellarum) is an endangered species.
Below are some information regarding the seychelles magpie robin.

The seychelles magpie robins are one of the rarest birds on earth and they can only be found on five seychelles islands, namely Fregate, Cousin, Cousine, Aride and Denis. At one time around 1990, there were only 23 birds counted and these were found only on Fregate Island. Habitat destruction and predation from introduced domestic cats were cited amongst the reasons for their decline. They were then classified as "critcally endangered" under the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Animals. In 1990, a recovery programme was launched to save these birds from extinction, initially managed by Birdlife International and Royal Society for Protection of Birds from 1990 to 1997. The management of the programme was passed to Nature Seychelles from 1998 onwards. The recovery programme has been very successful and the seychelles magpie robin was downlisted in 2005, from "critically endangered" to "endangered" under the IUCN's Red List when its population had exceeded 50 adult individuals for more than 5 years. From an official population count in 2006, there were a total of 178 specimens found on the four islands - Fregate, Cousin, Cousine and Aride.

The population on Cousin Island was on a sharp decline since 2005, from 47 birds to just 27 due to competition from the exploding population of moorhens on the island. The seychelles magpie robin population was recently also extended to Denis Island through the translocation of 20 birds taken from Fregate and Cousin.

Although their conservation status has improved since the launch of the recovery programme, the seychelles magpie robin is still one of the rarest birds in the world.

The all-black magpie robin we keep as a songbird here is the black bellied oriental magpie robin (copsychus saularis) and not the seychelles magpie robin.

http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=6638&m=0

http://www.nation.sc/index.php?art=13400

COMBINING FOOD INGREDIENTS INTO HOMOGENEOUS PELLETS FOR THE SHAMA

2009-10-15T12:21:00.055+08:00

Most commercial dry food will come in pellet form. Home made dry food will require some effort and time to make them into homogeneous pellets. This is how I would combine food ingredients into homogeneous pellets.

Ingredients:

combination of dry ingredients ground to a fine powder

low salt canned sardines rinsed and drained

minced raw lean beef after being wrapped in a towel to soak up excess moisture

raw egg yolks

The first three ingredients are thoroughly mixed together:

Next, the egg yolks are mixed in to form a dough:

This will then be put through a rotary grater, after which they will be cooked and dried at very low temperature in a turbo broiler for several hours.

The final result:

Several hours will be needed at very low temperature to sufficiently cook and dry them. When properly done, these can be kept for several months, just like commercial dry pellets.

It should be noted that the above is just an example of the process involved in making shama pellets at home. The ingredients above are just examples and may not necessary represent an ideal combination.There are reasons for my preference that home made dry food should be in homogeneous pellet form. Offering the birds a combination of various separate dried ingredients without making them into homogeneous pellets will result in the birds picking out only the preferred ingredients and leaving the rest behind. There will also be spillage all over the cage floor and the surrounding area caused by this or by grinding up the various ingredients into a powdery form. Powdery dry food may also cause irritations to the nostrils and eyes. Shamas when given the choice will mostly prefer a pellet form dry food over powdery ones.It is important to bear in mind that when introducing any new ingredients into the dry food, it has to be done gradually. The bird’s digestive system will need time to adjust in order to produce the required amount of the necessary enzymes to cater to the digestion of the new food. For the same reason, the proportion of the various ingredients used in making the dry food should always be consistent from batch to batch. The moisture content of the final product should also be as consistent as possible and inconsistencies should be minimised by using the same amount of cooking and drying time, at the same temperature setting, from batch to batch. It is always a good practice to keep some dry food from the previous batch to be mixed with some of those from a newly made batch when starting on a new batch of dry food. This will allow the birds to adjust more gradually to any slight inconsistency between them. It is not unusual that a change or any inconsistencies in the dry food will trigger a drop in the bird's form and in more severe cases, could even result in a stress molt. Often, they are due to eating insufficiently or the inability of the digestive system to adjust to an abrupt change.

King Crimson - Cat Food

FUNKIE - UPON COMPLETION OF HIS 1ST MOLT

2009-10-12T19:12:00.059+08:00

Funkie, fantail dancing in the strong wind from an approaching storm.
Deep Purple - Stormbringer

A SUMMARY OF MY THOUGHTS ON THE ANNUAL MOLT OF THE CAPTIVE WHITE-RUMPED SHAMA

2009-10-05T09:58:00.030+08:00

To me, the most crucial factor affecting the success or failure in bringing out the best from the caged male white-rumped shama has always been the outcome of its annual molt.

A bad molt will almost certainly result in the bird not looking its best. A flawless physical appearance from a good molt on the other hand, is an indication at the least, that all is also well within.

There are other physiological changes that take place besides the renewal of feathers during an annual molt. The natural hormonal transition that takes place within the bird that is coming out of a good molt, will ensure that its form will peak. The rising testosterone level after a good annual molt is a natural occurrence in preparation for the breeding period that follows. A bird that goes through a good molt in the wild will be well prepared, with renewed feathers and vigor to face the challenges thereafter, which will come from competing for a mate and defending its territory. Thus, the annual molt is the underlying factor that determines how well the caged male shama will look and perform for the rest of the year until its next molt is due.

Grand Funk - Inside looking out

FLOYD - TOWARDS THE END OF HIS MOLT

2009-09-30T13:31:00.049+08:00

Floyd towards the end of the molt.

A young friend had expressed interest in breeding him and has already been eyeing a couple of hot babes for him.

Goodbye Floyd. Have a good time...there's a whole lotta love awaiting you, over the hills and far away...

Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love

FUNKIE - TOWARDS THE END OF HIS FIRST MOLT

2009-09-28T17:19:00.003+08:00

No neck? No problem man...I've just got to remember
to stretch a little harder.

Funkie's tail is now about 9 inches. There should be another inch or so of growth left. The rate of growth of the pair of longer black tail feathers during the last fortnight was a little slower than usual. I would think that this was partly due to his being too vigorous during this period.

Funkie's transformation from a scruffy looking taimong into a handsome adult white-rumped shama will soon be completed.

Funkie's tail feathers are narrower than my other shamas. My personal preference is for tail feathers of longer tailed birds to be narrower. Long tailed shamas with narrower tail feathers are more willing to 'play the tail' and to carry them higher. This is because during a display, the narrower tail feathers of a long tailed bird will meet with lesser air resistance than broader ones, hence lesser effort will be required.

NIM - HALFWAY THROUGH HIS 2ND MOLT

2009-09-25T15:18:00.014+08:00

No I'm not fat!
I've just got a muscular chest....
and if you care to look under the feathers...
you'll also see my six-pack abs!
Nim, my favorite shama is now halfway through his 2nd molt. I would expect his tail length to be close to 11 inches upon completion of the molt. His longest tail feathers were measured to be 10.5 inches when they dropped. Nim has broad tail feathers and I would prefer that they are narrower. Long tail feathers that are also broad will require very much more effort to flick them during a display.

The indications so far are good and he is already starting to display and sing fiercely at times. The spasmodic convulsions that had taken a toll on his form before the molt, apparently did not affect him anymore.

UPDATE OF FLOYD THE MOLTING SHAMA

2009-09-07T17:24:00.000+08:00

Here is a badly taken pic of Floyd today.

Floyd is also part-way through the molt. He too is starting to be quite vigorous at times and I had taken extra precaution in his case. This is because around this period of his molt last year, he damaged his tail feathers due to vigorous playing. Somehow for him, the tail feathers are quite easily damaged, so as a precaution, he will be kept in a room away from the other birds from now on. So far, all is well and the tail feathers are growing at the rate expected. Floyd has a prawn tail that is already obvious at this stage of its growth.

FUNKIE - PART WAY THROUGH HIS FIRST MOLT

2009-09-05T03:29:00.005+08:00

Funkie is now slightly over 5 months old. He is going through his first molt pretty well so far, except that he is a little too vigorous for this stage of the molt. The tail is now about 7 inches and there should be sufficient time left in the molt to grow another 3 or 4 inches if all goes well with the remaining part of the molt.

"so you wanna see some cage-play huh?"

At this length, the black tail feathers that are still growing, may be easily damaged or broken if the bird ‘plays the cage’ too vigorously. Funkie’s cage is mostly covered during this time but even then, I still often hear him singing and playing vigorously inside. He is especially agitated by my other shamas doing the ‘tak- taks’.

When the feather is growing, there is an artery and a vein running through it for the circulation of blood to support the growth. When there is still blood supply to the feather, it is called a blood feather. When the feather has completed its growth, the blood in the quill will recede and the blood vessels will shrivel up. A broken blood feather can bleed profusely. Pulling out a broken blood feather of the tail can stop the bleeding and a new feather will grow to replace it but sometimes, this may damage the follicle if it is not properly done. Repeatedly pulling out the same tail feather may result in follicle damage to the point when it can no longer grow a replacement. The bleeding can also be stopped by using those ‘stop-bleed’ products or kitchen cornstarch and a little pressure to help the blood to clot. The broken feather will then be replaced at the next molt.

MY THOUGHTS ON CHITIN AND DIETARY FIBER IN THE DIET OF THE CAPTIVE SHAMA

2009-09-01T20:14:00.000+08:00

Insects such as crickets, mealworms and roaches are very high in chitin. When captive shamas are given the choice, they tend to pick out softer bodied insects that have lesser chitin, such as white mealworms that had just shed the skin. Although there is insufficient evidence to support my suspicion that the varieties of invertebrates that the shama will consume in the wild are overall much lesser in chitin compared to the insects fed to them in captivity, I am nevertheless quite convinced from many years of observations that the captive shama cannot be at its best when fed with a diet high in chitin or dietary fiber. I often see shamas showing signs of unwell and sometimes quite fluffed up after consuming large amounts of crickets and mealworms. Also, when fed for some time with a diet consisting of large amounts of crickets and mealworms, their appetite may decrease, prompting me to suspect that the large amount of chitin from these insects may cause some degree of impaction of the crop in captive shamas. Apart from my observations, there are also other reasons that led me to believe that a diet consisting of large amounts of chitin and dietary fiber may be quite unsuitable for the captive shama.

1) We do not know for sure whether or not the shama is able to produce chitinase enzymes but the fact that they regurgitate most of the indigestible chitin seems to suggest that chitinase activity is minimal even if it is present in the shama.

2) Unlike the graminivorous birds (grass eating) and folivorous birds (leave eating), the anatomy and physiology of the digestive tracts of insectivores like the shama are more suited to nutrient-compact diets with easily digestible fat and protein, utilizing these nutrients through an autoenzymatic type of digestion (by the enzymes produced from certain organs of the bird). The herbivorous birds on the other hand, have a digestive system relying partly on alloenzymatic digestion (by enzymes of microbial origin or fermentation) through which they are able to utilize the high fiber in their diet. It therefore appears to me that chitin and dietary fiber serves no nutritional purpose in the diet of the captive shama. Until they are regurgitated, large amounts of chitin or indigestible fiber in the crop could cause some degree of impaction which may also affect the appetite, as was often observed by me. They also dilute the nutrients of the diet and could quite possibly interfere with the digestion as well.

Keeping the above in mind, I had for quite some time now, avoided feeding large amounts of insects that are high in chitin. When it comes to feeding insects as part of their daily diet, I now feed crickets only sparingly and I would only use white mealworms. In order to substitute for the animal protein that may be lacking in this diet with very little live food, I have included substantial amounts of lean beef, sardines and eggs in my home-made pellets. Through many years of trials and errors, I have found these three sources of animal protein to be very good for the shama. As far as I know, my home-made pellets are also low in dietary fiber. My shamas rarely regurgitate.

Even during the molt, my birds are fed with very little live food and judging from the feather condition of the tails upon completion of their molt, this diet seems to be sufficient in animal protein. I have often been asked by my bird keeping friends how I had managed to keep my caged shamas in good and tight-feathered conditions most of the time, even during the molt. I would think that this is due to their nutrient-compact diet which is low in chitin, low in indigestible fiber and high in animal protein.

NIM - MY FAVORITE SHAMA

2009-08-19T12:09:00.004+08:00

Nim is a captive-bred shama hatched on 27th April 2008. I acquired him when he was only 42 days old. He was bred by a good friend. Nim is a special bird to me for many reasons. For one thing, he revived my interest in bird keeping.

Nim at 2 months of age. He was named after his birthplace, somewhere I called Nimbaktu (between Nimbakone and Nimbakthree).

As it turns out, Nim is not an easy bird to keep.

He didn't go into his first molt until he was about 5 months old. Halfway through his first molt, Nim came down with a respiratory infection and had to be treated. He did not respond well to oral antibiotics and his condition was deteriorating. As a last resort, he was nebulised daily for a week, using a human nebuliser. He recovered fully from the infection and I had thought that the whole ordeal would have affected the molt badly. I had very little hope then that he will be able to come into form after the molt. Suprisingly, his tail was not much affected and he grew a 10.5 inches tail from this first molt, although the edges of 2 black tail feathers were a little frayed from the point during their growth when he was struck with the illness. Even more suprising was the fact that some time later after completion of the molt, he came into form.

Nim was one of the most hardworking singer at home, after that. He was also the most aggressive, to the point that any movements or noises coming from the outside of my home will trigger an aggressive display and set him off singing his territorial songs fiercely, almost acting like a guard dog at times. He also performed satisfactorily on the few occasions when I'd brought him out.

Nim at 9 months old.

All went well for Nim until 3 months ago, when he suddenly went into spasmodic convulsions one evening. He was given a high oral dose of vitamin B complex and recovered from the convulsions but ever since then, he is never the same again. His form dropped drastically and he rarely sings. Two weeks ago, he shed his pair of longest tail feathers and is now into his second molt. Once again, I am keeping my fingers crossed for him.

FUNKIE - ONE MONTH LATER

2009-08-15T16:01:00.003+08:00

Funkie is also progressing well with his first molt. He too is singing his subsongs throughout the day and occasionally his loud songs as well.

Soon, this taimong cage will not be able to accommodate his growing tail and he will have to be transferred to a larger one to prevent damage to the tail feathers.

THE SUBSPECIES OF ORIENTAL WHITE-EYES KEPT IN SINGAPORE

2009-08-13T23:38:00.005+08:00

The oriental white-eye (zosterops palpebrosus) is the most kept songbird in Singapore. Singaporean songbird hobbyists have very discerning ears. The most preferred subspecies here is the z. palpebrosus auriventer. This is the subspecies native to the southern Malayan Peninsula. It was also originally the native subspecies of Singapore but the oriental white-eyes found in Singapore these days are feral flocks of various subspecies.

The z. palpebrosus auriventer is most desired because of its clearer and stronger voice. Those from the locality of Kota Tinggi were considered to be the best in voice quality. When these were no more available, supply of this subspecies was taken from other areas in southern Malayan peninsula.

The subspecies z. palpebrosus williamsoni from further up north of the Malayan peninsula is also another subspecies kept by the hobbyists here as well as the z. palpebrosus buxtoni from Indonesia.

There were some occasions when the subspecies z. palpebrosus siamensis from Vietnam were imported into Singapore in 1992 but the importers suffered loses due to their very poor quality of voice. Many were released to join the feral population of white-eyes in Singapore.

Rednex - Cotton Eye Joe

FLOYD - ONE MONTH LATER

2009-08-13T15:59:00.001+08:00

It is now about 5 weeks since Floyd shed his two longest tail feathers. The new tail feathers look good so far and there are no fret marks. He is singing his subsongs throughout the day and occasionally loud songs as well. The molt is progressing well.

Floyd reverts to singing juvenile-like loud songs instead of his usual territorial loud songs during this period. Perhaps the loud songs are more juvenile like because of his low testosterone level during this period and they are not sung to proclaim territory. Perhaps this is also the period he is in the mood to arrange new song materials through his subsongs to make up new songs which he could include into his repertoire later.

THE ORIENTAL MAGPIE ROBIN (copsychus saularis)

2009-08-08T14:36:00.013+08:00

There will always be room in my home for a couple of Oriental Magpie Robins. I never can get tired of them. They are hardworking songbirds, hardy and quite easy to maintain in captivity. They always bring back fond memories of the activities involved with keeping this species during my early years when they were abundant in Singapore. It is nostalgic to see and hear them at plantation fringes and roadsides or to catch glimpses of their familiar flight pattern from a distance, every time I travel up north into West Malaysia.

This is Neil Sedjawa (alias Kopi-O), my black bellied Oriental Magpie Robin. I enjoy his subsongs and semi-loud songs most of all. He is from Java, and belongs to the subspecies c. saularis amoenus. The other 2 subspecies of black bellied oriental magpie robins are c. saularis adamsi and c. saularis pluto from northern and eastern Borneo. In terms of song variety and melody, Neil is superior to my white bellied subspecies from the Malaysian Peninsula, the c. saularis musicus. Sometimes, the white bellied will interbreed with the black bellied. In Java, javensis x amoenus and in Borneo, musicus x adamsi/pluto.

Neil really loves singing to the rain. Rainy days are never gloomy with him around.

Humble Pie - Black Coffee

MY THOUGHTS ON VITAMINS A AND B-COMPLEX IN THE CAPTIVE SHAMA'S DIET

2009-08-04T13:05:00.010+08:00

From the more common ailments that affect the captive shamas, I think it is likely that they could have higher requirements for certain vitamins than other softbills that we keep in this region. It could also be likely that the usual shama pellets that we use here are deficient in these vitamins.

Hobbyists that have kept shamas long enough, especially those that own a large number of these birds will know that they can be often affected by infections of the eyes and respiratory tracts. I strongly believe that the primary cause of these is a deficiency in vitamin A. Some shama pellets that we use here are subjected to high heat during the extrusion process and this could destroy most of the vitamins from the food ingredients used in these pellets. Vitamin A is very sensitive to heat and oxidation.

Deficiency in vitamin A often causes infection of the eyes in shamas. In severe cases of deficiency, it can result in a condition known as xerophthalmia. Captive shamas are known to exhibit the characteristic symptoms of this condition with accumulation of fluids and sticky discharge from the affected eye, often causing the eyelids to crust together. A severe deficiency of vitamin A will cause keratinization of the conjunctiva and inadequate lubrication of the cornea, resulting in this condition which can lead to blindness in shamas.

The mucous membranes of the respiratory tract are also frequently first to be affected by a deficiency in vitamin A. Diminished mucous production from a deficiency in vitamin A will result in pathogenic invasions of the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract, with symptoms of coughing, sneezing, wheezing, clogged nostrils, etc.

A condition known as bumblefoot although not common, can sometimes affect the captive shama as well and the primary cause is also likely to be due to a deficiency in vitamin A, resulting in the infection and inflammation of the balls of the feet.

I always gut load my live feeder insects with carrots and leafy greens which are rich in beta-carotene and I think this is one way of supplying some vitamin A through the diet. Another alternative is to smear feeder insects with red palm oil, one of the richest sources of carotenoids. The enzymatic conversion of dietary carotenoids to vitamin A is regulated according to need of the bird and high consumption of carotenoids does not usually cause toxicity. For so many years, ever since I had started on this regime of ensuring some form of vitamin A is supplied to my caged shamas in these ways, I had only one bird that has succumbed to respiratory infection and it was during the molt when the immune system was much weakened. My molting birds are now further supplemented with multi-vitamins, twice weekly.

Deficiency in the B vitamins can cause lost of appetite, lethargy, hyper-excitability and in more severe cases, convulsions in shamas. B vitamins can be supplied through the pellets by sprinkling and coating them with brewer’s yeast each time the food cup is refreshed, preferably on a daily basis, as prolonged exposure to light will destroy the B-vitamins. De-bittered brewer’s yeast has the bitter taste removed and will be more palatable to the birds. Another way is to smear liquid B-complex vitamins on feeder insects that are to be fed to the birds, on a daily basis. I have already started to practice these, as advised by an experienced shama keeper and so far, although too early to be conclusive, I have not experienced any more convulsions.

Some imported pellets are scientifically formulated and well fortified through a process using the more stable forms of artificially synthesized vitamins, usually at many times the level of what is deemed to be the minimum requirement of our birds. These pellets I would think do not need to be further supplemented during maintenance, if they constitute the major part of the bird’s daily diet.

SPASMODIC CONVULSIONS IN CAPTIVE SHAMAS

2009-07-29T10:18:00.015+08:00

Like other hobbyists, some of my shamas are quite susceptible to spasmodic convulsions or 'shama fits'. I had learned from my more experienced shama-keeping friend that this can be minimized by supplementing with vitamin B-complex on a daily basis.

My shamas are fed on a diet high in total protein. Their main diet is my home-made dry pellets, made from food ingredients with high protein contents. They are also given some ant eggs and live insects daily and they do well on such a diet, except that this high protein diet and most probably the unbalanced protein in the diet, is the most likely cause of the spasmodic convulsions. I had in the past, experimented with lower protein commercial pellets without live food supplements and such diets do not cause spasmodic convulsions in my shamas. The similar high protein diet that I also feed to other insectivorous birds did not cause them to go into spasmodic convulsions indicating that captive shamas on a diet that is high in protein are more susceptible to this condition.

A high protein diet will require an increase in the level of vitamin B6 dependant enzymes to metabolise the excess amino acids. Sufficient B6 must be present in such a diet otherwise the shama could go into spasmodic convulsions. From experiences, milder symptoms of B6 deficiency include hyper-excitability, such as a tame bird suddenly behaving like a newly wild-caught. This can sometimes precede the spasmodic convulsion.

The classic shama fit will present itself with the bird lying on its side or back, on the cage floor, unable to be in an upright position. The neck is sometimes fully folded back and touching its back, like a chicken with its throat slit. When touched, it will kick wildly in the air. When held in the hand, it is fully conscious and may even peck at the hand strongly in retaliation. This condition is reversible almost all the time by administering a high oral dose of B6 or B complex. Within half an hour after the oral dose, the bird will be back on its feet and on the perch. The B vitamins are water soluble and except for B12, excesses are excreted. There is very little risk of toxicity from an overdose and a high oral dose of B6 should be given to revive a shama in spasmodic convulsion.

For some unexplainable reasons, quite often our favorite birds are jinxed to be more prone to bad-luck situations, accidents, illness, escapes, etc. One evening sometime ago, I returned home to find my favorite shama having a spasmodic convulsion. I had not replenished my stock of B-complex and the only ones left were already past their expiry date. I pounded one of these tablets into powder and mixed in a little water to form a suspension only to realize that I am also out of syringes. I have to use a straw in the end to administer the vitamin. Fortunately, his luck had not totally run out on him on that day and he recovered from the fit. I am never without supply of B-complex and syringes ever since.

John Mayer - I don't need no doctor

SUPPLEMENTING MY MOLTING BIRDS

2009-07-28T11:53:00.000+08:00

When there is a need to supplement with multi-vitamins and minerals, such as during the molt, I use Nutroplex, a liquid supplement marketed for children. It has a sticky consistency like honey and this is ideal for my method of administering the supplement.

This sticky liquid supplement is first smeared onto the base of a small container.

Live feeder insects are placed into the container and after being given a good stir with a spoon, they are then fed to the birds. When used in this way, it is better than powdered supplements which do not stick so well to the live feeders. Also, shamas that stubbornly refuse food spiked with powdered vitamins will readily accept the taste of Nutroplex.

All my molting birds are given this supplement twice weekly.

FUNKIE THE JUVENILE SHAMA

2009-07-21T20:43:00.002+08:00

This is Funkie, my four month old juvenile male shama. He came to me at about a month old from his breeder, my friend David de Souza. He is now entering into the early phase of his first molt. This dull looking youngster will undergo a complete makeover from this first molt, emerging from the transformation wearing the attractive full colors of the adult male white-rumped shama. He looked really ruffled up and untidy at this stage of the molt. This video was taken 9 days ago.

Realizing that his days of being a juvenile are numbered, Punky Funkie engaged the adult males that were around him on this day, with a ‘chickish’ imitation of the fanciful-tail display.

This photo below was taken today for comparison, to see the changes that he had undergone within this short period.

The chest is already starting to take on the rich chestnut color of the adult male shama and the head, neck and back are getting darker by the day with the growth of new feathers. In due time, they will smoothen out and will be silky black and glossy. The two remaining white tail feathers will be gone in a day or two. The primary feathers of the wings will take turns to shed and grow, over the course of the molt. It is expected that his tail will be at least 10 inches long from this first molt and the longer pair of black tail feathers had already appeared. It’s going to be a long while more for the molt to complete.

Meanwhile, before all his energy will be called up to grow that fanciful long tail, Funkie summons up whatever that is left in him to practice a few moves of the adult male, in anticipation of the exciting future that lies ahead

Creedance Clearwater Revival - I put a spell on you

VIDEO OF SANTANA THE SHAMA

2009-07-21T17:38:00.004+08:00

This is Santana rehearsing a few songs before going to roost.

It's been a tiring day for him. Maybe tomorrow he'll be able to hit the big notes. I think he is trying to say he wants a female shama that goes by the name of Black Magic Woman.

Santana - Black Magic Woman

VIDEO OF FLOYD THE MOLTING SHAMA

2009-07-19T20:21:00.002+08:00

This is a video of Floyd taken today. He is still energetic at this stage of the molt.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll need to have a word with Floyd, that he should conserve his energy to grow the tail. He's got to refrain from showing off, now that there's not much of a tail left.

THE MOLTING SHAMA

2009-07-16T18:38:00.001+08:00

This is my shama Floyd. He is currently going through the annual molt. His tail feathers dropped in an orderly pattern and the longer pair of black tail feathers was shed first last week, followed a couple of days later by the shorter pair of black tail feathers. The longest tail feathers measured just slightly below 11 inches. His tail length after the first molt from juvenile was 8.75 inches. This will be his fifth molt and his tail length is not expected to increase anymore.

The longest tail feathers will grow at a rate of approximately 1 inch per week. It will take about 3 months to complete the molt. If all goes well, the form will rise gradually upon completion of the molt and peak at around 2 months or so after the molt.

A healthy shama will molt 3 times during its first 2 years of life and subsequently, once every year. The tail length of a juvenile shama is expected to increase upon completion of each molt, up to the fourth molt. The final tail length is determined by its genes responsible for this physical trait. Proper feeding and care must be provided for the tail feathers to grow to the maximum of its genetically determined limit.

A matured shama that is not fed and cared for properly may end up with a shorter tail upon completion of the annual molt. With proper care and feeding, the tail may still be able to regain its former length at its next annual molt.

Stress, incorrect feeding, an abrupt change of diet and illness can trigger a molt before it is due. When this happens, the tail length may not grow to its full potential upon completion of the stress molt. At the end of a stress molt, the form may or may not be able to peak, depending on how badly it was affected by the stress or illness that had triggered the molt and whether or not it has recovered in time.

Floyd seems to be doing alright so far. He is never bored living in a cage. He enjoys listening to music during his spare time when he is not singing.

THOUGHTS ON FEEDING THE CAGED WHITE-RUMPED SHAMA

2009-07-13T12:42:00.000+08:00

A basic understanding of nutrition, some research into the nutrient contents of the natural food of an insectivorous bird and information regarding the shama’s special needs in captivity, should form the basis of the novice hobbyist’s thoughts when it comes to what should be a suitable captive diet. The following are some of my thoughts related to the feeding of the captive shama.

1) Being an insectivore does not mean that the captive shama will thrive on a diet consisting of a limited variety of commercially farmed insects. The superficial summary from the journal of the occasional wild bird watcher of this species that it feeds on insects and small invertebrates, gives little indication of the wide variety of live food that is available in its wild habitat. The complexity of its natural instinct to pick out the suitable food from the wide variety available in the wild, for its nutritional needs at various stages of its life, must be far greater than can be catered for by simply supplying the captive shama with a limited variety of commercially farmed insects. Each of the different types of live food that it consumes in the wild will provide certain nutrients to make up for the total supply to cater for its overall nutritional needs. These cannot be replaced by merely providing commercially farmed crickets and mealworms as its main diet in captivity.

2) It is impossible to emulate the wild diet of the shama in captivity due to the lack of variety of live food available to the hobbyist and due to the lack of a complete understanding of its dietary habits. It is also incorrect to assume that the needs of the captive shama are the same as those of its wild cousins.

3) Avian literatures may sometimes refer to captive birds that are able to come into breeding condition as being in the best of condition. Apparently, inducing some species of insectivorous birds into breeding condition can be easily achieved by providing an all live food feeding regime, even if the variety of live food provided is limited. However, this does not necessarily indicate that the caged shama will be at its best in terms of health or performance when fed this way on a long termed basis.

4) A dry food formulated close to the nutritional needs of an insectivorous bird to be used as the main part of the diet, would be the best way to cater to its nutritional requirements in captivity. The ingredients that constitute the dry food will most probably be unnatural and foreign to the shama’s digestive system. Therefore, consideration has to be made as to whether the bird’s digestive system is able to accustom well to the dry food provided, so as to be able to break it down to assimilate the nutrients. A dry food that is made from ingredients that contain all the needed nutrients is useless if these ingredients are incompatible with the digestive system of the bird. Also, uneaten food cannot serve its purpose, hence the dry food has to be palatable to the bird as well. A suitable dry food in combination with some live food has been shown to be a good method of feeding our caged shamas.

5) There will always be some birds that can do extremely well on a particular diet while a few others just simply will not be able to thrive on this same diet. Being observant to how well the bird responds to its diet in order to make the right adjustments, may just be the key for success to bring out its best.

ABOUT THE SONGS OF THE WHITE-RUMPED SHAMA

2009-07-08T00:00:00.009+08:00

Wild shamas from different localities will have different song types or vocal dialects. Although they are able to learn new songs throughout most of their captive lives, adult wild-caught males will still have a strong tendency to sing more of the types of songs that originate from their localities.

Male shamas chicks that are taken from the wild when they are too young, such as nestlings, will be lacking in the vocal dialects of their localities when they mature later on. If these young chicks are kept without tutors in the early weeks, they will also be limited in their variety of songs when they mature. In comparison, juveniles taken from the wild at a much older stage are capable of producing the vocal dialects of their localities later as adults and very young chicks that are taken from the wild but are well exposed to tutors during their first few weeks, tend to mature with more varied songs than those kept without tutors. This serves to confirm the theory that there is a crucial learning period in the early weeks of their lives when the male shama chicks will store songs they heard into their brains. The songs of their male parents and other neighbouring males as well as certain sounds from their natural environments will constitute their vocal dialects.

Hobbyists from different parts of Asia have different preferences when it comes to the different song qualities of the white-rumped shamas. In some places, emphasis is placed on the melodic quality of the songs and in other places, variety of songs and not necessarily the melodic quality, is preferred. Some hobbyists will nurture their birds from a young age by minimizing undesirable sounds in their environments and exposing them more to the preferred kind of vocal qualities. In other areas where the preference is towards variety, the ability to mimic sounds of other animals or the natural sounds of the forest is greatly valued. In any case, the ability of the male white-rumped shama to expand its repertoire through learning new songs from others of the same species as well as from other species is quite well known amongst hobbyists.

Although they are quite capable of copying the songs of other species of birds, often, the copied songs may be different in tonal qualities from that of the source. They are also capable of mimicking certain mechanical sounds from their surroundings, such as the sounds of sirens and car alarms but it seems that these mimicries of mechanical sounds are mostly heard only during the renditions of their subsongs and are not incorporated into their loud territorial songs.

The syrinx is the vocal organ of the bird. It consists of two parts located at the lower end of the trachea and has highly elastic membranes. The muscles of the syrinx controls the tension exerted on the membranes by the air from the lungs and by adjusting the pressure of the air and the tension on the membranes, birds are able to control the loudness and pitch of the sounds emitted from the syrinx. In highly developed passerines, it has been shown that the two sides of the syrinx can operate independently and can produce two separate tones simultaneously. Some male white-rumped shamas from certain areas are known to be able to do this by sometimes producing a two-toned voice simultaneously.

THE MOST SPECTACULAR SONGBIRD IN A CAGE

2009-07-03T06:52:00.008+08:00

The white-rumped shama (copsychus malabaricus) is a songbird native to many parts of Asia and most well known for its melodious repertoire. Its vocal ability is however, only one of the reasons for its popularity as a cage bird in Asia.

In the wild, the territorial male white-rumped shama is naturally aggressive towards other males of the same species. Through its territorial songs serving as a verbal warning to intruders, it constantly announces its presence and dominance within its territorial boundaries. It is also always ready to put on a performance to express its aggression and display its physical attributes. These performances are the most powerful and spectacular form of the avian body language.

The male shama's very varied and melodious songs together with its natural ability to captivate with its displays, easily make it to be one of the most desirable songbirds to the hobbyists of this region. A gathering of individually caged male shamas, singing their territorial songs and displaying their physical attributes with purposeful and exaggerated arrogance to intimidate one another, is an awesome sight to behold. Watching a handsome specimen posing on the perch, whipping its long and soft tail feathers tirelessly, turning on the perch and moving around the cage arrogantly, one cannot help but be mesmerized by such a showy performance. The accompanying melodious vocal notes, synchronized to each movement of the display, are delivered with force and with a strong hint of aggression meant to provoke its competitors. Such is the charisma that exudes from a handsome specimen of the white-rumped shama that most other species of songbirds in captivity will pale in comparison.

(Photo by courtesy of David de Souza)

PHYSICAL STRUCTURE AND CARRIAGE OF AN IMPRESSIVE MALE WHITE-RUMPED SHAMA

2009-07-03T06:51:00.005+08:00

An in-form male shama in the wild sends out powerful signals of its physical well being to both rival males and potential mates. Apart from doing this vocally, the male shama also uses body language extensively, in the form of displays. In captivity, this natural behavior is even more impressive to the hobbyist when the bird also possesses certain qualities in its physical structure and has the ability to carry them well.

THE HEAD: A large enough head will give the impression of masculinity and will add emphasis to a well defined neck. A male shama in action always poses itself with the head held high, making it looking like the most powerful piece of its weaponry to the rivals. An impressive head is one that always looks large and almost wedge-shaped, broad at the back and tapering towards the beak. A top skull that looks flat is a very desirable feature of the head. Eyes that are set high on the sides will accentuate the look of aggression.

THE NECK: A good neck must have sufficient length.
When the male shama goes into action, it tightens the muscles of its entire body. In this physical state, the curves running down a neck that has sufficient length will be clearly defined. As it poses and displays to the other rival males, having a well defined neck of sufficient length will result in the most impressive pose. It resembles a ferocious serpent raising its head out of its coil and curling backwards, ready to execute a strike.

During a display, the slight jerky motion of the head on an outstretched neck, often referred to by hobbyists as "playing the cobra head", is a very impressive and much desired form of the bird's body language. "Playing the cobra head" is best exemplified when performed by a bird that possesses a good sized head, a flat-looking top skull and a well defined neck.

THE LEGS: When the male shama poses in the presence of other rival males, it is to impress on them that he is physically ready for battle. A strong pair of legs that can carry the posture well will send out an image of a bird that is standing tall as well as the message that it is strong, courageous and full of confidence. A good pair of legs will appear to be long as it straightens up to hold the pose.

THE TAIL: The white-rumped shama is known in many parts of Asia as the 'long tailed bird’. Male shamas in the wild have tail feathers measuring from around 6 inches to well over 12 inches, although the latter is becoming very rare these days.

An impressive and desirable tail will exceed 10 inches in length and is flawless, soft and curved. The black feathers of the graduated tail should be free of fret marks and each pair should be even in length.

A greater difference in length between the longer pair and the shorter pair of black feathers will contribute to a softer look of the tail. The term 'thin feathers' is used to describe a finer texture of the feathers and tail feathers that are 'thin' will also contribute to an overall softer tail. The term ‘prawn tailed’ is often used to describe a bird that possesses the much preferred tail which is curved like the body of a prawn.

The pair of longer black tail feathers should preferably overlap partially throughout their entire lengths and the shorter pair of black feathers that is below them should preferably be slightly apart towards the tips, like an inverted 'V', with the overlapped pair of longer feathers sitting on the centre and extending out of the 'V'. The term 'scissor-tailed' is used to describe the possession of a faulty tail that has the 2 longer black tail feathers being wide apart.

A longer and softer tail is far more impressive during a display as it swishes in the air like a whip. A display using the tail is most spectacular when it comes in sets of multiple flicks, with the last flick of each set reaching the highest and almost touching the top skull.