Pintailed Whydah

Scientific Name: Vidua macroura

Origin: Central Africa

This is a very impressive and graceful member of the whydah family, however a little care must be exercised when keeping this species in a mixed collection. A lone bird will not attempt to hurt or disturb small finches, but when there are several pintails there is only one way to ensure peace and harmony, and that is to keep just one cock bird and several hens. If these measures are not adopted there will be a great deal of unrest and the species can be rather aggressive. If possible, the flight should be roomy. It is also wise to provide plenty of food dishes.

Description:

Size: 13 cm (5 in)

COCK: (in breeding plumage)

Length: 30 cm (12 in) including the tailwhere the four long central feathers mea-sure from 18-25 cm (7-10 in). Forehead,nape and crown of head: glossy blue-black. Cheeks and throat: white with awhite band around the neck. Upperparts:black with rump and upper-tail covertswhite. Underparts: white. Black crescenton chest. Four central tail feathers black:flights black-brown. Beak: light red.Legs: dark grey. When not sporting thenuptial plumage the cock resembles thehen.

HEN:

Centre of crown of head: sandy colour.Sides edged in black. Mantle: buff stripedwith black-brown, together with scapu-lars. Rump: brown with striped mark-ings. Flights and tail feathers: darkbrown with huff edges. Throat: white.Underparts: huff mainly, darker onflanks and breast, often with darkermarkings. Beak: pinky-brown. Legs:light brown. Young birds resemble hensbut their beaks are horn-coloured.

Diet: (Seedeater)

Mixed millets, spray millet, greenfood and some apple form the basic diet. Grit and cuttlefish bone should always be provided. The cock bird has a longs weeping tail when in nuptial finery, andfood dishes should he placed in high positions off the ground so that the onesole cock bird which should be kept in a mixed collection does not spoil hismagnificent tail.

Breeding:

In their natural state, whydahs are parasitic breeders. The hen lays her eggs, in the nest of a small finch, which incubates them and rears the young. Every whydah species chooses a certain type of finch for this purpose, whose young resemble its own chicks in feather colour and reflecting papillae (luminous markings in the roof of the mouth). The Pin-tailed Whydah most frequently lays her eggs in the nest of the St Helena Waxbill, Estrildaastrildor the Red-eared Waxbill, Estrildatroglodytes; both make excellent hostsfor Pin-tailed Whydah young. As long asjust one cock and, say, four or five hens are kept, it is well worth experimenting by keeping this species with suitable waxbills since this type of breeding is most interesting to observe.

You can, of course, keep just one Pin-tailed Whydah cock with a waxbill collection merely for the beauty of the bird's nuptial plumage.