Red Eared Waxbill

Scientific Name: Fstrilda troglodytes

Origin: Central Africa

A lively and tolerant waxbill, this bird is easy to keep in a mixed collection.

Description:

Size: 10cm (4 in)

COCK:

Body: pinkish-beige. Wings: light brown. Tail: light brown. Eye stripes: red. Beak: red. Legs: cream. The cock assumes a pink color on the belly during the breeding season.

HEN:

Similar, rather difficult to sex by appearance. Observe behavior and look for pink color on belly of cock.

Diet: (Seedeater)

Mixed millets and plaint canary seed form the basic diet. Millet sprays and seeding grasses are relished. Green food, grit and cuttlefish bone must always be available. The Red-Eared Waxbill is quite hardy but should have a frost-proof shelter or room for winter. When molting, this bird needs a little extra attention and warmth, plus a few drops of cod liver oil.

Breeding:

The Red-Eared Waxbill should be encouraged to nest when there are plentiful supplies of fresh ants' eggs available for chick rearing.

The cock dances around his hen with a blade of grass in his beak. He has a 'chirrupy' mating song. The hen often replies with a soft, quiet, gurgling sound. If breeding, this bird requires a secluded corner of the aviary as it is easily frightened off the nest. Nesting boxes should be provided. The nest is constructed with a narrow entrance passage and lined with hair and wool, which should be placed on bushes near the nest site for the bird to pick up. A choice of boxes fixed at varying heights encourages this bird to breed.

The hen lays between three and five white, pointed eggs and the incubation period lasts between 11 and 22 days, both parents taking in turn to sit on the eggs.

Fresh ants' eggs, egg food and soaked and germinated millet seed should be fed to the parent birds.

The chicks are ready to leave the nest 14 days after hatching. The fledglings are pale grey in color with black beaks. A few weeks later they assume adult plumage.

This waxbill has on many occasions bred with the Orange-Cheeked Golden-Breasted Waxbill and the Crimson-Rumped Waxbill, producing attractive, unusually marked birds.

Red Eared Waxbill Breeding Tips

• The aviary where the birds should be kept must have plenty of space for flying. It should be well planted with dense bush and tress. The height of the aviary must also be at least 3 feet high.
• The bird would rarely accept nest box. So, to help them in building their nests you may provide coconut fibers and grasses. They have the habit of lining the inside of the nest with feathers and they also like to decorate the outside of their nest with white shiny objects like broken pieces of egg shells, dry excreted waste, bits of paper and wet earth.
• To protect their eggs and chicks from predators the birds built a fake nest or a cock’s nest as decoy.