Silverbills, mainly African but touching on the Indian.

by Jim Warburton

Just after Noah looked out one morning and said to Mrs Noah "does that water look like it’s going down" I bought my first pair of "Foreign Bird" from a street market in London for the princely sum of two shillings, (10 pence today).

I was tempted towards Cutthroats at the time as you got two cocks & one hen for two shillings and sixpence, but I could only stretch to the two shillings that day and I wasn’t going home empty handed, so the Silverbills came home.

My home at this time was full of birds and various animals, my Dad was a Canary and British Bird breeder and Exhibitor, my Mum kept Chickens and Rabbits as well as the odd ferret, these a legacy from the war years when they were a welcome addition to the basic diet.

I soon discovered by thumbing through my well-worn copy of D.H.S.Risdon’s 1953 book Foreign Birds For Beginners, my new birds were African Silverbills, Lonchura cantans as opposed to Indian Silverbills Lonchura malabarica.

The main difference that makes Identification simple is that the Indian has a conspicuous white rump lacking in the African, and is a darker shade of brown above and is lighter below.

I installed my new Silverbills in a Canary double breeding cage donated by my Dad for the purpose, equipped with a nest box, made from a coconut shell and seed and water containers, it wasn’t long before a nest was in production, I then discovered what an important aspect of lonchura breeding luck is because I had selected a true pair or rather the seller had grabbed from the cage of probably 100 birds a Cock and a Hen hurray!!.
It wasn’t long before I discovered by craning my neck and twisting the nest towards the light and looking inside a single small white egg, that shone like a jewel in it’s cradle of grasses.
Up to this moment my birds had been happily consuming "Foreign Finch Mixture" a mixture of Millets, Canary and various other seeds deemed as appropriate for Foreign Birds by the retailer.
My Dad a Canary man through and through, suggested Egg-food was needed to rear any subsequent offspring, so following his recipe that was based on Sausage Rusk and hard boiled egg I set about introducing my Silverbills to this vital chick rearing diet addition. They turned their beaks up and ignored it completely as if I was trying to poison them and any subsequent offspring that might hatch, convinced that the road to success was soft-food I spent many hours thinking of ways to convince my birds to sample it’s delights, in the end all to no avail.

This pair reared 3 chicks in this first nest and went on to rear many more all on a seed only diet supplemented with lots of chickweed and clean fresh water. Nowadays I still keep African Silverbills, although I have kept and bred Indian Silverbills and can suggest their husbandry varies little from their African cousins, they are reasonably free breeders in both cage and aviary. Although I still prefer my first species the African, more so now I have the colour variants, the Chocolate and Cinnamon and I understand that Albino and Cremino variants have recently become available from the Continent.

So waffle aside here is a lonchura species that is free breeding, and in cages, readily available and easily mixed with other similar species, a pleasant if subdued warbling song that gives rise to it’s alternative name of Warbling Silverbill, and probably named with a bit of artistic licence after it’s grey leadish colour beak.
Sexes alike, Cocks determined by their song, mature cocks soon begin to sing as soon as they feel at ease in their new home, a standard Foreign Finch mix, usual additions, grit and cuttlebone etc, plus green-foods keeps them in good condition.

They are willing breeders in cages their husbandry varies little from their relatives the Bengalese Finch, I would suggest a 36" breeding cage, nest entrance facing towards the back of the cage, hence the use of an outside hanging box, coconut fibre, grasses and perhaps a few chicken feathers for nest lining. Do not inspect the nest after your birds begin incubation, this usually on the 3rd or 4th egg being laid until the birds cease brooding when the youngsters are 10/12 days old, the more you can resist the temptation to nest inspect the better.

Mine all take soft-food at all times and this is a benefit to rearing, but if your birds as the majority of normal coloured birds available in pet shops and dealers are, have been trapped and imported, they may not, supply it but if the ignore it don’t worry, they will rear chicks on seed alone, you can supply additional vitamins etc in the drinking water.

I recommend these birds to you, pleasant, good-natured and a joy to keep.

My email:lonchura@ntlworld.com

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