New Silverbill Finches

Went into Bend today with the intention of buying a pair of Silverbills. They are regularly $50 each and today they were on Sale for $21.99 each so I bought 4. Two are perfect but the other two have been picked at and missing some feathers behind their heads. When I got home I put them in a small cage together and they are doing fine no fighting or chasing. I will keep them in there until I get my new cage on Tues. then I can switch my CB's to the larger flight cage and put the Silverbills in the old cage. I will post photos tomorrow.

Lucky You, that is a great deal, I have read they are hard to tell male from female, was it hard to pick out pairs? You will get the ones who were picked on back into shape very soon.

What birds were in there with them that could have plucked their feathers? Were you able to find out their age?

Are you going to keep them in a seperate cage after quarentine or put them in with the Gouldians, Owls and OC's?

Waiting for pictures

African Silverbill - Lonchura cantans

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Indian Silverbill - Very similar to the African species. Care and breeding are the same.

Additional Notes There are three subspecies, L. cantans cantans, L. cantans inornata and L. cantans orientalis There are a number of mutations overseas, but none of them have arrived in the U.S. due to the import restrictions of this species listing on CITES appendex III. Some of these mutations include a Chocolate, Ino and Cinnamon (probably more appropriately a Fawn). These "mutations" may be the result of hybridization with Society finches and then back crossed to the Silverbills. Silverbills have hybridized with a number of different species including many different members of Lonchura and others including the Zebra finch. Hybrids between the other Lonchura are possibly fertile. Hybrids with the Indian Silverbill are known to be fertile. Look for a pinkish rump area on these hybrids to determine parentage.

this is a baby African Sivlerbill

I posted the African and Indian and there is not much difference.

This is from efinch.com

Good Morning I was shocked at the price cause I planned on 2 birds at $49.99 but it worked out really well. They were the only ones in the cage no other finches. There was a lot of chasing going on between them but now they are getting along fine. Thee were 5 in the cage but I only took 4. I felt bad about not taking the last one but that would have made an odd number in the flight. I have been looking at them this morning and only see a slight difference between them two have darker backs other then that they are the same. I will have to wait to see if any sing.

They are very pretty, I like their color. I hope you got at least one pair out of them. I wish I could find new species but around here there isn't much to pick from. There is a bird show coming up and maybe they will have some, but I am sure I won't get a good deal like you did. You are really building your flock of different species and that is what I would like to do if I can figure out more space to put more cages. Congratulations on the new Silverbills.

I think I have one male cause I hear singing and its very pretty.



More photo's

One male and hope a female is in there too. I am glad you got the plucked one because I know you will give it the TLC it needs and it would probably get worse where it was. Thanks for the pictures, I think they are so pretty.

I have two male Silverbills so far cause I saw them singing. Could I be that lucky to have two males and two hens . One hen (guessing) is sitting in a nest already and she pecks at the male when he tries to enter the nest.

I hope you have babies on the way. After she lays 3 eggs then they both should be sitting in the nest at night. I read they are very timid about nest checks and will abandon the nest, and the hatchlings are quiet, so you may not hear them in the beginning.

Well this morning there are two eggs in the nest. The strange thing is sometimes there are teo or three of the Silverbills sitting in the nest. I have seen the two hens in there like a duplex nest.

2 Eggs already! That was fast. If both hens are sitting do you think you need a second nest? Or they could be like societies and all pile in one nest. When she lays her third egg see if the male sits in there with her at night. If both hens are laying you would see 2 eggs a day, so it looks like only the one is laying for now.

Did any of your Silverbills eggs hatch?

HI well they built on heck of a nest and it had 4 eggs then slowly I was finding the eggs broken and one was buried under nesting material. They kept building
the nest over eggs.

Other finches were getting in there as well. I took that open nest out and now
they have built another nest in a large finch nest. They have almost closed the opening so I can't see whats in there. I'm sure there are eggs in there cause the hen is in there almost all day....

It seems like the more nesting material you have the more they keep adding and then the eggs get buried. I always have to take out any extra material once I see an egg or my societies will do the same thing. Good luck with the new nest and hopefully more eggs. Let me know if you get any hatchlings.

I don't have any extra material in the flight but they are raiding other nests.. Those other nest only had small amounts of material in them. They keep rearranging the material.

Didn't think of them raiding the other nests. Does this interfere with the others breeding? Or is no one else sitting on eggs?

At the moment only the Silver Bills are sitting.

Today all 4 of my Silverbill hatchlings fledged. They fly around the flight so well and a week in a half ago they had no feathers.

Congratulations, they are so pretty and I can't believe they grew so fast and are already out of the nest. Thanks for the update.