By B.G. Oddane

Vinous-throated Parrotbills live in China, Korea and Burma, where they live up in the mountain regions. They are small, tough and very active birds. They like mostly to stay outdoors in an planted aviary. There they can be together with most any other kind of birds, except relatives. They eat some seed, egg food, insect food, fruit and living insects. During winter season they get some extra honeywater, and loris feed.

Late fall 2000, I bought 4 parrotbills from a bird-shop in Denmark. After the determined time in quarantine, they were put in an aviary, measuring 7 x 2,5 x 2 m. The aviary is shielded at both ends, and is very well planted with bamboo and ivy.

The winter season was real cold with temperature down to -12 degrees Celsius in the middle of the night. They still preferred to sleep outside. Spring came, and the birds were in top condition.

They started to chase each other. However, I never saw them chase any other birds, (with the exception of the Chestnut-flanked White-eye male, which they tore the tail off - but after that they left him alone). In May I found one of them dead - killed by the other Parrotbills. I caught the remaining ones to fit on coloured rings, in order to be able to separate those who stuck together. When you hold them in your hand, you can clearly distinguish between female and male sex. The male is bigger, and his head is far more heavy than the female's. I determined 2,1. Until I had seen which male that preferred the female, they had killed him too.

The same day, the remaining couple started to build their nest right under the ceiling in the ivy.

During the first days, the young birds were fed with large amounts of small insects. I kept 2 cultures of fruit flies in the aviary. I also hang a fluorescent tube in the ceiling, in order to attract insects. I had to do even more, so I went down to the sea and collected seaweed larvae and other insects living in the sea weed. Together with white mealworms, it fin ally seemed to be sufficient. In the aviary there are some decayed wooden stumps, where I from time to time place mealworms which then bury themselves under the bark. The parents often spent a lot of time, enjoying themselves, dragging the mealworms out in the open. I didn't see the parents eat neither seed nor much fruit in this period.

When the young birds reached the age of approx. 10 days, we were going on vacation for a week. When we arrived back home, the nest was empty - but a young bird was spotted very well hidden in the ivy.
About the 14th of July, there were again 4 eggs - and 4 more young birds. The 8th of August, all the young birds were out of the nest. They sat well concealed in the ivy. They looked like their parents, but still lacked the tail.

The 10th of August, I was down at the sea and found a lot of maggots and other seaweed insects - which I, together with some seaweed, emtied in the aviary. The Parrotbills really enjoyed themselves in the seaweed and ate the variety of insects. Suddenly, the male went totally nuts! In short time, he had killed all 4 of the young birds! A couple of hours after the massacre, he sat together with the female and the young bird from the first br ood, as if nothing had ever happened! The three of them seem to be happy together.