English Name

Pintail Whydah

Spanish Name

Latin Name

Vidua macroura

Origins

Sexing

Males

The Pintail Whydah males are very attractive when in breeding plumage. It is glossy black above with white on its underside. The sides of its head and the lower back are white, and it has a white stripe across the wings.

Females

The female is tawny coloured, speckled with black..

Size

Males : the long narrow tail feathers are 10" (25 cm) giving the male and overall length of 13" (33 cm) when in breeding plumage, and an overall length of 6" (15 cm) in a non-breeding male.

Weight

Rings

Character

The Pintail Whydahs can be a rather quarrelsome finch and it is best to avoid mixing them with other finches of similar colour, and keep only one male with several females. Because they are rather assertive birds, small finches are best not housed with them.

Feeding

Fresh food and water must be provided daily. A good finch seed mix will provide their everyday need of grass seeds and millets and is readily available at a pet store. In a separate cup supply green foods regularly, such as chickweed and spinach. Other supplements to include sparingly are egg foods, apple and pear. Finch treats of seed with honey, fruits and vegetables are fun for your bird too, as well as nutritious!
   Grit with charcoal is essential to aid in digestion and it contains valuable minerals and trace elements. Grit should be provided in a special cup or sprinkled over the bottom of the cage floor. Provide a cuttlebone because the calcium it provides will give your bird a firm beak, strong eggshells when breeding, and will help prevent egg binding. The lime in the cuttlebone also aids in digestion.

Their diet is very basic, a simple finch seed mix made up of mainly small millet seeds. I can't recall ever seeing them at the live food tray. They love to search for food on the ground and scratch around like miniature chickens. This leads to possibly the main vice of the male bird, should you throw a hand full of grain on the floor of your aviary he will defend the feed area for his females by dive bombing any species which may wander into this place, large or small.

Breeding Cages

Nest

Width

Depth

Height

Hole Diameter

Nesting Material

Breeding Period

Eggs

Incubating

Incubation

Fledging

Batches

Lifespan

Breeding Life

Sexual Maturity

Aviaries

  Provide two or three good softwood perches about 3/8" to 3/4" in diameter. Tree branches of a similar size also make good perches and will help to wear the claws down naturally. Provide separate dishes for food, water, treats, and grit. Place paper on the cage bottom that can be sprinkled with grit, or use a grit paper.

Pintail Whydahs also do very well in aviaries or bird rooms. The screening should be 3/8" square mesh. Dishes for food, water, grit and bathing water must be included along with perches and a wide variety of nests. Leafy branches, tall grasses and reeds, and dense bushes will make the space more enjoyable for the finches.

Temperatures

Health Problems

Observations

Breeding them is difficult as they are parasitic breeders, which means they only lay their eggs in another birds nest, and are quite particular about it.

Give your finch a bath at least once a week and daily during the summer by placing a dish that is 1" deep with a 1/2" of water on the bottom of the cage. Bathing is very important to finches during moulting and breeding.
   Their nails may occasionally need to be trimmed, but be careful never to clip into the vein as the bird can quickly bleed to death. Bird nail trimmers and styptic powder to stop the bleeding are available at pet shops.

Pintail Whydahs are parasitic breeders. This means they lay their eggs in the nests of a waxbill to be incubated and reared. The Common Waxbill, the St. Helena Waxbill, is the only nest they will lay in and that finch is rarely bred in captivity.
   In order for the male to attract a mate, he must be able to imitate the songs and calls of the foster finch perfectly. Consequently, the Pintail Whydah will have perfected two sets of songs, that of his species and that of the foster species. If he is successful, the female will deposit her eggs in the nest of the waxbill and the hatchlings will grow up with the waxbill babies.
   The hatchlings have a mouth pattern and a first plumage that matches that of the other nestlings, as well as the postures and begging calls. As the hatchlings age, they learn the calls and patterns of the foster parents so that they may find the right foster parents to deposit their own eggs into when they are mature. Quite fascinating, but it makes it difficult to breed them in captivity!

Colour Mutations