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thebubbleking
04-12-2010, 10:48 PM
the vampire finch?!?!?!

Geospiza difficilis septentrionalis

Just saw pics of it today..birds never cease to suprise me!
CompassionAk
04-12-2010, 11:03 PM
I was watching that on some show the other day,they were really sucking the blood out of some poor bird.
Pips mom
04-12-2010, 11:16 PM
I was reading my newspaper today and read about this bird....the cowbird. Apparently it goes around laying it's eggs in other bird's nests for them to raise instead of raising their young themselves!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown-headed_Cowbird
linda040899
04-12-2010, 11:24 PM
Jerimiah,
No, I'd not heard about the Vampire Finch until just now! That's a new one on me.

Kim,
There are a number of species that lay their eggs in foster nests and let other parents raise their young for them. The most well known are the Whydahs. Believe it or not, each different species has a particular host species and those are the only nests they use. My ex-husband used to have Pintail Whydahs and the males grew several very long tail feathers when they were in breeding condition.
michael
04-13-2010, 09:04 AM
the vampire finch?!?!?!

Geospiza difficilis septentrionalis

Just saw pics of it today..birds never cease to suprise me!


I was watching that on some show the other day,they were really sucking the blood out of some poor bird.

I've only heard of them by name. .....But to think they actually suck blood from their victims?!.......:omg:........Thats one bird who's never gonna perch on my shoulder!
Chickobee
04-13-2010, 02:56 PM
So, if you are trying to breed wydahs in captivity, do you pull all the eggs to hatch them? Or do you foster them to chickens or some other bird to hatch them? It would seem like they wouldn't take care of them.
linda040899
04-13-2010, 03:51 PM
In captivity, Whydahs won't even mate unless they hear the mating calls of their host specific species. The reason this kind of breeding is successful is because the insides of the beaks of the host parent babies look exactly like the insides of the beaks of the Whydah babies so the host parents think the babies belong to them. After courtship and mating is completed in the wild, the parents go their own way rather than staying together as a mated pair.

Society Finches make wonderful foster parents but you have to have eggs to foster to them........