fireman 11,221 Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 Got a bully and greenfinch i have bred but have slipped their rings(all legal and i have both rung parents of both birds,the greenfinch is in fact a cock normal but split for lutino) and i am thinking of just letting them go.It's a good time of year to with the buds and wid food comming through plus if i did i'd let them go in my garden and hang feeders up so if they hung about they won't starve,but just got a funny feeling about it that's all andcan't put my finger on why they won't be ok....So what do others think about it? and these birds live outside in aviaries so are weathered as such.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TUFFTY 1,484 Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 Fireman, I did this some 30 years ago with some chaffinches. Most of them never to be seen again. Just a cock bird used to visit every day. But some experts say that the cage bred bird will pick up diseases from the wild birds. Weather it be true or not. TUFFTY Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Millet 4,497 Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 Aslong as the wild food is plentiful and they where not hand reared i don't see a problem with it.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
J Darcy 5,871 Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 Its more about the captive bred bird finding food sources at the correct time of year. The wild birds are programmed to go from one seasonal source to the next. For example now the Bullys are on the hawthorn buds, in a months time they will be on a different bud, then as summer goes, it will be berries, the honeysuckle, then onto the rowan. They move with the food, and i think letting a captive bred bird go wild is akin to murdering it by starvation. Don't forget birds do not think or reason like humans. Their survival is already hard-wired into their brain from the day they are born, and this is compounded at they stick with their parents learning about the seasonal fruits, right through the summer and autumn and into winter. IMO it is unfair to release captive bred birds. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
the_stig 6,614 Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 just the food side of it ------ when we were kids there used to be a private lane near us big house at the bottom -----he used to have free flying budgies and canarys the trees round there used to be full of them and a lot used to return to a shed at night ------on that note a few year ago my mate tried the same method with some finches he attached a cage to the side of his flight with a box and a bob hole he put 6 in after a week he left the bob hole open for a few weeks they hopped in n out used the near by feeder and then left he put clip rings on and still sees one out the 6 on his feeders ....dont know if he`s tried it again but the set up`s still there 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
paulus 26 Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 the sparrow hawks will be thankful Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Shamo 319 Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 Don't do it mate, there are a number of reasons why not, but only a couple, maybe, to do it. You'll be alright if you can prove the ancestry, legally, or you can gift them to someone with a written statement. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
taz2010 1,297 Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 forget it fireman the spar will nail them mate and they wont last long you will be better finding them a decent home mate 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
morton 5,368 Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 Forgetting the legality,as we oft do,the bird will not be able to adapt to a wild environment,the territorial behaviour and aggression of its wild cousins,the inability to adapt to an alien food source and the lack of predator knowledge,will only cause the bird stress and lead to its demise.Give it to another aviary. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fireman 11,221 Posted March 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 Well first off nice one for the reply's folks and i do have a confession to make as well i released it yesterday and it hung around my aviaries for the day and i did see it feeding not only from the feeder i hung up but also my apple tree buds.BUT and there is a big BUT it wasn't doing well and i even put my dogs away from near the flights as it was flying lower as the day went on and i thought f*ck this and within minutes of me putting out a aviary trap with a few seeds and rowan berries in(i freeze rowan berries and my bullies get them daily )he was back in the aviary and in there he is staying until i find a new home for him .As with what i was feeling and what you all have said and seeing him yesterday he won't make it as likes been said they may be flighty to us but they sure do loose their wild edge being captive bred . I was talking to a person at a local aviary center on the gentle release style of what you say Stig and have them both in a flight on their own and open up the door wide so it's easy to return and go about things like that but ot be honest it'll be a torment for my breeding pairs to have other cock birds hangng off their flight wire if they do stay around home so it can't really happen.Again nice one and some very good points really and i'm bloody glad i managed to catch him back up as it would have done me head in to have killed him with kindness type thing,lesson learnt there . 5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gnasher16 30,817 Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 Fascinating stuff.....i wonder then how many generations of captive breeding it takes a wild bird species to lose its........wildness....for want of a better phrase. Sounds like the bird had a lucky reprieve there Fireman......interesting little story though. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
perthshire keeper 1,239 Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 just the food side of it ------ when we were kids there used to be a private lane near us big house at the bottom -----he used to have free flying budgies and canarys the trees round there used to be full of them and a lot used to return to a shed at night ------on that note a few year ago my mate tried the same method with some finches he attached a cage to the side of his flight with a box and a bob hole he put 6 in after a week he left the bob hole open for a few weeks they hopped in n out used the near by feeder and then left he put clip rings on and still sees one out the 6 on his feeders ....dont know if he`s tried it again but the set up`s still there like having hawks at hack and hacking back the wild? cool to know it can be done with small birds too Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fireman 11,221 Posted March 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 I wouldn't like to try to answer that one Gnasher but i am lucky enough to able to see my birds from my front room and i can tell when the spar is about from just the way my birds react to the many sparrows that live in the ivy up the side of my house and they've learnt that though experiance the hard way so on the spar note i thought they'd be ok,but just the tameness of him once he was out really shone and he just wasn't anywhere near as sharp as the bird flying about wild.They sort of bomb from place to place where as he just flew or fluttered and would have been very easy pickings for a spar hedge hopping like they do.It is mad though as this bird wont let you near him in a aviary and you coud think he was awild birdbut out in the wild he's very much a captive bird and will have to stay one. Anyone want a native bully or greenfinch cock? . 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gnasher16 30,817 Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 (edited) Just shows as much as we think we know.......nature always knows best.....................i often wonder what happens to these racing pigeons that dont return home whether they survive off their wits or just succumb.....i wouldnt imagine they last long. Edited March 30, 2014 by gnasher16 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
the_stig 6,614 Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 (edited) Just shows as much as we think we know.......nature always knows best.....................i often wonder what happens to these racing pigeons that dont return home whether they survive off their wits or just succumb.....i wouldnt imagine they last long. Just shows as much as we think we know.......nature always knows best.....................i often wonder what happens to these racing pigeons that dont return home whether they survive off their wits or just succumb.....i wouldnt imagine they last long. Edited March 30, 2014 by the_stig 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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