Article by Vince Moase

The Pekin Robin or Chinese Red-billed Nightingale, Leiotbrix lutea, used to be one of the most common of the small softbill kept in aviaries. It has now been listed on CITES, appendix II, which has contributed considerably to its rarity.

Males have a very pleasant song and, when not breeding, they can be kept in mixed aviaries of smaller and larger birds with very few problems.Unfortunately this bird is often fed an incorrect diet. People have found that it can exist on hard seed, but in fact this bird is unable to digest hard seed properly in its stomach; therefore it gets very little nutrition from the seed. It is a softbill bird, which means it needs a high protein diet that is soft; for example egg food, fruit and live food.

We had kept Pekins for a number of years but never a true pair. One fall at the National Bird Show in Hamilton, we were fortunate to be able to purchase a young pair of Pekins. These birds were immature and still in their juvenile plumage. The male had a deeper, richer colour in the chest feathering but only covering a very small area, whereas the female's chest had next to no colour. At first we were not certain that we had a true pair, but when they molted into their adult plumage, we were no longer in doubt. Sexing this species at the best of times is only fifty percent accurate. The male tends to have a slightly larger head with his plumage being brighter, and the white between the eye and bill (lores) is larger. We have found, however, that this will vary in the birds due to their health, age and feather condition. Breeding time brings on the brightest plumage, and during non~breeding the colour varies from dull to faded When breeding is concluded, the birds' plumage appears to be dull and dirty.

In order to house the Pekins, we built cages inside and aviaries outside our garage. The two are connected by a porthole. The inside cages, measuring three feet by four feet by six feet, are heated. The aviaries are larger, measuring four feet or six feet wide, five feet deep and seven feet high. The inside cages are smaller because we expected the birds to be able to stay outdoors for up to eight months of the year. This is considerably longer than the three to five months that finches are able to stay out in Southern Ontario.

During the Pekin's first winter outdoors, it was very enjoyable to watch them. They seemed to enjoy playing in the snow, and they added colour to the winter scene; very pretty birds indeed! With their song, it was hard to believe it was winter. Due to cat problems and freezing temperatures, we wanted them to stay inside at night. We had to catch them only four times before they learned to go in at dusk. To this day only when breeding, and during some early spring and late fall evenings, do they not come in. We found very little information available in the books on Pekin Robins, especially on breeding. We talked to different people, some of whom had talked to breeders in England.

It appeared that the reason for their success was live food, dense vegetation, and running water in the aviaries. We could supply the firsttwo, but as for running water, we were limited to changing their water bowl three to five times a day. As soon as Pekins bathe, they will not bathe again until fresh water is given, even if the bowl is topped up. We use a wash basin with a smaller glass dish in it. This keeps the water splash in the cage to a minimum.

The aviaries were planted with elderberry shrubs, dogwood shrubs, high bush cranberry shrubs and white cedar trees. This supplied dense cover for the birds to feel secure and at home. If they wanted to be seen, they came out into the openings. The shrubs also supplied flowers to attract insects and also produced berries for the birds to eat. What we had been told is that the denser the aviary is, the better the birds like it. It took a full two years for the shrubs to fill in the aviary and until then the birds didn't make any attempt to breed. Age also might have been a factor; we don't know. We feed our birds mealworms, fruit flies and crickets along with egg food (which we make) some soaked seed, greens and plenty of fruit, especially apple and pomegranate. We have recently added to their diet soaked dog and cat chow and mynah bird pellets, so we will see what happens.

In July , we noticed the female would be missing on different days and nights but we didn't pay any attention since it didn't occur to us that they would be breeding. The aviary next to theirs needed the grass trimmed, as I finished I happened to look up into their aviary, and there was a nest about three feet above ground level,in the elderberry shrub against the next aviary wall. Two days later I checked the nest. The nest was small and very tight, like that of a North American Robin but no mud showing. In the nest were two eggs: green with brown spots about half the size of a Robin egg but not as deep in colour.

We left the birds alone and started dreaming of young. About seven days later, both adults were sitting inside for the night. Oh well, there goes the chance of any young, we thought. I checked two days later to remove eggs or dead young, but we found one very healthy live young. The second egg was infertile. The book had said that incubation took thirteen days and that the young fledge at thirteen days of age. We thought this was strange since our finches take

thirteen days to hatch and the Pekins are quite a bit larger. The chick's plumage was very bright, not at all like its parents when we first got them. At this stage we were feeding the parents 100 mealworms and 30-40 crickets a day; we were also adding to the outside aviary ripe and left over fruit to attract insects.The parents started "pushing" the young one when he was about twenty-seven days old, so I pulled him (yes, a male).

The parents renested mid August, using the same nest and laying four eggs. They hatched two young, with one egg infertile and the other having a dead embryo about one quarter developed. In August the weather turned cold and wet. I noticed the adults were not acting normally early one evening and checked the nest, the youngest chick had died, and the oldest chick was cold. The parents had stopped sitting on the chicks at approximately six to eight days after hatching, and the young don't have many feathers at this age; as a result they are unable to keep themselves warm if the weather turns cold.

I pulled the live young, at that time about 10 days old, warmed it up and put it in the inside cage of the aviary. We hooked up a heat lamp and hoped the parents would come in and feed it; they did. A couple of times we had to retrieve the chick from outside, as it was very active for this age and would go out and then be unable to find its way back inside .The second young one had bright plumage and turned out to be a male. Both offspring's plumage was brighter than their father's when we first got him. We assume diet was responsible for this.

The following July, the adult pair built a nest just like the previous year, even in the same spot, but they didn't use it. Instead they built a second, larger and sloppy nest about eighteen inches off the ground, below the first one. They laid four eggs of which three were infertile, and they hatched the fourth egg. This time I left the young one in with the parents since they didn't seem to be pushing it like they did with the young the year before. Two more eggs were laid, but this time they were eaten, either by the young one or by the parents which were under stress because of the young one left in. This young one also turned out to be a male.

We kept the second male offspring from the previous and obtained a female for him in January. We planted an aviary for them and hopefully it will be dense enough to encourage nesting. As for the original pair, we plan to go back to pulling the young as soon as they can be removed in hopes of stopping any further egg eating. Now it's just a matter of waiting for the breeding season to arrive. Return to Pekin Robin home page