Silver-eared Mesias By Grant Rishman

We had been searching for Silver-eared Mesias and were unable to find any so we imported a small group from Holland. When they arrived in quarantine we were very disappointed to see that half the birds had no feathers on their head and neck and the other half had no feathers at all! By the end of the quarantine period all the birds, with one exception, looked quite good. They were all sold except for one hen and the "bald guy". We housed these birds individually and it was a couple of months before the feathers started to appear. The wait was well worth it, the bird eventually moulted all his feathers and was transformed from an ‘ugly duckling’ into a beautiful proud male Mesia. With the plumage came the song, 7-8 notes of pure energy. The song is more tuneful than the Pekin Robin and considerably louder. We are very fortunate to have some understanding neighbours as the male can be heard over 1/2 mile away!

The following May the pair was put into an outside aviary which they shared with Pekin Robins and Fairy Bluebirds. After only two weeks the Mesias were seen flying around with coconut fibre, after a further week a deep cup-shaped nest had been constructed in the fork of a maple tree, about four feet from the ground. A few days later the dominant pair of Pekins had commandeered the nest. They made no attempt to lay eggs, appearing to be quite content to merely stop anybody else from laying. The Mesias made no further attempt to nest.

Coming from the Himalayas these birds are very hardy and remain totally unconcerned when the winter temperature drops to approximately 25 degrees F. They remain outside all winter, although their aviary is surrounded by polythene to provide some protection from cold winds.

In March they were moved to a small flight 7’ X 3’ X 7’ high. The back four feet was planted with bamboo, cotoneaster and forsythia, a small fir tree was cut down and wedged in front. The birds were very grateful for the growing plants and, starting at one side of the aviary, they removed each leaf until the branch was bare. When this chore was complete they happily moved onto the next branch. Within a week the only cover left in the aviary was the fir tree. More fir and cedar branches were hung in the aviary to provide some cover.

The birds had chosen a wicker plant pot as a nesting site. We had ran out of coconut fibre so we supplied fine hay, moss, sisal etc. None of this was taken and the birds chose to lay their eggs on the bare floor of the plant pot. They laid a total of 13 eggs (in 4 nests) and all of them were dead-in-shell. We felt the nighttime temperatures were dropping so low it was killing the embryos. In September we received some coconut fibre,(ordered in March!), so we were all set for the following year.

The following spring saw the Mesias eager to breed. They used the same nest site and built a small cup-shaped nest. A second pair, obtained over the winter, was housed in a separate aviary and chose to nest in a covered finch nest. Both pairs hatched three eggs and the parents were given a continual supply of livefood consisting of crickets, mealworms and any livefood caught in the garden. Two days later all 6 chicks were dead on the aviary floors. There was still livefood in the pots and we could not understand what went wrong,…until we went outside at 10PM and chased a cat off the aviary roof.

The two pairs laid a total of 17 more eggs and hatched 15 chicks in 5 nests. 14 chicks were thrown out before they were 3 days old. We even tried liberating one pair so they could find their own livefood. This worked very well – for about four hours, until the parents decided it was much more fun to play in the garden. What a magnificent sight they made tumbling through the trees - but what about the chicks? At 6PM both parents returned to their aviary but were ignoring the chicks. The babies were checked and they were quite cold so we made the decision to remove them for hand-raising. We had hand-raised hookbills before so softbills should not be that much different - should they?

Well, the first lesson came when we discovered that Mesias do not have a crop and the food goes straight down into the stomach. The second lesson came when we discovered that feeding once an hour was not going to be enough. The third lesson came the following morning when both chicks were dead.

The original pair had gone back to nest and laid three eggs. It was getting late in the year for them to be breeding (they usually nest from March to June and it was now late August). Only one egg hatched and the parents were very attentive. After three days the chick was still in the nest!! And the parents were feeding well. The chick fledged after 12 days. It could not fly and spent the first few days climbing through the bushes and up the wire. The parents did not sleep with the chick at night but resumed feeding it in the morning. Four days later it was dead! Died of pneumonia.

This was getting very frustrating!

Another year wasted. Mid-May saw the original pair incubating. In contrast to previous years the cock did most of the incubating this time. On May 27th two split eggshells were found on the floor. The pair had been almost totally insectivorous for a week. The following day a third eggshell was found. The parents were feeding mealworms, feeder guppies, and previously frozen crickets. Some nectar was also being taken. For the first four days all the food was swallowed by the parents and then regurgitated to the chicks. By day 5 the chicks could be heard begging for food and whole insects were being taken back to the nest. One chick was found dead the following morning, from the size it looked like it had been squashed in the nest by its older siblings. Both parents were off the nest and a quick inspection revealed 3 chicks. One was about twice the size of the other two so we did not expect the smaller two to survive. The following day the largest chick was found dead on the aviary floor.

The other two chicks progressed very well and after only 12 days both had fledged. Because our Canadian show rules state all current year birds must be closed rung we banded both young with budgie rings. The parents were very upset that we handled their offspring but were totally unconcerned by the leg bands.

The weather deteriorated with high winds and heavy rainfall and, remembering last year’s chick, we decided to move all four birds to a cage in the birdroom. After another five days both chicks were flying well and were becoming inquisitive. At this time the family were returned to their aviary. Over the last 3 weeks the parents had taken over 200 feeder guppies, 2500 crickets, and 8000 mealworms. When the chicks were three weeks old the parents began to wean them onto a regular diet of Universal food and diced fruit.

The only reference we could find regarding breeding Mesias stated that the young are dependant on their parents for "quite some time". As the male can be very aggressive we kept a close eye on them and the young remained dependant until they were almost 6 weeks old. At that time they were moved to their own aviary.

In subsequent years both pairs have raised young with far fewer failures. Once the correct stimuli are discovered and the birds have a safe environment they can usually be counted on to raise their chicks successfully.

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