Niltava sundara
Rufous-bellied Niltava
Male

These are birds for the experienced aviculturist.

Although newly imported birds are difficult to acclimate to a domestic diet, once adjusted they are quite hardy and will live for many years. As the picture shows they are very easy to sex as the male is one of the most beautiful Asian flycatchers and the female is comparatively drab - so as to be overlooked by predators when nesting. The sex of chicks can be ascertained while they are still in the nest as the males have blue tips on their little tails.

They can safely be housed with other birds outside of the breeding season provided none of them are flycatchers. Two male flycatchers should never be housed together.

Niltavas are one of the "easier" flycatchers as they will take to substitute foods readily and will accept some universal food, fruit and berries, but they are highly insectivorous and should be fed an abundant supply of live food.


I had one pair of these Niltavas go to nest in early June '02. It took a while to achieve this, and I hope the following experiences will help others. I purchased one male and two hens in April '02 from Hal. The older, lighter colored hen, I will call Hen #1 had been with this male for a little over a year. They were familiar with each other, but had not nested. I had another darker, younger looking hen, I will call Hen #2.
In May '02,I put the birds in adjacent 4'x7'x7' high aviaries with a door separating the pair from Hen #2. There was no obvious aggression, though no one seemed to "Buddy Up" either. These birds do not "hang-out" together.
After weeks of the familiar pair doing nothing significant, I decided to swap the hens. I moved Hen #1 to an aviary about 20 feet away. The original pair couldn't really see each other from this distance.
When Hen #2 was allowed to fly to the male's flight, she displayed some interesting behavior. She flew into each basket and/or nest box I had put up in the aviaries (about 4 total). She sat in each one and appeared to be testing it for size? The male flew around with coconut fiber and even started building a nest in one of the lower baskets. It was a wicker basket that was probably 6 inches big and located about three feet off the ground, hanging from a nail. The male sang different calls, and chased her a little. After a couple of days of this, the hen just sort of stopped. The male built a rough nest in this basket. It was only of coconut fiber and loosely formed. Unfortunately, the male stopped building, and the female quit doing much of anything also. The male was seen to be calling to Hen #1. At times Hen #1 called a lot, it seemed, to him too. The male seemed to increase calling to Hen #1.
After about 10 days nothing was happening with the pair, so I decided to move the familiar Hen #1 back to the male. Hen #2 didn't seem to care. I moved her away to another aviary. Immediately upon arriving back to the adjacent aviaries with the male, Hen #1 went to work. She grabbed all the moss, leaves, she could fit in her beak, and carried it to the highest nesting box, the male seemed to stay out of her way. She finished off the nest with a coconut fiber cup in just a few days. The male didn't do much at all, just sat around and occasionally chased the hen around, in what I assumed was an aggressive mating flight display. I watched to make sure the male wasn't hurting her. A week later the hen was not visible. I found her in the nestbox with four pinkish eggs. WOW!
Fourteen days later, while I was vacationing in England (timing is everything) the four eggs hatched. The babies were very fuzzy and dark. The caretaker didn't realize what to do next, supplying more insects, and she noticed a day later the hen was off the nest with no one caring for the babies. She found them tossed on the ground of the adjacent aviary. BUMMER! I was hoping she'd recycle, but she never did. I was sorry to have missed this hatching. Later that year I sold the Niltavas to make room for more Pekin Robins. I really wanted to focus on fewer birds, but still miss this pretty and not well-known bird.

Niltava article

Niltava article by Croydon Fleming

Great Flycatcher Site

Softbills UK

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