Avian Conversations - An Introduction

(September/October, 1999)

by: Tom Riggs and Ross Bishop

My Name is Ross Bishop. Like many bird people, I started raising zebras about five years ago and I have since branched out to two aviaries and a number of large cages. The zebras are long gone, but today I have Gouldians, Stars, Diamond Firetails, Cordon Bleus, Plums, Spice, Tricolor Munias, Owls, Societies, Pallid Munias, White Headed nuns, Red Headed Parrots, Pekin Robins, Splendid Grass Parakeets and a lone Red Roller Canary.

Being new, I wanted to learn. I visited pet shops, other people's aviaries and a few bird shows. I talked to everyone I could. Although I saw some great birds, I was also deeply troubled by what I sometimes saw. Birds with almost no flight space, poor feather condition, perches coated with droppings, filthy cages, fat birds from too much "love" and skinny ones from eating a diet of mostly seed. As I talked with various keepers it wasn't, I concluded, that these people didn't care about their birds, but for the most part they did not understand what birds needed. Frankly, some people were lazy, others were too busy with other things. We all have demands on our time, and most people gave their birds the essentials, and would often cut corners on high maintenance tasks like cleaning and disinfecting. In some cases people simply did not have good information about what they should be doing.

During my ramblings I had the good fortune to be introduced to T. J. Riggs, a delightful man and a bird breeder of consummate skill. I was extremely impressed by the quality of Tom's birds and his reproduction successes. In a publication entitled: The Beginner's Guide to Cage Birds written in 1969, Tom is described as ". .  .One of the country's leading authorities on cage and aviary birds." Having had the opportunity to get to know him, and learn a great deal from him, I have to agree. Tom has been most generous in sharing his wisdom and insight with this novice breeder and I am deeply grateful for all the help he has given me the last few years.

After sharing my concerns about the unavailability of solid, basic bird information with Kerri McCoy, who at that time was the editor of the NFSS Bulletin, I asked Tom if he would help to set out some basic information about good bird care. He generously agreed. You may not agree with everything that is printed here, everyone has their own way of doing things, especially bird people, but that's what makes raising birds fun and challenging. So, allow me to introduce T. J. Riggs, and while we are sitting here having tea I am going to ask him to give us a little background about his bird experiences

Tom: Thank you for the introduction, Ross.

I don't remember not having birds. One of my earliest memories is of a canary belonging to my grandmother. When I was about 5 we bought a pair of Zebra Finches and a wonderful, large, hand-made blue cage from the local "bird lady," a Mrs. Moore.

My first parrot was a Mexican Double Yellow-Head that my grandparents got for me. I was 7. We stopped to eat in McCamy, Texas and there was this beautiful bird in a cage in the window of the restaurant! You must understand that I was with my grandparents and they would do anything for their grandchild. Well, we walked out with the parrot and the cage, having paid the princely sum of $25 for the whole works!

Later we bought another Mexican Double Yellow-Head and they proved to be a pair. The local bird lady told me that breeding was impossible, as they mated "on the wing."  Well, we have come a long way since that theory!

During my pre-teens I was given a room in the house for my birds, aquariums and my squirrel monkey, named Chatters. My grandfather built me a small outside aviary with a flight and shelter.

I kept at various times, Budgies, Cockatiels, Peach Faced Lovebirds, Fire Finches, Strawberries, Java Rice Birds and to me, the most exotic bird I had ever seen at that time, Paradise Whydahs! Which, by the way, are still one of my favorite birds.

Although there wasn't a lot available, I read everything about birds that I could get my hands on. I managed to to get three books: Parakeet Breeding for Pleasure and Profit and a book simply titled: Finches, both written by C. B. Glick of the then very prominent Bird Haven in Reseda, Ca. I was about 12 years old when I got these - I still have them and they are still valid for for the basics! The third book was a book on canaries, which I still have. Studying the literature is a habit that began when I was young and that I have practiced through the years. It is something that has served me well throughout my bird keeping experiences.

Back then, all of my birds came from either New York or California via Railway Express. In those days the railroad had a man in the baggage car who was responsible for watering and feeding the livestock that was shipped.

It was a wonderful arrangement and I never had a shipment that did not arrive in good condition.

When I went off to University I sold my bird collection except for the two Mexican Double Yellow Heads, which I took to school with me. I later went into the Army and was stationed in Germany. All of my three day passes were used to go to Frankfurt and spend endless hours in the wonderful Frankfurt Zoo. There I could see in the flesh such exquisite birds as Cocks of the Rock, Quetzals, Hummingbirds, Birds of Paradise and many others.

After the Army I ended up in New York City, joined the ranks of poor struggling actors, and became a regular visitor to the Bronx Zoo. I loved the "Jewel Room" in which various Sunbirds and Hummingbirds were exhibited in glass fronted enclosures. I haunted pet shops and bird dealers, almost always coming away with a feeling of sadness because the birds were so poorly kept.

I began to collect every book on aviculture I could find. I read and re read them all, fantasizing about large aviaries filled with Scarlet Minivets, Niltavas, Cocks of the Rock, etc., etc. At that time the only birds I had were a pair of Red Cheeked Cordons in a small flight cage. They gave me great joy. The fantasy birds would come later.

In the late 1960's I decided to try importing some birds. I checked all the regulations and, at that time, with the exception of Psitticines, almost anything could be imported and without quarantine. I bought a booklet that listed foreign bird sources and decided to try a German gentleman who exported birds from Ecuador. In response to my inquiry he suggested that I let him send me a dozen birds of his choosing and if I liked them, I could then pay him for them! What a concept! Anyway, the dozen were to include Hummingbirds, Tanagers and Honey Creepers. I readily agreed, found some large wooden crates and carted them home on the subway. I converted the crates into very serviceable glass fronted box cages. Shortly after that I received a call from the airport informing me that I had birds to be picked up. I managed to get them through customs and took them home in a taxi, to the delight of the taxi driver.

In preparation, I had obtained the Bronx Zoo's Hummingbird nectar formula, stocked in a good supply of fruits and insectivorous food from a local pet shop and mealworms, of course. The shipment consisted of 2 pair of Black-Headed Green Honey Creepers, one pair of Egregia Dacnis, one pair of Purple Honeyceepers, one pair of Blue Dacnis, two Violet-Eared Hummingbirds and two Rufus Tailed Amazilia Hummingbirds. They were breathtaking and all in very good plumage and condition. I distributed them to the three box cages and by the next morning the Green Honeycreepers felt enough at home to start attacking each other and anything else in sight. Later the hummingbirds had to be isolated from each other too.

Desperate, I dashed out to a local pet shop and bought 4 of the largest cages I could afford. The temperamental Black Headed Green Honeycreepers were isolated one to a cage, which seemed to suite them just fine. Other than that incident, the birds thrived. But, these were more birds than I wanted to keep permanently so I put a small ad in the New York Times "pet section" and the Bronx Zoo responded and took half of my stock.

Shortly afterwards I received a letter from Jan Roger Van Oosten in Seattle. Jan, who later became a regular client, wanted the Egregias and an Amazilia and a Violet Eared Hummer. I was now faced with figuring out how to ship them. Not being handy, I cleaned and sterilized the crate the birds had been delivered in, packed it with fruit, nectar bottles and pound cake soaked in sugar water. I booked them on Northwest Airlines and prayed. Later in the day, my prayers were answered. The birds arrived in fine condition and Jan was very pleased. And, I was hooked! I had not one loss in the shipment.

I had some of these birds for several months and none for less than a month. I had no direct experience with these specialized species, but I had carefully read the avicultural literature on them and had followed it to a "T". As I became more experienced, I made many improvements to things like diet and housing, etc., but the value of knowing the basics through reading proved invaluable to me and I am sure, to the birds. 

After that experience, a friend and I decided to go into the bird business. We created Capricorn Aviaries and began to import aviculturally rare birds. We specialized in nectar feeders (Sunbirds, Hummingbirds) and softbills. We bought finches from a local importer who let us select our birds directly from the crate. We brought in Psittacines whenever we could, but in time Velma Hart, the great Parrot breeder, supplied most of the parrots we needed. Our target market was zoological gardens and advanced aviculturists.

We did nothing remarkable in the store other than make sure that sound, basic avicultural practices were followed. Most small birds were acclimated in glass front, box cages. Sanitation was scrupulous, diets were state of the art and details were not overlooked. Our finches had grit, green food, cuttlebone, mealworms and the best seed mix we could buy. Fruit eaters had grapes, apples, pears, blueberries, etc. We used an insect food we formulated from scratch, and every bird got vitamins and plenty of bathing opportunities. All Psittacines were sprayed daily. It always amazed us how quickly birds would respond to this sort of care. We kept all birds for a minimum of two weeks after importation and sometimes longer if their condition required it. One must remember that this was a time when most dealers kept their birds for as short a time as possible, in order to minimize their losses. At one importer's I actually saw Pittas, Niltavas and Shamas that had just arrived from India, pulled from their crate and put directly into another crate for trans-shipment to customers here in the U.S.

We had our share of hard lessons. One thing we learned was which birds not to import. We avoided species which had saturated the market and limited our importations to the space we had available and to species we could properly care for.

We built our reputation by providing birds that were in excellent plumage and physical condition, and if they were not in the best of shape when we received them, we cared for them until they were. All our birds were weaned onto the best artificial diets available. We sold no bird that had not been in our care at least two weeks. We quickly learned to gauge potential buyers by experience, commitment and facilities. We would politely refuse to sell a bird to a client that we felt could or would not care for it properly. We steered beginners to hardier finches. Under our guidance, many of these people went on to become good aviculturist's and built some impressive collections. All this may seem like common sense, but it was an uncommon practice then, and sadly for the most part, it remains that way today. Our approach paid off. Our client list grew to include many of the major zoos around the country such as the San Diego Zoo, the Columbus, Ohio Zoo, and others, and many of the most prominent aviculturists of the day, including Edward Marshall Boehm and Jean Delacour.

I believe that we set a standard for dealers which has been seldom equaled, something that I wish were not the case. I feel privileged and grateful to have had the opportunity to work in depth with so many of the species that used to grace our aviaries, many of which we will probably never see in aviculture again - Cocks of the Rock, Quetzals, Hummingbirds, Sunbirds, Manakins, all of the Cotingas, most of the Tanagers and Chlorophonia's, Yuhinas, Drongos, etc.

When I moved to Santa Fe I bought a house and turned the garage into a birdroom. I had sky lights installed, dry-walled the interior and re-did the wiring. The converted garage now has a 12' X 4' X 8' flight across one end, and a 9' X 3' X 8' flight against the adjoining wall. Originally, this is all there was to be. It was going to be a sitting room with a flight with a few birds and my orchids. And it was going to be very pleasant.

Fortunately or unfortunately, my birds decided to start breeding. When a pair of Shaftails produced chicks I became quite fascinated by the occurrence. I had imported and kept a great many birds, but breeding was not that familiar to me. In those days birds were so cheap, that breeding made little sense. When my Fire Finches decided to breed a parade started that has not stopped. To date I have bred, in profusion: Red-Cheeked Cordon Bleus, Cuban Melodious, Fire Finches, Gouldians, Pearl Headed Amandines, Bearded Reedlings, Black Crowned Waxbills and to a lesser extent Strawberries, Gold Breasted Waxbills, Bichenos, Angolan Blue Breasted Waxbills, and to my frustration, a single Red Headed Parrot Finch! I also keep Fischer's Whydahs, Paradise Whydahs, Resplendent Combassous, Orange Weavers, and several Psitticines. The softbills I keep in my indoor bird room include Yellow Winged Honeycreepers, Purple Honey Creepers, Bearded Reedlings and White Bellied Sunbirds.

I also have an outdoor aviary with a heated shelter and flight. It is planted with bamboo, honeysuckle, spirea and a struggling dwarf plum tree.

The aviary houses Rufus Bellied Niltavas, Silver Eared Mesias, "Pekin Robins" (Red Billed Liothrix), a Shama Thrush, Golden Fronted Chloropsis and a pair of Rothschild's Fairy Lorikeets which produced a baby last summer.

My present efforts are to establish two specific species: Senegalese Fire Finches and Red Cheeked Cordon Bleus. I think it is very important for some of us to work with birds that have a history of successful breeding, especially considering all the restrictions put upon us today. Certainly work with rarer species is desirable and I hope that many people are working with species like purple grenadiers, etc. But we have to be very careful not to lose sight of what we KNOW we have a good chance to establish.

In the past I was a member of the American Avicultural Society and the British Avicultural Society and The Foreign Bird League. I have written for both the AAS on Hummingbirds in aviculture and for the old American Cage Bird Magazine on Long Tailed Blue-Backed Mannakins. I presently belong to both the NFSS and AFA.

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Last modified: January 07, 2004
Copyright © 1999 National Finch and Softbill Society