Another bird expo sale today! This was the second part of my birthday gift this year. I was able to go to an exotic bird expo and get some more cagebirds. I love going to these! Whenever I can find one! Last year we went to Reno and there was a big bird expo there! It would have been bigger though, but a breeder from LA had a big accident on the way there. Of course I sent my prayers to them. Today's venue was a small one. Mostly run-of-the-mill finches, like zebras and societies. When we drove into the parking lot, my sis noticed the building wasn't very big. I told her "it isn't the size of the building that counts. It's the goodies inside the building!" I always go to big expo's like these in the hopes I will see something I've either never seen before, or something I've always wanted! Well, today I found both.
I went with a list of things I needed to find. But the only one I managed to fulfill was a male red-faced gouldian finch. I had one that I got in Reno last year. But he had some yellow feathers. He looked strange to me. I still loved him though. But he unexpectedly died. It was a sort of blessing in disguise. As much as I hate to say that. I mean, I'm never happy to lose a bird. But I didn't know what to do with him. He barely looked like a gouldian. Anyways, today there was a breeder selling gouldians there today, so I got a red-faced male. But she had no females, and those were what I really need. Nobody had female anything there today!
There was also a guy selling different kinds of exotic doves, and a couple of exotic hookbills. I almost got the elegant parakeets, but again, they were both males. One was younger than the other, and just getting into his full adult plumage. But even then, you could still tell both were males. I don't really need that. He was going to give me a good price on them too. A lot of his doves I'd only seen in books, never out in an expo. But again, no male-female couples! So I had to turn them down. I did find a couple of black-faced lovebirds, the normal colored ones! So I got a couple of those. But it was the next exhibitor that really made my dreams come true. He had a single male pytilia finch, also called a melba finch...
This is one species I've always wanted, and I've only seen them once before, back in 1992, when I went to my very first bird expo. I remember driving all the way from Castle Rock to Hillsboro to attend that expo. I spent every last penny I had on those birds, and back then, that was a big deal for me. But I did not get one of those melbas I saw. I was new to the hobby, and did not realize it would take me 35 years to see another melba finch. So, when I saw this one at the expo today, I was ecstatic! I snatched him up, even though it was a lone male. Now, I have to find a female somehow, and I hope it doesn't take me another 35 years!
The same exhibitor also had a species I have never seen before! Only in one book. It was a male-female pair of red-collared widowbirds!
I've never seen anyone who carries these! I did once have a close relative of their's, a paradise whydah. That was back in 1992 again, and I saw him with his mate in a pet store. The female died when I moved into a live-in babysitting job about a month after I got them, but the male went on to live a full life, and even started getting into breeding plumage shortly after the female died. I tried to find another paradise female for him, but they were hard to find, even back then. I was just lucky to find that couple in a pet store in Milton. I haven't seen any more since. But I am so grateful to GOD that I found these red-collared widowbirds there today! I snatched them up too. Normally, they sell for about $900. But this guy let me have this couple for $300. He said he had too many of them. Where has this man been all my life????
No comments:
Post a Comment