Buy Dybowski’s Twinspot Online

Description

From Africa, the Dybowski’s Twinspot (Euschistospiza dybowskii) are found in the grass between rocks on riverbanks and on the edge of forests and other dense vegetation. Nests are typically low to the ground. These birds like cover and highly appreciate to take their nap well hidden in thicket and get quite tame when they can retrieve to safety under dense cover. Dybowski’s Twinspots prefer an aviary but if they are in a cage, it should be large enough to get one corner decorated with either artificial plants or cuttings.

Geography: Africa; Eastern Sierra Leone to Nigeria, Cameroon and northeastern Congo

Song / Call: Click to listen to Dybowski’s Twinspot

Size / Weight: 4.75″ / 12 – 14 gm

Sexing: Male has head to neck and breast dark grey, upperparts, including rump and uppertail-coverts, crimson, tail feathers blackish-brown, edged greyish-red, upperwing brownish-black; lower breast to undertail-coverts black, flanks with white spots; iris dark brown to reddish-brown, eyering reddish-pink; bill black; legs blackish. Female is paler below than male, chin to breast paler grey, lower underparts and flanks grey, undertail-coverts sooty grey.

Temperament:  Cock birds can be aggressive towards other finches especially around breeding season. Dybowski’s Twinspots may be kept with other finches but it is best to give each pair an aviary of their own. To avoid aggression and/or injury spare birds should not be kept in an aviary with a breeding pair.

Breeding:  Best results are achieved in a planted aviary.  Less reliable breeding results occur when housed indoors in a cage.  Low shrubs as well as taller shrubs and tall grasses are good. The male courts a female on the ground or a perch while holding a stem or feather in it’s bill and hopping around the hen with his head held upward, belly feathers raised, bobs up and down,  and sings. Sometimes he’ll move his head from side to side. If courting while on the ground, his tail is spread and touches the ground. Their nest is a loosely constructed ball of dry grass and plant fibres, lined with feathers. If it’s built on the ground it will have an entrance tube. If above the ground in a fern or shrub, there’ll be no entrance tube. Clutches are usually 4–6 eggs with an incubation period of 13–14 days.

Lifespan: 10+ years

Diet: Goldfinch Seed Mix, Australian Blend Goldenfeast, some fruits, leafy green vegetables and seeding grasses. Live foods, such as mealworms and/or crickets, are essential during the breed season.

DNA testing:

If there is no gender option listed for a bird on our website, that particular species is ‘monomorphic’, which means we’re unable to determine gender without purchasing DNA testing. DNA testing is an additional $149 per bird to guarantee preferred gender. DNA testing may add an additional 3-6 plus weeks to estimated delivery time to allow for gender results. See our FAQs for more info.