Hwa Mei - Melodius Laughing Thrush [Garrulax Cannorus]

Surprisingly, last year I heard around 11 birds of this kind has arrived in a bird market in Surabaya, but unfortunately I had no chance to get one of it. The news I heard was too late for me to catch it. Fortunately, there is another wave is coming and now I have a chance to get it.
I choose to take a pair, a couple of Hwa Mei. Those birds are wild, just like a new catch from the wild in China. No smooth and complete feather and absolutely they don't sing as you imagine.

I used to take care a lot of hwa mei many years ago and today I think I will put a same treatment as it used to be.


The birds are very wild at the first time they arrived at home. I have to catch the male, since I have to do some manicures (whoooa ...) on its nails and beaks, which already too long and can harm it self. After the exercise, the male is getting more wild and wild, seems it got stressed. So, I decide not do the same treatment to the female.
I take another option to prevent the nails from growing to much, by changing the perch from the previous (using Tamarind wood branch, which famously and always used for the caged bird in Indonesia, instead of other materials) and becoming pre-treated round-shape fabricated wood with glued sand underneath. The nails will be automatically sand-paper treated likes, everytime they jump or the fingers hold on it. They are now being tamed a little bit, especially the female. The male is still affraid when a person is closing to them or taking/bring their cage down, still looks too wild.


After the sixth month, both birds were reached adult age, getting attracted to each other. Everytime I separate them, or moving one of them to another place to hang its cage, they just apparently singing. The male is also singing more often everyday, it is a good sign that they have been tamed or adapted to the environment.
I also started to put the male to a round shape cage. The cage is a common shape and size, which usually been used in China or other place as it is origin. I can not find a daily use cage with this model in the market right now, especially the model and finishes according to what I want to, so when a friend offer me a used cage, I decided to take the offer. I brought the cage from Malang, where it came from, and put this to a specialist for re-build it, since the cage is broken, no bottom parts, no common accessories left from it. It been done within 2 weeks later then and I put the accessories on it, such as the hanger (steel), the clipper/locking (stainless plate), the feeding bowls, the perch, the carpet, etc. (By the way, the 'Batman' logo is very ugly, I think ...) Actually, the cage is very small for this bird kind, I think, but this is the most effective way to tame it. I still did not get a chance to find the cage for the female, the good one, so it still be placed in a square small cage. it does not matter, since the female is more tamed than the male.

I took a short video capture of this male Hwa Mei for you to have an idea how it is looks like right now, after six months of treatment and taking care of them, as seen by clicking this short cut: Finchpolis on Youtube, and check it out ...