By Nigel Higgins.

The Wheatear is an easy bird to sex. When in breeding condition, the cock has a blue upperbody, and the hen a brown upperbody. They both have a black stripe running from the back of the head to the beak. The stripe of the cock bird stands out much more than the hen. They both have a white rump and this is where there name arrives from.

When pairing Wheaters, place the cock bird in its intended flight from the end of March to the begining of April. If you have the space, place the hen in an adjacent flight for a week or two.

If they are both in condition the cock will pick up a piece of nesting material and run along the edge of the flight and the hen will run alongside of him. If you do not have the luxury od adjacent flights, keep trying her in with the cock until he accepts her. I find the first Saturday in May is the best time to pair up.

When providing the nesting chamber, all i used was sharp sand as a base. I placed three house bricks on their side to form a chamber, with an old slab as a roof, and then a half brick placed in front of the entrance, just leaving a small opening for the hen to get through.

The hen will dig out a scrape, similar to a Skylark, and construct a nest in this.

The only nesting material I use is cocunut fibre and dried grass, but the hen bird seems to prefer using only the coconut fibre.

The Wheatear will lay up to five light blue eggs, with the hen bird doing all of the incubating.

After two weeks, the chicks will hatch. I feed mine on mini mealworms dusted with a multivitamins and calcium powder.

Ring the chicks with a size E ring when they are about five days old.

They will stay in the nest for another two weeks, but when they finally venture out of the nest site, they will stay quite well hidden only appearing to get fed from their mother.

Wheatears will go on to breed twice in a season, so hopefully they will repeat their breeding activities once again for you.

The Wheatear is a delight to keep, and I would recommend them to any keen softbill keeper.

I have kept Wheatears out in there flights throughout the Winter but I would not recommend this as today's prices for small Softbills are starting to go through the roof. It is not worth losing them.

I now keep all of my migrant Softbills in large cages within the bird room during the harsh Winter months, however, I do know lots of Softbill keepers that leave there birds outside through the winter with no ill effects. The choice is yours.

Good luck.