By Nigel Higgins.

The Redstart is one of my favorite Softbills. I have bred these fantastic little birds on numerous occasions and I have also had an article printed in Cage and Avairy Birds a few years ago.

For anyone considering the Redstart, my advice would be to keep your pair inside through the Winter months, and also, just to be on the safe side, keep them in different cages. I dont think this is neccesary but better to be safe than sorry.

Feed them on any softfood of your choice. Personally, I use Beapher. I do not add any Cheese or Egg, but simply feed straight from the packet. Also, as an added extra, for help in conditioning the Redstart, I use Abidec as a Vitimim supplement twice a week.

As the breeding season approaches, around April time, depending upon the Spring weather, place the Cock bird in his intended flight. If you can afford the space, run the Hen bird in the adjacent flight. Do not place the Hen in the same flight as the Cock just yet.

Whenever I introduce a pair of Redstarts, I find that the first Saturday in May is always a good time to place the Hen in the Cock birds flight. Prior to this day you should have witnesed numerous promising signs pointing to the fact that the Hen bird is coming into condition, for example, when the Cock has approached the Hen at the side of the flight, she has started to respond to the advances by flying up close beside him. There will be lots of obvious visual indications pointing to the fact that she shows no fear, and is starting to accept him.

When you are convinced that they are ready to be introduced, then it is time to place the Hen bird into the flight of the Cock. I walk away, but not to far, and watch them. If she is not in condition, there is a real danger that she will be killed. The indicator that you should hope to witness, is the Cock bird displaying instantly to the Hen. You should hopefully see him fly into his nest box. If your Hen bird is in breeding condition, she will follow him. If things do go to plan, he will come out first and start doing his mating ritual, dancing and singing, and displaying. He will still chase the hen as this is part of the courtship display, but this should be a more caring act. Still, you need to keep a really close eye on them until you are sure that they have accepted each other.

For nesting material I use dried grass cuttings. Within a couple of weeks they will have built up a nest, and, hopefully, there will be five blue eggs. The chicks will hatch out after another two weeks. Feed them on mini mealworms dusted with a multi vitamin and calcium powder such as Multibal. Both parents will help feed the chicks, and if all goes well, you will be ringing them at seven days old, with a size c ring.

When the chicks reach two weeks, they will leave the comfort of the nestbox. This is where you need to be watching for them feeding themselves, which should take another week or so.

As soon as they are showing independence, by looking after themselves, remove them from the flight and put them into their own cage or flight. Have two dishes placed inside, one for water, and one for softfood with livefood sprinkled on top. As they eat the live food, they will pick up small amounts of the softfood, and this will encourage them onto it. Feed them like this until the whole dish is empty then you will have succeeded in encouraging them to eat softfood. Once you reach this stage, simply reduce the quantity of live food that you give them.

I hope that this information will be of a benifit to anyone new to this side of the hobby. The hardest part of keeping the Redstart, is pairing them up. If you pick the correct time, and they are both in condition, you will have cracked it and you will feel very proud of your achievment. You also need to be aware of the fact that, at any time, the Hen bird is also more than capable of Killing the Cock.

Good luck, you will not regret keeping the Redstart.