Breeding

With the housing  being taken care off  the next step is to establish a breeding pair. Sexes are determined as noted above under  Biology and Behavior.

Do not attempt to house two pairs in one aviary, particularly  during the breeding season and in a suitable breeding environment (planted aviary) . The birds will establish territorial rights and attack and even kill the weaker pair. The same birds may be compatible in small barren cage, since it does not trigger territorial behavior. A flock of pekins of 6 and more birds may get along since their behavior response to establish a territory is scrambled by the presence of too many birds, still aggression builds up as the breeding season approaches. I do not keep more than one pair per aviary from December on.  In the wild pekin robins travel in small flocks, much like tits, during the fall and winter.

The pairing of birds is generally not a problem. The species is not very aggressive in their pair forming behavior. The male will display to the female and follow her while showing off his wing markings, reminiscent of a butterfly, and attempt to get close to the female. If she is receptive, she normally responds by staying in one spot and bobbing her tail slowly up and down while omitting a specific call like very soft cries. The male will not make contact at that time but continue to get closer, often hopping over her to the other side of the perch. As the birds get more confident they will start to preen each other. It could be the male or the female to be the initiator. Soon the birds will roost together and form a close bond. They mate for life. Carrying nesting material is the next phase, but actual mating is not seen after the nest is substantially completed. Occasionally, the male may be too aggressive or the female too timid to interact at first, but the pair usually forms in less two than weeks and roost together at nights . Rarely the birds will not become compatible. Rouge males can be troublesome, but I have only observed this with birds which had been kept singly in small cages for many years.

Nests are constructed in about one week. Both parents work on the nest. However, in my experience, it is  the male that picks the spot by starting the first weaves of grasses/raffia in the crotch of a bush or tree. The hen is more active in the lining the nest with coconut fibers. One copulation suffices to fertilize the clutch of 3 to 4 eggs. Mating is noted for about two to three days until eggs are laid. Egg laying occurs shortly after the nest is completed. A pair which is established does not go through the staged courtship display at the onset of the nesting season as newly introduced birds do. If separated for even long periods they recognize each other immediately when reunited. They mate for life. The carrying of nesting material and nest construction is the obvious sign of starting a new family by an established pair.

The outer nest “hammock” is made of raffia or grasses. Coconut fiber, rootlets and dry bamboo leaves form the lining. Pekins do not feather their nest nor do they insulate it well like northern songbirds. Presumably insulation is less critical in generally warmer climates, and open woven nests dry faster in tropical rains. While most of the birds are quite capable in anchoring the nest cup, it seems safer to slip a “nest support” into the spot where they begin their nest. This must be done early on, while they are not too possessive of the nest site and ideally while the birds are out of sight. A nest support is made by bending wire into a 4 to 5 inch diameter circle to form the nest rim and connecting crossing wire ends to it, to create an open basket. The wire frame is wrapped with raffia to help the birds to accept the basket.

As mentioned before, a good cover of bushes and evergreens is absolutely important to hide the nest. A suitable nest site and availability of nesting material go hand in hand. The birds look for dry grasses and particularly like raffia to start their nest. Raffia cut to about 8 inch long and spliced to strips about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch is used to start the nest bowl. One must  exclude  thin string like strands which can cause entrapment. Despite this a bird  may hang itself by getting the raffia caught by its leg band or toes.

The building of a good nest is no guarantee that eggs will follow. Other factors play a role: season, health, presence of live food in their diet, and, above all, disturbances influence the course of events. Privacy is critical.

On average the eggs hatch after 12 days of incubation. During the day the parents take turns sitting on the eggs and start incubation when the second egg is laid. The female always incubates and broods at night time. She lays 3 eggs and infrequently 4 eggs. The chicks hatch generally on the same day even though some eggs have not been incubated for the full 12 days. This  accounts for variances in hatchling size. The last chick may hatch up to 24 hours later, but seldom after that. The parents will remove any leftover egg shells and dead chicks from the nest and carry them as far as possible, at times pushing them through the mesh wire to the outside of the enclosure.

The parents only feed live or on the spot killed insects by the keeper to their chicks. Possibly, the birds can be trained to feed dead (frozen-thawed) insect, but none of my birds do this, nor do I insist on trying this.  Mealworms, waxworms and crickets are the most common insects obtainable. Wild crickets, grasshoppers, moths, hairless caterpillars, spiders, small dragon flies, carpenter ants, ear wigs, larvae of wood borers and winged termites are all keenly accepted. They do not accept earthworms.

It is not uncommon to lose hatched chicks on their 4th to 5th day of life. The parents may throw weakened chicks out even if they are not dead at that time. Vitamin/mineral deficiency is suspected. In the wild, parents feed on a wider range of insect species exposed to more  UV light and richer in vitamin D. After hatching, the chicks first have support from their remaining yolk sack to bridge nutrient imbalances. We know that the Ca:P ratio is very unfavorable in commercial insects. Calcium is much too low, while Phosphorus is very high. Ca:P should be 2:1  to 1.5 :1, but this is grossly inverted in mealworms 1:16,   1:7 in crickets  and 1:8 in  waxworm. It appears the affected chicks lose vigor in begging for food which diminishes the feeding impulse by the parents and the parent-chick behavior patterns become dysfunctional.

Offering wild caught insects often restarts feeding interest by the parents and chick feeding response. Spiders, grass hoppers, moths etc. are conducive I believe Ca deficiency to be the main problem.  I inject liquid Ca with a syringe into waxworms to ensure enough Ca is delivered to the chicks. Dusting insects with vitamin/mineral powder has limited benefits since pekin robins beat food insect against the perch to kill them and prepare them for feeding to the chicks. This removes the supplement. Many parent birds reject  heavily dusted insects, which can be done by coating them with vegetable or cod liver oil and calcium powder. Lack of calcium is the primary problem in raising pekin robins. It contributes to losing them in the nest, inability to fly when they fledge and loss after fledging. Such chicks may show deformed legs and beaks: a clear sign of rickets.

NEW DISCOVERY : mealworms can be used to raise broods of pekin robins by coating mealworms once a day with halibut liver oil and then dusting them with crushed calcium tablets. Both products are available for human consumption in drugstores.  Evidently the higher provision of Vitamin D is pivotal for calcium absorption in pekin robins and bearded tits, aside from ensuring that more of the calcium adheres to the insects when fed by the parent birds. (Summer 2011)

Gut loading waxworms by mixing vitamin /mineral supplement (Prime, a Hagen product) with the honey when the waxworm culture medium is prepared has improved the survival of chicks. Attempting to raise hatched pekins robins by exclusively offering  mealworm is hopeless in my experience. Crickets are the best choice since they seem to ingest dusted on powder by cleaning themselves.

A risk period lies within 2 to 4 days after fledging. It appears that fledged chicks are most likely lost at that time. Chicks in marginal condition are unable to cope with the stress of attempting to fly and seek out high roost in the aviary. Muscle burn-out often results  which leads to depression and chock. A healthy chicks will seek out a secure perching place and join its siblings to huddle together while the parents bring the food to them.  A barren cage causes chick to exhaust themselves. To avoid anxiety in hatched chicks and the urge to work their way up in the enclosure, which often results in falls and constant retries, the enclosure must have denser plant cover from the ground up (laddering) and, most importantly, be left undisturbed.  Loss of fledged chicks is in my opinion often attributed to environmental than simply dietary deficiencies.

Healthy chicks will  reach high places on the day of fledging and  will remain hidden for several days until they begin to venture out. If the chicks are disturbed they will disperse and gradually join up again. Huddling together conserves energy and reduces anxiety. A chick which sleeps or rests with its head hanging down is a weakened bird.  If the parents neglect to feed it or the chick does not accept food, the time has come to remove it for hand-raising.

Pekin robin chicks can be hand reared, which is usually successful once they are five or more days old.

Abandonment of the nest can be triggered by severe disturbance. Nocturnal predators (cats, raccoons) cause such events.