COVER STORY: SOFTBILLS
I HAVE kept native wheatears on and off for a few years. My first success in breeding them was back in 2000. As a nest site, I offer my birds a brick chamber with a slab placed on top as a roof. The base I used back in 2000 was sharp sand. That pair dug a scrape out in the sharp sand and built a nest. They laid and reared successfully. However, I had removed the cock wheatear to an adjacent aviary and let the hen do all the rearing on her own – she did that marvellously well.
During the past couple of years I have had pairs that for some reason have ignored each other or fought and had to be split up. Not being
