Home – Watching, keeping and breeding Estrildid Finches (Estrildidae), like waxbills, firefinches, etc.

I am Tony Jochem from The Netherlands, bird watcher, keeper and breeder of Estrildid Finches and author of two books about these nice little birds.

E-mail: t.jochem@avitoon.nl

Estrildids are, in my opinion, the most beautiful finches on earth. They live in Africa, South East Asia, Oceania and Australia. In many countries it is prohibited to import birds. This is the case for most European countries. To keep them for the aviculture, it is necessary to breed them in captivity. Many species are already lost because breeding them is difficult.

Advisor  Avibase – Taxonomy of the Birds of the World 2018. (see pag. 694)

This website

In the past I have bred dozens of these beautiful intelligent birds of many different species, like: Granatina’s, Cordon bleus, Amandavas, Firefinches, Waxbills, Twinspots, Pytilias, Seedcrackers, Firetails, Grasfinches, Parrotfinches and Lonchuras.
I’d like to share the knowledge and experiences that I collected during many, many years. On this website you’ll find a part of this knowledge. Besides this website I wrote the following two books (neither one is available anymore):

Estrildid Finches in the picture This book was written to serve as a source of information, a reference work for all who wish to become more knowledgeable about that wonderful branch of the family of finches known as Estrildid Finches. It does not pretend to be a scientific treatise, but aims to be a useful aid for aviculturists who keep and breed their birds with the goal of preserving the species.

Breeding Estrildid Finches This book provides extensive information about keeping and breeding Astrilds, Amadines, Parrot finches and Lonchuras.  It was written for breeders, by a breeder and has about 120 full color pictures of many Estrildid Finches and the accommodation and equipment of the birdhouse of the author.