WHITE-RUMPED SHAMA
(Copsychus Malabaricus)

Partial breeding by pair of White-Rumped Shama

Description
The head, throat, upper breast and upper parts of the male is black in colour, and the rump, upper tail coverts and outer tail feathers are white. The underparts are dark orange-rufous. The female is duller in colour, the black of the male being replaced with grey in the female.

Distribution
It is widespread in South East Asia. The most beautiful variety with very long tail (sometimes over 12 inches) and loud and varied singing voice are to be found in Langkawi Islands in North-West Malaysia.

Habitat
It is a forest bird, and seldom ventures into the open. It is usually found in thick secondary jungle in the lowlands

Song
This is one of the world's finest song-birds. Its song is loud, melodious and varied. Its wings and tail are held stiffly and somewhat bowed when it sings.

Feed
It feeds on ants, insects, worms, maggots, caterpillars and grasshoppers.

The pictures you see here are of captive-bred Shamas bred by Kan Tien Siong (T.S.Kan) since 1993.

He started breeding Shamas by pairing a captive-bred female chick with a male bird of tail-length 11½ inches. This male bird was many times champion at bird singing competitions in Singapore between the late eighties and early nineties.

Subsequent female chicks from this pairing were bred with 3 other male birds of tail-length in excess of 12 inches and which were also champions at bird singing competitions. Among these 3 male birds of proven quality, character and temperament is T S Kan's own well-known champion (origin Langkawi Islands, a bird considered exceptional in all departments-variety of song, loudness of voice, long and broad tail that softly flows downward quite like the tail of a prawn, thinly-feathered long body supported by firm long and dark-complexioned legs that poses attractively on the perch during the rare quieter moments when this bird is not singing or moving about)

From these 3 main lines of breeding male birds, T S Kan will select the best of female chicks to either mate with the other 2 male birds or back with its own father. Male chicks that bred true for song, character and most important a tail-length of at least 10 inches and broad and soft at first full-moult, will be kept back for breeding with their sisters or half-sisters, within the 3 main lines, which are again chosen to breed having the same good qualities of their intended male mates.