AFA Visits ... Herschel Frey

Abstract

Nest led in the outskirts of Pittsburgh, where the Ohio River begins, is the aviary of Herschel Frey, a longtime member and friend of the AFA and contributor to the pages of Watchbird.

Herschel is a native of Texas where, as a child, he took many a long walk in the neighboring woods in search of bird nests. His interest in the natural world around him led to keeping birds as a hobby, which he began at the age of seven with doves. As with many of us, the collection expanded to include cockatiels and budgerigars. Herschel was fortunate to be one of the first people to breed Harlequins and other rare mutation budgies in the early 1950s.

Over the years, Herschel moved around, living all over the United States. Fifteen years ago he moved to Pittsburgh to take a position at the University as a professor of linguistics and, at last, enough stability was at hand to facilitate the raising of birds. His wife, Harriet, was a bit surprised when he came home with his first pair of Lady Goulds, since she had no idea of Herschel's interest in aviculture.

Little information was available back then, but Herschel was able to get in touch with fellow finch fanciers, Bertha Scroggins and Doris Morgan of the Finch Society of San Diego for assistance. It wasn't long before a number of flights went up in the basement and Herschel was on the road to becoming a noted breeder.

Herschel has worked with all the Australian finches except the Beautiful Firetail, which is impossible to acquire in the U.S. He even had several pairs of the Crimson or Blood Finches which he received from the San Diego Zoo. These proved to be quite aggressive, so he was forced to surplus them to other breeders.

Herschel became interested in mutation Goulds after seeing a shipment of White Breasted Goulds about ten years ago. He obtained two White Breasted males, which produced a number of splits, and he was off and running. Today he has most of the Gould mutations available and is breeding them with great success.

Herschel is also working with the lovely and rare Painted Finch (Emblema picta). He imported a few himself, but the first shipment proved to be birds of a poor pedigree, which forced another importation. The second shipment consisted of birds of a very high quality, which Herschel purchased from a breeder in Holland. These birds have established themselves as a hardy and sound bloodline, which be has kept going for over seven years. Herschel's work with the Painted Finch was documented in an article published in Watchbird in October, 198 5.

Herschel feels his birds breed best when kept in a large, uncrowded enclosure. On average, a single pair to a small cage does not work as well as one would like, since the male and female often bother each other, resulting in infertility and a refusal to incubate. Nevertheless, Herschel does cage breed to some extent.

 

 

 

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