How do I care for Japanese waxwings?

I'd like to start keeping and breeding Japanese waxwings. I would like some information about breeding and feeding. Do they need heating during the colder weather? Can they be housed with other birds?
M.C., Merseyside.

Bob Baggs, foreign bird expert, replies: If birds are in perfect health when obtained, the best advice would be to continue feeding and caring for them in a similar manner to their previous owner. Any additional items thought to be beneficial can be included over time. They need some shelter in which to retire to and be fed, but they should not require heating.

The rarity of Japanese waxwings (Bombycilla japonica) demands that a pair should have a spacious, planted aviary to themselves. In the wild they nest in the upper branches of coniferous trees, so an aviary with a high shrub may encourage them to build a cup-shaped nest. Material may include rootlets, coconut fibre, slender twigs, animal hair, and moss. Eggs are incubated for about 14 days, with young leaving after a similar period.

They can be offered an insectivorous food, eggfood, and sweet fruits, although they are partial to various berries, such as those of the rowan, viburnum, cotoneaster, pyracantha, blackberry, juniper, hips and haws. They will take a few mealworms, but for birds that are often inactive in an aviary, they are thought to take midges in flight.