Any Fire Finch breeders out there - I have a question.

[wilkifam]

To any of you who have raised Fire Finches. I have a nest full of either eggs that will be hatching any minute, or maybe already have hatched - parents will not let me look.

Do you close band these little folks? I have never dealt with them before, and will disturbing them cause them to abandon? They are captive bred parents, and seem comfortable with me around doing regular cage cleaning stuff, but getting babies in and out of their little makeshift nest may prove difficult.

I would like to maybe show some birds next year, and know that the don't have to be closed banded to show, but to show as young birds they do.....

Thoughts?

[Ginene]

Hey Lori...I know Brian ( birdclaws ) has fires...hopefully he can help you

[Sally]

I rarely band in the nest with my waxbills, they just don't tolerate nest checks enough to risk it. I wait till they fledge, and then I usually have to go up one size on the bands. You have to do this the day they fledge, as they are growing so fast that the closed bands won't go over the ankle for long. I sometimes have to use something like Neosporin to help get the bands over the ankle.

If you wanted to show any of these babies next year, they would still go in the old class, whether banded or not. Only babies wearing closed-bands of the current year of the show can go in the young class. So all 2014 banded babies will go in the old classes in 2015. Babies hatched/banded with 2015 bands will be shown in the young classes at shows next fall.

Fire finches take a B normally, so they would go up to a C at fledge. Want some C's included in your shipment? There is no charge for these, I am not using them.

[isobea]

Hi Lori,
Here is my two cents worth: I have raised fire finches before but never showed them. So I waited till the day they fledged to put open colored bands on them (just so I knew who was related to whom). In the 1980s I raised European goldfinches, linnets and European siskins in Germany. Since they were native birds, you had to be a member of a club for native song birds and band them with closed and numbered metal bands. I always did this on day 9 or 10 and the only problem I encountered was that some of the parents tried to pull the shiny metal bands off. One time they accidentally pulled the whole chick out of the nest. After that I dulled the shiny bands by smearing a little dirt on hem - problem solved. None of my birds ever abandoned the chicks after I put the bands on.
Good luck, Iso