Comments Re: FinchInfo

[MadHatter]

Crystal:

I've just had a sticky-beak at you Finch Info site and for the most part am thoroghly impressed. Although I do have one thing I feel I need to take issue with:

In the Housing section, under Compatability, you list the Diamond Firetail under "Tier 3 - Agressive". Yours is the first resouce where I have seen this assesment of them.
From my personal experience; I have kept and bred this species in a mixed collection in an outdoor aviary measuring approximately 6 feet by 12 which also housed stars, plumheads, painteds, cordons, doublebars (owls),Blue-faced Parrotfinches and St. Helenas. At no time did they ever show the slighest aggression even when I had my breeding pair and 6 almost mature offspring. If I were asked, I would have had no hesitation in nominating the stars as the most aggressive of the lot - they at least can be quite belligerent to members of their own species. The Diamonds were never anything but peacable and inoffensive.
Furthermore, for many years I worked in a dedicated bird shop. At no time did I witness any agression on the part of the diamond firetails - even though we stocked them fairly regularly and housed them in mixed and sometimes overcrowded aviaries with practically every other species available at one time or another. Also, I cannot recall a single occasion where I spoke to a customer who complained about aggression in this species.

I will concede this much however:
Firstly, that Diamonds are not suited to small indoor aviaries/cages - They seem to become easily bored and will often pluck thir cagemates bald as a result. This is not so much due to agression as to excessive and over-enthusiastic allopreening. When these birds are placed into a sufficiently large aviary this behavior usually ceases. (they also tend to obesity when housed in small cages)
Secondly, that those birds found overseas may for some reason be more inclined to agression than those kept in captivity in australia. Perhaps breeders overseas, while selecting for fecundity and a willingness to breed in captivity, inadvertently also selected for agression...

In conclusion, from what I know of them I do not feel they would rate any more than a tier 2, and then only due to their unsuitability to small cages.

[Crystal]

The compatability chart is largely based off of Christa Koepff's chart from her book The New Finch Handbook where she says of Diamond Firetails, "To be kept in separate pairs; not to be combined with other species."

There are exceptions to every rule, and I am sure quite a few docile pairs exist, but I personally have not owned any firetails so I based their status in the compatability chart on what others have written about them in published finch books.