Some photos of what I picked up today

[Matthias]

So the aviary is finally ready. After 3 long weeks of waiting and delays today it was completed.i was really hoping to release the birds today but by the time it was completed it had started to become dark.thought best to wait another day and release then in broad day light rather than in the evening as they would not have had time to settle on their perches for the evening .tomorrow finally I release them.cant wait

[Colt]

The finished aviary looks lovely. Can't wait to see it with birds tomorrow.

[monotwine]

[Matthias]

So the much awaited day has arrived and oh was i excited and pleased .. before releasing what i had i went to pick up the following

4 x hecks
4 x diamond firetail (3 common 1 orange tail)
6 bengalese (different colours)
2 x star finches(i believe they are split to yellow mutation as they are very fair)
2 x parsons

once picked up i headed straight to the new home and off they went into the aviary.. they looked so confused.. it seemed so obvious they had never been allowed to so much flying space ever in their lives. Some actually struggled to get on perches in the first 10-20 minutes.. after a couple of hours they all seemed to settle in and started making territories and went down to the feeders to eat and bathe.

Now next step is to wait and see and breeding behaviours will start a new post with that eventually, once someones decides to start building a nest .. im going to try my best to not peek AT ALL as ive ruined man clutches in the past with nest checks and i dont want to go through that again.

[Matthias]

Yesterday i found out about a petshop who flies to holland to buy finches on order by his clients.. he will be flying on the 5th of august to return mid august.. i ordered :
pair owl finches
pair african silverbills
pair yellow face star finches and
one male firefinch as my previous male perished for no apparent reason.might have been change of cage stress as he was eating normally and had no quarrels with the other birds.

On an another note i might be removing the diamond firefinches from the aviary very regretfully as they are waaaay to agressive.will be giving them another day or two to see if they sort out their territory and stop harassing the other birds. AND SURPRISE SURPRISE i might have to remove one pair of the gouldians. Never in my life did i experience such horrid aggression from a the humble,placid gouldian but this time.. in particular the black head/purple breast male is being an utter horrid bird in particular with one fawn bengalese. he will chase it down till they are both exhausted. Same will go for this pair of gouldians.. will give them a couple days chance to see what will happen.. if nothing changes ill remove him and his partner.. in that way ill make space for the new additions coming in august

to all those who said 50 birds would have been too much.. you were RIGHT .. i have a total of 36 finches in it at the moment and i think it is the perfect amount.. anymore than that will just be a crowd.

Now im debating wether to sell the diamonds and gouldians or give them seperate breeding cages outside the aviary .. space will prove to be the problem however

[Matthias]

to add to the previous note regarding behaviours..

Cuban finches: the one pair i have are behaving completely differently to what ive previously read about them. They had been depicted as viscous killers in a mixed aviary especially with black or yellow coloured finches. BUT no. They are madly in love with one another.They are not getting into anyones way and seems like they are looking for a nice nest to use

Red cheeked cordon bleus : two pairs of them. In general quite placid however can get a bit antsy when someone else decided to share the same perch they are on. The two males can get quite aggressive between each other mostly JUST when either one of them is singing at his respective partner. The other male will just fly over from either side of the cage to ''disturb'' the courtship . Hope they sort this out as they also seem to be in breeding condition and looking for nests to use.

Parsons: Like the cuban finches they surprised me as they have been describes as being quite aggressive but they seem to be getting along well with the rest especially with the Hecks. At the moment they are jumping in and out of nests

Parrot Finches: a pair of these.. living up to their fame.. absolutely placid and completely oblivious towards the presence of the other finches in the aviary.. i seem to be pretty sure to have a male (pied) and female (red face) but they dont seem to be bonding however i read somewhere that they dont really show much love to each other as couples. will wait and see (looking for a pair of blue faced in the meantime)

Hecks finches: 2 pairs of these.. absolute sweet hearts between each other but can be a little aggressive at times towards any other birds that come too close to them

Star finches : one pair of these.. they are spot on as described elsewhere.. calm and composed .. very peaceful birds.. the male just cant stop singing to his partner at the moment.. but no movement looking for nests that i can detect at the moment

Lavenders : Another pleasant surprise like the cubans.. have a pair of these and they are seeming to be completely oblivious toward other finches.. they are VERY energetic birds and just fly from one side to the other together all day and occasionally stop to eat and cuddle and preen each other

bengalese : 3 pairs of them.. they are bengalese ..

Plum heads: Cant really say much about them .. sometimes i think they managed to find their way out of the aviary as i go by one or 2 hours with not seeing them.. no idea where they are when they disappear . Other wise when i see them they are either eating or drinking or bathing.. dont seem aggrressive

Female fire finch : She doesnt seem too fussed about her previous partner perishing . But still want to get her another male via the finch importer mentioned in previous post

I hope these experiences ive had till now with such a mix of finches can come in handy to some which were debating wether to release certain species of finches together ..

[Matthias]

Gouldian update : To much surprise and regret their bad behaviour persisted and i was forced to remove them..

The diamond firetails seem to have settled in but im still keeping a close eye on them and might reduce them to one pair rather than 2 anyway ..

[Corkysgirl]

Wow, that's quite a family you have there! Can't wait to see pictures of close ups of the birds!

[Colt]

What are the dimensions on the aviary? I still feel like that is a tad bit overstocked/populated and you could potentially run into more problems further down the road.

I'd also consider removing the Heck's Shaft-tails or the Parson's because they hybridize quite easily. Here in the US Parson's are relatively uncommon so we try to ensure hybridization doesn't occur diluting the gene pool. Also when the birds are ready to breed, Parson's can become fairly aggressive. I realize they aren't now but that can change relatively quickly. Most of the their aggression will be directed towards the Shaft-tails as they see them as a threat. This will be especially evident if the aviary isn't large enough to provide all three pairs with separate breeding/nesting sites.

[Matthias]

The aviary is 4 metres long by about 2.2 metres high and just over a metre wide.. .. yes i read about parsons/hecks hybrids.. but i bought seperately bonded pairs.. however ive been noticing that sometimes they perch next to each other and preen each other very lovingly.. till now no sign of nest building from anyone though however ill keep a close eye on them ..

regarding nests , the birds dont seem very interested in nesting.. maybe its too hot at about 35 celcius or they dont like the nest set ups i offered.. basically i built like shelving enclosures and placed nests in these shelves.. and have different types of nests at their disposal ..

i thought the cuban finches were setting up nest but yesterday i realised they were carrying nesting material to 3 different places.. 2 different nests and in a tree.. the tree is turning out to be completely unsuccessful as there are other finches in the aviary and the cubans carry nesting material in one of the trees in vain.. the other two nests one is full of nesting material and the other has only some.. i think they are just playing around though although the male chases the female whistling his heart out and when landing on a perch lowers his wings and sings very loud and opens his beak as though he wants to be fed..as per youtube this is courtship but we will see..

The parrot finches seemed to be interested in carrying some nesting material in one of the nests also .. similar story though.. they carried just a little bit ,enough to barely cover the base of an open fronted wired nest( greenfinch style nest) but today i caught two diamond fire finches in this nest and caught the parrot finches exploring a nest in the tree.. i think they are either still very confused to be released in such a big space after having lived in relatively small cages all their lives up until now or they really dislike the nest and nesting areas provided or its just too hot for them at the moment.. i dont know.. quite confused really..

[Sally]

I can only guess, since I don't have experience with mixed aviaries, but from what I've read, one of the biggest problems with mixed aviaries is birds stealing nesting material from each other, swapping/stealing nests, swapping territories. It is hard to get them to settle down to breeding unless they have enough space for each pair to have their own territory. You will just have to experiment to see what will work, removing those birds that won't settle down.

It is probably still a bit overcrowded, which will affect your breeding success. Unless each pair can have enough space to establish their own territory, it is hard for them to concentrate on breeding. Not impossible, but more difficult.

[Matthias]

Colt

now that i removed the gouldians i have a total of 32 birds.. i might be buying one of these x 4 breeding cages that sit on top of each other and remove the diamond firetails and the hecks..if not the hecks it will be the parsons.. but im leaning toward the hecks as they are 4 of them as opposed to only 2 for the parsons and mid august i have a pair of owls,pair of cut throats, pair of silverbills and a male fire finch which i will release in the aviary.. think they should fit in well as they are all quite placid finches

[Matthias]

Sally

to be honest im quite surprised with the above mentioned behaviours.. ive previously had an aviary of similar size and had a male european serin (green singer) about 6 canaries, a pair of pin tailed whydas, pair of parrot finches, pair of hecks, about 6 bengalese .. a pair of cut throats .. 2 pairs of zebra finches, a pair of javas , a pair of weavers and a few others which i cant remember (this was 10 years ago) Within 4 or 5 weeks of releasing them i had the hecks,cut throats,bengalese and zebras sitting on babies, parrot finches building a nest, the green singer happily building a nest with a canary (before he died (found him stuck to a twig by his ring).. it was quite successful.. i was either very lucky that time or it really is too hot at the moment.. I had no problems with nest stealing either , only from the zebras which i promptly removed .

[Matthias]

Update :

i removed the gouldians and diamond fire finches also.. the rest of the finches seem much more relaxed now that they are out of the way .. will be trading the diamonds with a pair of european serins this afternoon and going to see what the breeder has to trade with the gouldians..

Per previous experience i had a male serin in a mixed finch aviary years back and he caused no trouble at all.. they have the fame to be capable of being pushy but im willing to take the risk with them thanks to the previous experience with them ..