Rough weekend

Shadowfax · Post by **Shadowfax** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 9:41 am

Good morning. Goodness it has been a rough weekend. Work has had me running like crazy and I am very bussy with the horses as well. I now have 8 horses on my hoof trim schedule pluss working over time at my "real" job. Anyway I'm pooped which may have been the reason for the events on Friday morning.

So Anyway I was sitting on the sofa enjoying my morning coffee. The birds were sitting out on the porch as usual to get some sunshone. I was reaslly not paying attention but it began to dawn on me that the malre was making an awful lot of noise out there and he sounded distressed. So I jumped up and went out to see aht was the problem.
I look in the cage and see hi8m flying back and forth calling and crying and....

NO GIRLS!!!
The 3 ladies were not in the cage. I looked and saw the little door for the food dish was open. Listened and heard them in the bushes in the yard. When I walked out I saw one of the girls sitting on the street but she of course flew away into the yard. I have not seen them or heard them since.

My poor little guy was alone yet again. He seemed so sad that night and the next two mornings he was just sitting there all alone on his perch. He would sing to me if I talked to him but you could tell he was lonely and sad.

So since I had a great pay this week I took a trip to the pet store yesterday afternoon. Chose 3 birds from the Zebra finch cage. All girls again. One that is multi colored with white markings on her head and back and one all white and one that is different...

Ok I don't think this is a Zebra finch but the store owner who caught them up for me was clueless. This bird is all brown kind of a Coacoa color with a buff belly. There is a cute top know on its head and its beak is brownish gray. At first I thought it might be just an odd mutation and I told this to the store owner. Really next tot he Zebras it was odd looking nad not as prety as a zebra but kinda cute in its fuzzy toped way. So I got it anyway.

This morning I am watching the birds. The brown one unlike the others is hanging of the sides of the cage, swinging upside down on the millet holder and has a very differnt song from the finches. It is prey vocal has a high pitched voice, compared to Zebras. Kind of trills but not like a canary.

Any ideas what this could be?

Oh and the little male seems to be much happier with his new family. I am still sad at the loss of the three girls though.

Shadowfax · Post by **Shadowfax** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:27 am

Ok I was just on Efinch and it apears I have a pearl crested society finch. So I saved a few dollars on a bird I kinda wanted anyway. So now I just need to find out if it is a boy or girl.

Post by **Sally** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 11:14 am

What a time you had--sorry for the loss of your birds. If you set out an empty cage with door fastened open and seed inside, do you think they still might show up? Society finches that sing are males, so if he is singing, not just chirping, you have a boy.

Shadowfax · Post by **Shadowfax** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 11:31 am

Well I have the cage out on the porch again in hopes the males calls will bring the ladies back in the area. I will put the spare cage out with seed incase they would come back but I have a feeling it won't happen. They were not tame finches at all. And there are a lot of cats in the neighborhood. I'm afraid by now they have been killed.

I feel kinda like I gave up on my girls so fast by going and getting more birds, but I was so heartbreoken sseing poor little Faz in there all alone and looking depressed. He has brightened back up now there are other birds with him again.

I do think this society may be a male. I need to go see if I can find sound bites of them on the net to be sure. But he has begun to make some quite prety sounds out there.

Oh and looking more closely at the white Zebra tunrs out I actually have a very dilute male. The breast bars cheek patches and side spots are all ther but very palre in color. Funny thiough because I had wanted to get a male and two females and I wound up getting a female and two males. One of which is not even a Zebra.

kenny · Post by **kenny** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 3:12 pm

sounds like your zebra is a very dilute chestnut flanked white male

ken

Shadowfax · Post by **Shadowfax** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 11:34 pm

Yup she's a he. Nice to have an actual name for that colore. he's quite pretty. he does not talk much and does not sing like Faz does. I think he must be young but his beak is fully red.

So I am planning to add birds 5 and 6 to the flock in about two weeks. I ned to figgure out the sex of the Society and get a mate for it. I am thinking it is a male but would like to be sure. It makes a sound like a cricket so I call it cricket, the song is not long or loud but it does sing sort of that way. Not sure if this is just the normal chirp of a society or a males song. It's seems too simple to be malre sining. And I plan to get one more femal zebra in hopes she bonds with Faz. At the moment the one female in the cage is hanging out with the society.

EmilyHurd · Post by **EmilyHurd** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 3:56 am

http://www.singing-wings-aviary.com/societyfinches.htm

This website has a clip of a male society singing... if this helps...

Shadowfax · Post by **Shadowfax** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 6:12 pm

THANK YOU!!!!
Yeah it's a male. Sounds just like that. I turned the sound way up so he could hear it and he sure was listening. Didn't ansewer back though. I suppose if it were a femals call or if mine were a female that would be differnet.