New pics of our Zebs

[Dramoth]

I'm trying to get pics of all our Zebs to try and determine which are the best ones to keep.

Here are some I took today

Some kids catching some late afternoon rays.

I was trying to get a good pic of our new Red Zeb... but he hid behind the standard faun hen. His girlfriend is the one right up the top on the right.

And there he is over there on the left. There is a one of our two CFW cocks and one of our Calico cocks in the front... the blur is our pied saddleback cock and the blurred one right on the right edge is our other CFW cock coming into land. Our other charcoal hen is in the centre and I don't know what mutation the white hen below her is.

One of our other Calico cocks and his mate in front of the new nesting boxes that dad put together.

And two of our Calico cocks... one blurred with various other hens

[Dramoth]

This is the nesting box I made for them a month or so back... the little face you can see peeking out is our soon to be latest fledgling. The neighbour on the porch to the left is a standard grey and I think another white hen. They have at least 1 hatchling in there.

Our pied saddleback cock... he was, I think, the first fledgling out of the nest before we did the move. I think that he likes having his photo taken.

Here he is again in a nice close up.

And a better distance shot of him showing his colouring.

The pied saddleback, the red cock and hen, a fledgling, the charcoal hen and a standard faun hen.

[Dramoth]

The little bum you can see poking out is one of our juveniles from the second clutch of the season... a standard grey cock, I think that the two sitting on the nesting zone are his brother and sister... a white hen and it looks like a standard faun cock.

He's hopped down to faff about with his brother and sister... although, thinking about it... the faun cock could be the fosterling that I moved from the nest they built on top of the rail at the top.

If this is the pair I think it is, they are onto their second clutch of the summer already and appear to be very good parents. He is one of our CFW's and she is, I think, a white tipped faun hen. She has a single white pin feather on the edge of her wings.

Here is another angle of the couple. She is quite memorable with the white pin feathers.

One of our standard faun hens She seemed to like having her picture taken.

[Dramoth]

The little faun hen turned around to give me a shot of her other profile and suddenly she got photobombed by the saddleback, another faun hen and a standard grey cock.

These guys are as camera shy as hell. Every time I got up close to them, they would disappear off to the other end of the cage. He is a standard faun cock and she is a standard faun hen.

The white hen heading towards me is from the left hand nest. The faun hen on the roof of the nesting box is part of a mated pair that is trying to build a nest on top of the nesting box.

The grey cock behind the white is the mate of the faun on top of the nesting box.

And off goes the white again... back to the nest.

[Dramoth]

Last 4 pics for now...

And another group photo... with a standard faun cock in the foreground posing for the camera, and one of the latest fledgling group, behind the saddleback and his snow white brother, just wondering what the hell is going on with that big strange creature outside the aviary.

One of the couples again... although I didnt notice it before, but they seem to have grabbed a stick that broke off one of the branches and stuck it in the nest.

One of the fledglings being a touch shy. I think that it's going to be a hen and she is starting to colour up.

And this is an experimental nest I made for them. I got some of the spare wire we used to cover the aviary and turned it into 4 nesting areas and I covered it with the bark from a paperbark tree. I think that I might need to add some more perches to it.

[lovezebs]

Dramoth

Cute pictures of daily life
It's funny how some of them shy away, while others just 'pose'. Just goes to show the different personalities between different birds.

Are you planning on selling some of them?

[Dramoth]

lovezebs

Unfortunately we are going to have to get rid of the 3 juveniles sitting on top of the paperbark nest box and the 5 fledglings. We are probably going to get rid of all the hatchlings coming through now as well.

There is no way I am getting rid of the saddleback cock and his all white brother.

I don't really want to, but until we build the extension and start splitting them up, we are going to run out of room very quickly.

[lovezebs]

Dramoth

I hear you!
Space always becomes an issue sooner or later, for me as well, sigh.....

[Dramoth]

lovezebs

Plus we want to try and avoid too much inbreeding happening.

Plus I might have to get some bands and catch and band the birds we want to keep.

[lovezebs]

Dramoth

Banding, at least colour banding, is always a good idea. That way you can at least identify which clutch belongs to which clan .

[Babs _Owner]

Dramoth

Lots of zipping around going on in there I bet. I would not want to be in your shoes when the capturing and banding occurs.

You're gonna be exhausted. LOL

[debbie276]

Lovely variety!
all the best with them

[Sam007]

Nice pictures of happy looking beautiful finches!

[Zebrafincher]

Can you remove the nests if they are "too prolific?"

[Dramoth]

Zebrafincher

We can... but then we find that they start laying eggs on any flat surface

Here in Australia, their breeding season starts in Sept and finishes around April... so thats a lot of prolific behaviour