My birds are weird...

[Icearstorm]

Some weird things my birds do:

My Java finches had to figure out proper sleeping arrangements. The adult female doesn't like being next to the juvenile, and will beak-fence with it if it gets too close; however, the juvenile wants to be near the others. So now the adult male sleeps in between the two, and there's no conflict. The juvenile also seems pretty curious, and occasionally flies to the top of the enclosure and hangs upside-down from the hardware cloth. My society finch Floopy did a similar thing, though he preferred to hang off of the top of the water dispenser with one foot.

Gouldians are supposed to be fairly secretive and mate in privacy. Not mine. They mated on a very exposed perch, despite the fact that the other side of the cage has plants that they could hide in.

And then there's the society finches; they're supposed to be extremely prolific and nearly impossible to stop from breeding. Not mine. They sing all of the time, but mate in the privacy of a nest box, refusing to breed or lay eggs without one. They are also the least tolerant of nest checks; they still go back in the nest box, but I usually have to leave for a couple of minutes before they return. Contrast that with my other birds, which return to their offspring within a few seconds after I get my hands out of their cage. I have to wonder if some of this behavior is due to most of them being part European self societies. My American self society seems to be more confident when it comes to nest checks.

It seems that individual variation within a species leads to some behaviors that are generally untrue for the species as a whole. Are there any weird things your pets do?

[Fraza]

Icearstorm that’s is rather strange with mine most of my society’s are beck in the nest within a second I always check there nests lol but there is one at the moment who flies out when I walk in the aviary but there is another 4 sitting on those eggs so it’s alroht

[Fraza]

What’s the difference with a eorpean society’s

[wildbird]

My Java Finch will cling to the side of the cage and chirp loudly until I come over to her. Then she sticks her foot out and grabs the swing and jumps on it (Loves her swing). She wants me to put my hand in so she can attack my fingers. She needs a companion Java. The Societies that I just got try to drag an oat spray that's bigger than they are into the nest. It's not going to fit, but they keep trying!

[Icearstorm]

Fraza

I guess mine are just a bit shy, then.

European society finches tend to be larger and more strongly marked than their American counterparts. They may also be a result of some hybridization, while American and Australian society finches are probably mostly pure domesticated white-rumped munias... Some say that all society finches are hybrids, though not as much evidence supports this.

[Icearstorm]

wildbird

Heh, that's funny. My society finches try to build nests in precarious locations, and always end up failing. Maybe it's just me projecting, but they do seem a bit disappointed when they repeatedly drop the sticks on the ground.

[Fraza]

Icearstorm if they was all hyrbridd wouldn’t the majority be infertile ???

And Ohright so you think coco maybe be one then cos his markings are better and he’s larger

[Icearstorm]

Fraza

It depends how closely related the species are; hybridization between different genera almost definitely results in 100% infertile animals, which are also at a higher risk of health defects (ex. Common Buzzard X Harris' Hawk). Species from the same genus may be infertile (ex. domestic horse X domestic donkey), semi-fertile in captivity (ex. domestic cattle X yak), or semi-fertile in the wild (ex. Western gull X glaucous-winged gull).

Hybridization is usually unsuccessful in the wild because the F1 generation (first generation of hybrid offspring) are either genetically sterile or lack the ability to attract a mate. In captivity, the latter is not as problematic, since mate choice is restricted and behavior is less natural. Artificial insemination could also be used to breed hybrids to one of their parent species or to other similar hybrids.

If the F1 hybrids are bred back to one of the parent species (backcrossed), fertility in the next generation may increase. Keep backcrossing to the same parent species, and fertility should eventually increase.

For example, this could have been achieved by breeding a pure society to a spice finch, perhaps in the hopes to increase markings. Let's say none of the female hybrids are fertile, but the males are around 20% fertile (only 1/5 of their offspring survive... I'm just making this statistic up) when bred with female society finches. The surviving 1/5 of the backcrossed offspring are now 25% spice finch and 75% society finch. Keep backcrossing the fertile birds to society finches, and the spice finch DNA will get diluted (now from 25% to 12.5% to 6.25% and so on). Several generations later, the hybrids are almost entirely society finch, and will therefore have genes that are more compatible with society finches' genes, resulting in increased fertility. A couple hundred generations later, and the hybrids should regain normal fertility (with society finches, about 80% of eggs will be fertile, from what I hear).

Since backcrossing to parent species 1 dilutes parent species 2's DNA, the hybrids will begin looking more and more like parent species 1 and less like parent species 2. However, there is a good amount of chance, so certain traits, like parent species 2's markings, may be preserved through selective breeding.


Most of your society finches probably come from European lines, especially judging by your location.

[Fraza]

Icearstorm yeh that sounds interesting so it seems like a lot of guess work if your hybrid manages to breed it can be that 1/5 1/3 whatever the outcome depends on parents and species

[Icearstorm]

I figure I'll keep all of my weird bird observations on the same thread, so here's some more stuff.

My society finch Patches learned Tacocat's song, even though Laser was his father. These latest three societies were raised by Tacocat (probably his, but there's a small chance that they were Laser's), and Floopy learned Tacocat's song and sings it at a slightly higher pitch, while both the fawns, Summer and Morty, learned Laser's song and sing it pretty mich exactly the same.

When all five of my society finches were in the flight cage, all of the males would sing to both each other and Macbeth. Summer, Floopy, and Morty wouldn't try to mate with each other and usually left their mom (Macbeth) alone when she flew away, but they did rape their dad on a few occasions... Fortunately Tacocat didn't seem extremely bothered by that, but it is rather odd...

The five society finches actually managed to build a nest for once! They all spent around a month arranging dried leaves in the magnolia branches, and actually formed a pretty big nest that was probably about six inches wide. They would make nesting calls every time they went to it, but Macbeth never laid eggs and they all slept on a very exposed branch on the opposite side of the flight. This is weird, considering that Macbeth, Tacocat, and a few of my former society finches slept in mostly closed nests at about the same level. Macbeth also laid eggs in a open plastic container around 1.5 years prior and raised offspring with Tacocat in a macaron box around eight months ago. She doesn't seem to be losing fertility, as both times she laid six normal eggs and the last time three hatched.

When Macbeth flies away from Tacocat while he is singing, Tacocat sometimes rapidly vibrates his tail like a receptive female. This gets Macbeth to come back about half of the time. On other occasions, Macbeth will sit by Tacocat and vibrate her tail while he sings. 5-10 seconds later, Tacocat will stop singing, Macbeth will stop vibrating her tail, and Tacocat will then start vibrating his tail. No mating takes place on any of these occasions.

These are very bizarre society finches.