FINCHforum

I haven't been here in several years. I got rid of all my bird stuff in 2011 due to too much on my plate with my elderly mother living with us and too many home/family projects.

Now I would like to find a small handful of birds just for my own color and song enjoyment for a few years. Winters in MN get so long and dreary without birds!

Maybe in the future I'll think of breeding but not right now. I do miss the babies.

Here's what I'm looking for, and I'm amazed at how slim the pickings are compared to a while ago (which makes me actually want to get back into breeding argh!) Even the pet stores are bare of birds except mostly budgies.

I'm looking for all males:
[*]-Goldbreasts (well, I could possibly be persuaded to take a pair since I'm pretty sure I could sell the youngsters without any problem, the market is so low these days!)
[*]Cordon blue
[*]gouldians (normal, pref RH PB visually first but would love an OH PB and BH WB for variation)
[*]shafttail (fawn or normal)
[*]african silverbill (for the song, I know they're pretty drab. Does anyone know if the Indian silverbill song is similar? I couldn't find a comparison).

[*]border or fife canary is something I've been thinking of getting too. I tried a Russian Canary in 2008 and found his song shrill and monotonous, just not to my taste. My fife in the past was much more enjoyable to listen to and some of the border canary videos I've seen are very pleasant, plus it seems to be smaller than other canaries.

[*]Gray singers and green singers would be fine if I can find them and if they will get along but I prefer the look of a border or fife canary. I would be fine if it is red factor too though I may not feed it for that.

I looked at cutthroats too, but found mixed information on whether they get along with passive finches.

If anyone has any other ideas for inexpensive finches to brighten my living room with nice songs and nice looks as well, let me know. I've been trying to research but it's often hard to find good audio/video.

terriergal

Hello and welcome back to the Forum.

I can relate to long, cold dreary Winters (Canada)

And yes, birds most definitely brighten up things during those short dark days.
Have you tried to get in touch with any Bird Clubs in your area? Very often, these folks may be able to put you in touch with some breeders in your vicinity.

If that's not an option, then your only choice might be to order some birds in. Some people have good experiences with this method, others do not. Personally, I have never tried it, but others on the Forum have done so.

You have a nice variety of choices there.

If you're looking primarily for song, then the Canaries, Green and or Gray Singers, would be my choice. Green Singer males, tend to not get along together (don't know about the Grays). Canaries, can be iffy as well. Males, most particularily during breeding season, will fight.

If your opting for colour, then you can't beat the Gouldians and pretty Cordons.

Shaft tail males, will fight, and can get pretty ugly about it.
Cutthroat males will fight with each other, and if you introduce a female into the mix, God help you.

Good luck, and let us know what you decide on.

terriergal Welcome back! I do have Gray Singers, and you can't keep more than one male in a cage, otherwise they will fight. I do have a male now in a mixed flight with other males (a Lavender and a Purple Grenadier), and they all seem to get along.

Cordon Bleu males will get along with other Cordon Bleu males as long as there are no hens present, though they will go through an initial squabbling period. You could keep Cordon Bleu males in with Gouldians, I think, though I don't have Gouldians now so haven't tried it.

I don't have experience with Shaft-tails or Silverbills, so can't help you there--nor with canaries.

If you decide to get Goldbreasts and do a little breeding, I've heard a rumor that there won't be any more imports of this species, so it would be good to breed them. I would think they would be easy to sell, since they are colorful and easy to care for.

lovezebs wrote: terriergal
Have you tried to get in touch with any Bird Clubs in your area? Very often, these folks may be able to put you in touch with some breeders in your vicinity.

Oh, yes I still know the ppl. I'm heading to some sales. The first one was a disappointment though. Very few birds. But it wasn't a bird only sale. Maybe the next month one would be better. I just remember being able to look up breeders in my area and finding people who were actively breeding, a while ago. They all seem to have disappeared.

Oh well, I will definitely find them eventually. I just thought at least I'd be able to come home with one or two this weekend.

I do have a line on a little BH WB male gouldian that I am supposed to pick up this week though.

I've kept cordon blues and shafttails with my goulds and canary in the past (even a breeding pair of bourkes in same large flight cage!) and everyone did great.

But yes wouldn't be putting more than one male cordon blue or grey singer (if that's what I get). I prefer to have multiple male golds if I'm going to get multiple males.

re the gold breasts and not having any more imports - yeah that is what I was thinking. I just wish I could do it right now. Pretty soon they'll be as spendy as the Strawberries!

oh - as far as shipping birds in. I have done that before too. It's fine, but I would rather not have to order enough birds to make it worthwhile. It would be worthwhile if I'm going to breed but...

Definitely thinking about it especially with regards to the gold breasts. But I should probably keep looking around here for a while first. (want them NOW lol)

Ok so i have a canary (male, theoretically) and two male gouldians and a pair of strawberries. I've decided against gold breasts, because while they are gorgeous they just don't sing, really. Maybe some day I'll get some, when i get more serious about this. (I wouldn't mind a nice male silverbill or two though even with the drab coloring, I do like their chattery song.)

The "male" canary is IMO starting to act like a female and in three weeks all I have heard is twittering, nothing really resembling a song. "He" also seems to be looking frantically for a place to build a nest. Today when I turned on the canary songs for him to listen to he started acting like a begging hen. *sigh* "He" is a gorgeous yellow opal.

Eventually the strawberries will have their own cage and I'll try to get some chicks out of them, though I said I didn't want to breed. I don't. The male has such a lovely little song. The female screeches like a bad metal caster on a piano dolly LOL ugh it's awful but her boy friend's voice is very lovely. Thankfully she doesn't try to 'sing' (*cough* for lack of an better word) nearly as often as he does.

I'm still looking for an orange head purple breast male gouldian to complete the color variety. But I am thinking I need to part with the canary if 'he' doesn't shape up and start singing. I'll be moving him to his own cage tomorrow to see if that does anything to make him act more like a boy.

I got him from some guys who have been breeding canaries for years and he's 2 years old so I would think they know what they're doing. But I suppose everyone makes mistakes now and then. Or maybe this guy is just fooling me. I will try and get some pictures. I truly love the color. He had two of them and this one was more silvery, maybe I should have taken the other!

Where do you live?

Oh MN, i missed it in your first post. I have some for sale but i a bit far. I live in WI