FINCHforum

I have released several pairs of RH PB GB gouldians into the "PineTree Aviary". I gave them a variety of nest and am curious as to what they prefer. None of these birds have been bred before so they are not preconditioned to any type of nest. Some of the choices are:
Plastic box types







Round plastic types


Gourd types


Bamboo Type



Coconuts


Pottery Type


Wood Type









And some hidden in plants

Inside plant

There are more but they are duplicates or similar. Every time I add a new one they all have to check it out....Just noticed some pictures are out of skew...sorry,tilt head sideways

Might be interesting to note what type of nest the male and female were raised in and see if there is any correlation to the kind they grew up in versus the kind they chose for their families.

Interesting thought... Most are offspring that I bred and I use only plastic box types in the gouldian building. So far they are going for the gourd.... wooden box and one pair is fasinated by the hidden plant nest...... actually they are checking them all out. Curious little things

Whenever you read about goudians and their nests, they say in the wild that they are used to dark and deep nests. (thats why the chicks have those light catching nodules)

You should put some nests in the dark and some with more light too and some shallow, some deep.

My guess is overall preference will be to deep and dark like wild or to what they were raised in as chicks.

Now that is what I call CHOICES!!!!!!

You have quite the selection of cages there Candace! I would not want to be you when it comes time to clean them!

I do have them placed on 4 different walls. Some high, some low. The light is pretty even through the room since the flourescent is centered. In the morning the light on the shelf wall is dim. I have 2 limbs that have hollow openings at the ends just like they use in the wild. I haven't put them in because I haven't finished cleaning them yet, plus I am debatting weather the opening is large enough for a gouldian clutch. But they should work when I put the goldbreast in there.
2 different pair of red throated parrot finches picked the wood tissue box that is laying on it's side. One was on the left shelf the other on the right shelf. I think they liked the oval opening. Thought it strange that they both picked the same type box..... am sure neither were raised in this type box..... I bought 2 more of these for future breeding of them

No way they can't find something there that they like

Very nice selection of nestboxes. No excuse now for not getting the job done!

I can easily say my favorite is the coconut! When I build my new aviary I want it to look very natural, sort of like a chunk of the jungle was moved into my house, so I'm thinking of all sorts of ways to make natural looking nests. Coconuts would look fantastic in a setting like that, I just hope most of my birds would like them.

The gouldians have been chewing on the coconut hairs but I am sure that these are a little on the small side for them to nest. For the Goldbreast they will be perfect. I am sure you could find larger coconuts and drill the hole higher up for gouldians and other deep hole nesters. I had bought these off e-bay predrilled...I didn't know the size until I received them. I purposely put different sizes in (along with different hole sizes) because I didn't want the larger gouldians or parrot finches wanting to take over the goldbreast nest. I think the larger birds will naturally gravitate to the larger holed ones and leave the little guys alone.

Update, added the fourth older pair of old red heads....sister to 8 year old grandpa and an old dilute I've had for ages. Neither bred last year. I had them with some young fledged gouldians in a flight to teach song and stuff. I moved them into this flight for the winter to just hang out. Old girl has 3 chicks Now I don't actually know if they are hers are if she took over someones nest...... But this is the first time ever she has had chicks.
The 3 other pairs are on eggs or with chicks. They are loving the space. Below is the nest they chose.
Old girl is in army green plastic with half open entrance, upper left and another pair in whitegourd with landing platform and narrow oblong entrance

Totally opposit the aviary a pait claimed a high wood box with small round hole entrance

The final pair chose a high wooden nest on the nest wall Top left.

They tossed one chick and abandoned the nest. They are now in the white gourd with platform under the other pair in the last picture.
Here is a proud Dad

And another

and 2 hens

I really enjoyed this post I think I'm having more fun picking out my favorite then they are... very interesting choices. I like that gourd nest - where did you find a plastic one?

Misty,
I order the gourds from here
http://www.BirdSanctum.com

Thank you Candace

BTW - how did that big Purple Martin nest work out? Did they use it like a colony of birds would?