FINCHforum

I think my star and shaft tail finches might be fighting- they are pecking each other a bit and the shaft tail keeps tweeting if that helps... fighting or playing?

Sounds territorial to me. How big is your cage/flight? How many birds? Any pairs nesting or with young?

I'm not sure because the cage is pretty big I could fit a lot of birds in but only have a star and a shaft tail and they like being around each other they could be playing

Possibly, shaft tails do chase, play follow the leader and interact with their beaks, head bobs and sort of a bopping up and down motion. I am not familiar with the behavior of stars but own and breed shaft tails.

My Stars do not engage in that type of behavior unless they're being territorial. They will peck or push another bird off a perch, rarely. Usually, only if the finch has the same head coloring as the Star. Mine are YF Stars, so they may engage in some territorial behavior with my GS or the OCW, but nothing serious.

I breed a lot of stars, both yellow and red faced, and that is definitely territorial behaviour. Are they breeding? Up side is that they rarely do any real damage to other finches. They are classified as a placid species but can take care of themselves. They are not bullies. Cage size does not matter. I have a pair of yellow faced in a 33ft long aviary, which are breeding, and I noticed today they have an area about a metre sq around the nest where they chase all other finches away, sometimes very forcefully.

OK, so no real harm will be done? they can stay in the same cage?

if it was me I would leave them together. Bickering is normal. Keep an eye on them to make sure it doesn't become more than occasional squabble. As i said, male stars can be very forceful but rarely nasty. They are usually a good community finch.

kenny66 wrote:if it was me I would leave them together. Bickering is normal. Keep an eye on them to make sure it doesn't become more than occasional squabble. As i said, male stars can be very forceful but rarely nasty. They are usually a good community finch.

From my aviary - my stars are a good community finch as well. They just recently have 2 chicks - about 4 weeks now. 7 eggs in total - 2 chicks got tossed - did not make it. 3 eggs were not hatched. So there are still two pretty/healthy chicks left.

I would leave them together but still keep an eye on them. Both speices are placid most times but when breeding instinct kicks in then they both can get pushy, never known any of these two to hound any birds to death they just get pushy around their territory. If they still seem a little frustrated towards each other maybe a piece of bird safe plant added to each end of the cage may allow a place for each to cool off for a while. The main concern is how are they around food or water are they allowing each other time to eat and drink, if the answer is fine then not to much to stress about

I have a small flight of shaft tails. Eve amongst themselves they debate/bicker it may involve a bit of what looks like the start of a confrontation and then a bit of chasing but it is short lived and soon settles down.

As everyone suggsted just keep a careful eye on them.