FINCHforum

The male society finch pictured below can't fly.
He can fly across to a perch about 1-2 ft away but has some trouble with land and sometimes falls.
He uses the side cage bars, grips with his feet and flaps his wings really hard and slow makes his way back up to a perch or just stays on some perches I've placed near the bottom.
He makes it to the food dishes and bath time last.

Why can't he fly when he can flap his wings?

I think he has some kind of development brain difficulty.

Sometimes the other finches knock him off perches, esp the most dominant male. Sonetimes he chases and pecks at the less dominate females.

Today he did stand up for himself against the dominant male and stayed on the perch a couple times.
Once the black female came and the dominant male backed off a little.

Should I just continue to keep an eye on them and watch developments?
I'm trying to create as much easy movement for him as I can around the cage, which I'm still working on. Trying to still allow for flight room for all the other society since they love to fly.

1st picture is him, Junior, then the black female that protects him, and the most dominant male. (The 2 other males were going at it a couple days ago beak fighting over a perch even tho I have lots of perches)

I chose society over zebras because I read over and over online how difficult and aggressive they were. But I'm sort of sorry I didn't go with zebras instead (I really like the society but I that they were social and passive to each other)

Could it be an eyesight problem?
Balance problem?
Wing or tail feathers problem?
Brain injury when baby?
Interbreeding problem?

Has anyone else had a finch that seems young and health but can't fly?
Or maybe he is old?
I think his tail has grown in the 3 weeks I've had him, that's why I named him Junior

goldfinchowl

Check out his flight/wing feathers and see if he has lost some, or if he's molting them.

I had a Juvenile gouldian that needed extra perches to get up to the group because he molted half his flight feathers at one time.

He's good to go now. So good in fact I will be pairing him off with a hen for breeding.

Babs - thank you

goldfinchowl

As Babs mentioned, grab him and check the wings, by gently pulling each wing out to see if the wings are properly shaped and if all the feathers are as they should be.

I have a female Society with a wing that never developed properly. She can't fly any long distance, but manages very short distances and hops from perch to perch. She bonded with a male, mated, and raised three lovely healthy chicks (eventhough she is handicapped).

Regarding the Society Finch personality:

Most Societies, are mild and passive natured. They may have the occasional squabbles, but normally without pulled feathers and blood and guts spraying the walls.

May I ask how large your cage is, and how many birds are in it? Also, how many are males and how many are females? Are there nests in there, and are you hoping to breed them?

I had one that couldn’t fly properly and then one time I tried to catch him and his tail cage off and when his new one grew back he could fly , I’m not suggesting taking his tail off lol but I think it can be the shape of the feathers therefore they can’t control where they going

It’s like a planes glider at the back not working it couldn’t control its direction

Fraza - thank you, that makes sense

Is there something I can buy on Amazon to help if it is feather/tail/moult/incomplete moult related?
Can his tail fix itself with time?

I've had him for 1 month

Yeah there’s something called ‘moult’ and u give it them two times a week in the water

Moultone sorry it’s a blue casing with a cocktiel on the front