What's going on?

[Harley2013]

Two nights now, two Gouldins have been sleeping in a nest. Switching off one then the other in and out while they are settling down for the night, after light goes off. I was surprised at this because they have never done this before. Last night I heard a strange noise coming from one of the nests, so I peeked in the back, it was a Gouldin just sitting in there in the dark making noises. Almost singing quietly. While the other gouldin was just outside the nest perched. They they swapped, then the original one went back in and stayed, the other on the perch. This happened again tonight. Now..... These are both males. What is this behavior? And then the goldfinches acting peculiar with another nest??

[lovezebs]

Harley2013
Are you sure that you have two males? It sounds to me, like they are sitting on eggs.

~Elana~

[Rox]

Sounds like they want to breed. I have 2 society hens that do the same thing. You would think they were a pair the way they act

[Harley2013]

No, they are two males, and no eggs. Not even any nesting material in the nest, just an empty bare bone nest.

[MiaCarter]

Yeah, this does sound like mating/parenting behaviors.

I've had same-sex couples who will go through the motions of parenting. It's quite cute, actually! Some of those same-sex couples can be great foster parents too.

[Harley2013]

These are the two in question of acting strange. I am right...... Both males right?

[MiaCarter]

Hmmm....the top one is definitely a male. The mustard color of the yellow and the large amount of turquoise around his mask tells us that.

The bottom one looks like a male to me too. I'm just not 100% positive due to the lighting and I can't see the turquoise around his mask. The larger the turquoise, the more certain it's a male.
Also, males have a mustard colored yellow, whereas females have more of a lemon yellow.

Is the yellow on the black-headed bird the same color as the red-headed male?

[lovezebs]

Yes, I would say two boys.

~Elana~

[Harley2013]

Yep same color yellow. I guess they are just odd...... Lol!

[Sheather]

That doesn't make them odd. I had a same-sex zebra pair for a while. They initially built a nest together and would sing and court eachother.

They seem to have broken up however... Zach more or less went all-out terrorist once he hit 9 months old, leaving behind his caring partner Cody to bop around and yell at everyone else all day for no obvious reason... Cody doesn't seem to realize it's over and still tries to snuggle with him, but Zach no longer returns the favor at all and tends to antagonize him. It's kind of sad.

[Jen]

I can only tell you what has gone on with my Gouldian's over the last few months. Sometimes I think the males may mature faster than the females in my flock and they start the nesting behavior before the females are at the same maturity level as they are. They pick up nesting materials and add to the nest box and even start to set in there before the female has laid the first egg?!?! Sometimes two males are in the nest at the same time. At some point there will be a female added to the mix and everything starts to "click"... Don't know if this helps or not...Best of luck!!!

[finchandlovebird]

Seems as though they are "practicing" being dads. They'll probably be great fathers. How old are they?

[KarenB]

When I had a pair of male lavenders, they were nest building kings. They would construct, deconstruct, rearrange, decorate, move the furniture around, change the lighting and other fixtures. It was very cute.