New Java finches

[paul-inAZ]

After the recent flurry of posts about Java rice sparrows I became fascinated with the idea although I'd never seen one. Of course Javas are not exactly common around here so I didn't expect to find any. Then I spotted a casual mention of Javas in a CL ad for canaries and cockatiels so had to go look see.

An outdoor aviary in Phoenix, unheated and not cooled. She had a number of them said to be the result of 5 phenotypic normals she started with. These were colony -i.e. indiscriminately- bred and were a mix of normals, pieds and a single fawn -so sure to be a genetic mish-mash. If they were more plentiful I would not have bought birds with such a dubious heritage.

Anyway, I wound up with the fawn and two normals. After I got home I saw a single white feather on one of the "normals" so it is a pied. Drat!

So far I can say that they are very attractive, quite active and chirp a little but are pretty quiet. They even ate the brown rice I added to their seed cup so the name seems apt.

A new (ad)venture.

[isobea]

paul-inAZ - Congratulations! You are sooo lucky!
Have you had a chance to take some pictures? I have to live vicariously through all you lucky Java owners...
Iso

[lovezebs]

isobea and paul-inAZ

Shall I play the Devil's advocate here my friends???

Doesn't California and Arizona share a state line somewhere???

Tee hee hee

P.S. Congratulations Paul. Do you know if you got males or females?

[isobea]

lovezebs - Elana, you are trouble. I already googled the distance SD - Phoenix: 5 1/2 hours (381 miles). And the same on the way back... Mine would probably be the only car they would stop and search. I would look nervous and they would pull me over like they do at these border patrol checkpoints along the 5 and 15 freeways going north.
Oh well. All of you Java owners will just have to keep posting pictures of your birds.
Iso

[w.l.]

Apparently purely normal Javas are rare in the West, with a few white feathers popping up here and there indicating past mixing with whites.
Those desperate to get pure normals could get them here, wild-caught!

@isobea, are there really strict border controls between states?
I thought you could just speed right through.

[paul-inAZ]

Do you know if you got males or females?

No idea.
She told me that she didn't even try to sex them. Having bought 3 there should be a decent chance that they are not all the same sex.
Too soon to think about that right now.

There isn't any sort of state border control. A blow through at 75mph on the interstate. Maybe decades ago when California checked cars for fruit and vegetable diseases crossing their border. Now they are more concerned with illegals and narcotics crossing from Mexico. Can't imagine the highway patrol would care about a few birds crossing a state line even if stopped for speeding.

[isobea]

w.l. and paul-inAZ - I know that they don't stop traffic, that you just zoom through on the interstate (we've been back and forth several times over the years going on vacation in the southwest). Just wanted to tease Elana a bit.
Iso

[lovezebs]

isobea

Oh my dear, did you read what Paul said about the State line?
No border control, just the wide open road with the wind blowing through your hair...

A nice day trip.... lah-lahlah-lahhh.

Pack a lovely picnic basket, add a few sprigs of spray millet, start off bright and early, snap pictures of the scenery, stop at a Pet Shop and find a mate for your Blue boy, and a couple of pretty munias, add three or four Javas, enjoy the Arizona weather, snap some more pictures, and go home....



Elana (aka Advocatus Diaboli)

[isobea]

lovezebs - What a lovely daydream Elana. Thank goodness you are far, far away. Otherwise you would probably come over picnic basket in hand and a good-sized travel cage set up with water and spray millet, map (or GPS nowadays) and enough clothes for three days or so (might as well look around a bit while we are there, right?)
Iso

[Sally]

When I moved to California in 1969, driving from Chicago to Los Angeles, I was stopped at the state line leaving New Mexico going into Arizona. I had all my houseplants, and the inspectors in Arizona said they would let me keep them for now, because the California inspectors would surely confiscate them. When I got to the California state line, they surprisingly let me keep all my houseplants. My little car was chock full of all my belongings, with barely room for me behind the wheel, so perhaps they felt sorry for me. My grandfather told me that people used to hide bags of oranges under the hood of their car! The interstates probably put an end to all those inspections!

[lovezebs]

isobea

Why of course...

Potato salad, some fried chicken (or roasted, hmmmm)

I have never been to Arizona....

[isobea]

lovezebs - When I lived in Germany, I used to go camping in the southwest for weeks year after year. it's a beautiful state: the Grand Canyon, Havasupai, Canyon Lands Natl. Park, Antelope Canyon, the Petrified Forest, the saguaros, the Navajo and Hopi reservations, Canyon de Chelly,... I could be your tour guide.
Are you sold on a road trip yet? We could scout out all the bird people along the way and buy our feathered friends towards the end of the trip.
Iso

[lovezebs]

isobea

Ah touche, my friend.... you are a temptress indeed.

Some years ago, I would have taken you up on that, but now, I'm afraid it's no longer an option for me, sigh....

[wildbird]

In the 80's and 90's I used to cross the Arizona California borders on the interstates regularly and you had to stop at each end for inspection. It was like going through toll gates on a turnpike. Everyone stopped. It would be nice if you could just drive staright through now. Sort of like the border between Mexico and USA. Times have changed!

[marymac]

paul-inAZ
Hi Paul in AZ! Did she have any other Javas or finches? Im in Peoria. It's been so cold and rainy the last few days! I couldn't imagine having my guys outside!