What are my pair doing?

[snowy]

Hello, I've mentioned that my pair of canaries are in a secured nest just above our curtain rod. They finished building it now as far as I can tell & last night, all day today, have not seen hide nor hair of them.

I hear funny, strange sounds coming from the nest & it moves sometimes. I can see her tail once in awhile & he's up there with her.

He hasn't sung since before I got 'her' & now they're staying up there. Is this normal? Even before she came to live here, he wasn't much of a singer but enough I figured he was male.

Now I'm concerned they're both females up there sitting in a nest waiting to lay eggs & no other bird to feed them. I don't know what to think.

I can't just easily peek in the nest.

I don't want them to starve, etc.

I did see them 'kissing' it looked like, almost a week ago & they've gotten along right from the beginning when I got her 2 months ago. They're free flight, 24/7.

Has anyone had this happen? I figured the male would be still flying around, eating, drinking, acting normally & visit her once in awhile, not have them both become hermits up there.

[finchmix22]

I don't have canaries, but my Green singers, which are similar to canaries, do the same behaviors of feeding each other. Usually, the male will stay close to the nest and guard it and the hen. He will feed the hen and when babies fledge, the father feeds them to weaning. I'm not sure if the "male" is in the nest because of the location. Is there any other place he could stand guard nearby? If not, that may be why they are both in the nest right now. Can you take a picture?

[Smurf]

It's normal for the hen to be sitting tight on the nest, she does all the incubating and will only come off the nest briefly to feed, the cock will also feed her on the nest and often won't sing once he has a mate.

You'll probably find both them will be down feeding when your not in the room and hopefully you'll have chicks after she's been sitting for 13 or 14 days, if your still worried take note of the feeding station for scattered seeds which is a sign they've been feeding as they tend to be messy eaters throwing seeds everywhere.

If their both hens they will still lay eggs which obviously will be clear but they will still feed themselves. From your description of the cock singing before it sounds like you have a pair.


Padraic

[snowy]

Thank you both. Yes the male can easily sit on the curtain rod right beside the nest but he wants to be in it, ha ha.

I did actually see them both come out late afternoon. He stayed on rod & she came to eat. Then back up in there again.