Parrot babies fledged

[MariusStegmann]

My red head parrot youngsters has left the nest today. An Aussie breeder says that a youngster that fledges with red on it's chest is 95% of the time a male. If I go according to this, it is a male and a female. I also bought a normal pied male this morning. He is a beauty! He started singing immediately and seemed to bond with one of my parrot hens. Anyway she is very interested, she follows him around all the time.

[MariusStegmann]

There are actually 3 youngsters. 2 Males and 1 females.
I later went to and bought another pied male. The 2nd male has a bit more pied. Here are the photos.

[Ginene]

MariusStegmann
Congrats! They are all beautiful

[MariusStegmann]

Thanks Ginene, I feel like a proud father. I spent hours today, sitting in the sun while watching my birds.

[Ginene]

Enjoy!!! I am sure they are just as happy as you are

[Bermyguy]

I love parrot finches too, all the best with yours.

[cjkrit]

Congrats!!!
You are a very lucky man!
Enjoy them.
Wish I could get some of those pied ones.

[Rox]

Cutie-pie!

Congrats Marius, the parrot finches definitely seem to feel right at home in your aviary

[finchmix22]

Congratulations! It's so fun to watch new fledges! They look great.

[MariusStegmann]

cjkrit. Once I have a few, I will send you some. Leon Bester, (an importer / seller / breeder of finches) told me that the biggest breeder of pied parrot finches in South Africa says to breed heavy pied you have to breed a normal pied to a normal. I am going to do that with the one pied male. The other one I am going to breed to a lightly pied seagreen hen.

[MariusStegmann]

Thanks for your well wishes. Unfortunately, the one chick died. (The hen died, if the theory is correct that the males comes out of the nest with red on they breast / head)

[Smurf]

Congrats on the fledglings and new additions, if the pieds are young birds and not gone through an adult moult then there's a good chance they will get alot more pied especially the coloured up male who's beak hasn't turned totaly black. They generally don't show much pied until after 2nd moult with juvenile moult being counted as 1st moult

[MariusStegmann]

Smurf The 2 pieds are supposedly this year's birds, but you never know. The one with lighter beak I would like to breed with a lightly pied seagreen hen. She only has a few pied feathers by her vent. She is the mother of the chicks that just fledged. I know that Monotwine would say that the hen has chosen her male and I must not break the bond, but I really want to try and breed birds with more pied in them. The one chick has a yellow lower beak. I think that it might indicate pied genes (from the mother).

[Smurf]

I find Red faced parrot finches are not fussy about mates and don't form strong pair bonds and as yet havn't had any issues breaking up pairs and changing their partners, only thing to be aware of is that the first round of chicks with new partner could be progeny of original pairing.

Chicks will often have lighter beaks after leaving nest which darken by the time they finish juvenile moult so i'm not sure if it is a sign of fledglings being pied, retaining the lighter beak after first moult seems to be a better sign of being a good heavy pied especially if top of beak is also still light.

It would be so much simpler if the youngsters fledged pied or even had all their pied markings after 1st moult

[MariusStegmann]

Smurf. I was really salivating on Saturday. The breeder that I got the lighter pied of the 2 from, has got birds with the most beautiful colour varitions. The one i liked the best is a yellow bird with a orange head. Anyway he only sells his scraps, the stock he doesn't want. Later I went to a birddealer who had about 50 different kinds of finches. That is where I got the 2nd pied male. He had a pair of seagreens that I dearly wanted to buy, but my pockets were not quite that deep. They were both big birds with really bright colours and perfect confirmation. I had to force myself to stop looking. Another 2 minutes would have had me reaching for my wallet. For you it would have been pocket change, 27 pounds!