Attempting a breeding journal / Habits/behaviour updates

[Matthias]

So i decided to try keep a breeding journal of the aviary and update certain behaviours and habits of the finches by themselves and to one another..

About 3 weeks before the aviary was completed i decided to buy most of the finches i knew i wanted. I decided to buy them so much in advance because i wanted to release them all together to avoid territorial quarrels between one another . Unfortunately in Malta certain finches, the more exotic ones (for us) are not readily available so my plan did not work out as i wished.

Last week i released the following into the aviary :

6 x bengalese
4 x hecks
2 x parsons
2 x parrot finches (pied male/red face female)
2 x common star finch
4 x cordon bleu
4 x diamond firetail
1 x fire finch (female)
2 x lavenders
4 x gouldians
2 x Cuban finches
2 x Cherry heads

For the first couple of days hey all seemed to get along well however after they settled in the quarrels started.
To much surprise one of the culprits where the gouldians.For some very very very weird reason they decided to make the life of the bengalese finches a living HELL on earth chasing them all round the aviary. I pulled them out of the aviary and sold them .
The other culprits which i expected to cause some trouble were the diamond fire finches.. they werent causing AS MUCH trouble as the gouldians however due to their very active nature and size i removed them also and sold them ..
So thats 8 less birds in the aviary.
In another post other members pointed out that i had too many finches for the size of the aviary (4m long x 1 . something wide x 2.2m high) to which i agreed and had no problems removing the 8 above mentioned finches.
The rest now seem to be co existing well however for the sake of numbers i might be removing the 4 hecks from the aviary but i might keep these in breeding cages as i particularly like these birds.


After removing the above mentioned birds i replaced with a pair of green singers and a pair of Fife canaries. The green singers i released in the aviary but kept the Fifes in a breeding cage as i think due to size they might intimidate the other finches (any opinions about them? should i let them in the aviary?)

Behaviour wise i was happily surprised with the cubans. Wherever i read about them they were depicted as ruthless killers and under no circumstance should be in a mixed aviary especially with yellow coloured or black coloured finches. It was not the case with this pair however.

I have ordered from Holland the final finches which i could not get hold of in Malta and will be arriving mid August and these are :
2 x yellow face star finch
2 x owl finches
2 x cut throats
1 x male fire finch

Now to settling in and nesting.

All birds seem to have settled in the aviary and all have their respective corners.

With regards to nesting there seems to be strange things going on. Yes its not even been 3 weeks yet upon release in the aviary and the setup is not not yet 100% ready so i keep walking in and out of the aviary causing turmoil within it BUT here goes :

The bengalese : whereas in the past ive owned bengalese and they start building nests and breeding within the same day or days of purchase, the 6 i own show absolutely zero interest in doing so . Quite surprised as they are renowned to be prolific breeders.

The cubans : Were providing me with a pleasant surprise seeing them carry nesting material to a particular nest. But the next day they were carrying nesting material to a DIFFERENT nest and same thing again during the same week. Two of the nests have just some nesting material whereas the 3rd one seems to have quite A LOT of nesting material inside it. Will wait and see

The parrots : Same thing as the cubans but in 2 different nests and both are incomplete nests.

Hecks/parsons : Do not seem one bit bothered with breeding/nesting. Im suspecting they are giving themselves a break as they had laid eggs on the floor repeatedly at the breeder i bought them from ( that was just in one month of them waiting to be collected by me.

Cordon bleus : No nesting interest as of yet however both males try to court their respective partners on a daily basis with the typical holding coconut fibre in their beak whilst singing and bobbing up and down but the females do not return this behaviour.

Star finches : i have a question about these. I have caught them mating. They DO NOT have a nest but yesterday i caught the female sitting in a completely empty nest (the kind which canaries use in breeding cages, wired box with plastic cup at the bottom) should i fill the nest for her maybe they take to building the nest ? should i let them be ?

Cherry finches : They are very shy birds. I dont see them much in the aviary so i do not know whats going on with them

Lavenders : They spend their day flying from one side to the other of the aviary and occasionally stop to heavily preen each other. No nest in sight though

Thats about it however there are two nests, one seems to be completely built and the other just sparsely(been like this for days now) I do not know who built the complete nest as its in the covered part of the aviary and i never caught anyone carrying nesting material to the other sparsely built nest . Im really hoping the one inside is of the cordon bleus as its close to the area which they like to perch mostly on however its not the typical nest they would use. Its a big nest in a hut shape made from natural pieces of grass/wood/twigs ..

Next week i should be removing the hecks to prepare the space for the new additions coming mid august.

[KarenB]

My cordon bleus build a very airy, ball-shaped nest with a hole on the side of it. They do not use the pre built nests at all. And, they seem to build it in just a matter of a few hours, then they are done and dropping eggs. I can usually see into it when it is backlit enough to see movement.

[Sally]

Very interesting. I love these journal-type topics, as I think we can learn a lot from the day-to-day differences in either a cage or aviary setting. As for the Stars, I would put a little nesting material in that canary-type nest, just in case she decides to use it. I have had a few birds lay eggs in a completely empty nest, so best to put some cushioning in there just in case.

[Matthias]

KarenB no signs of nest building get yet. Today I added wicker domed nests however as they didn't seem to take any fancy to the vast choice of other nests I gave them

[Matthias]

Sally went to the aviary to do as u said and found a couple of lose twigs in the nest.i shall leave them continue their best building on their own.in the meantime I caught them mating again.that male has no shame haha

[MariusStegmann]

I am just amazed by the amount of birds that you keep in your aviary. My friends that have more than 1 pair of Cordon Bleu's, would keep only 1 pair per flight. I would keep my eye on those Cubans, mine were fine until I put a Peter Twinspot male in the aviary that I got at great expense. They promptly killed the P twinspot male, even through they were half it's size. After that for more than a year they were fine until just suddenly they killed 3 of my lemon breasted canaries. I got rid of them after that.

[Matthias]

MariusStegmann

At the moment I might have a tad too many however were numbers are concerned I seen to be in the right amounts for the size of the cage but as stated previously I should be taking out the hecks and maybe parsons to make way for the owls stars and cutthroats

[MariusStegmann]

Matthias I won't get cutthroats if I were you. It is really an aggressive bird.

[MariusStegmann]

I use Finch Breeders Database to setup my breeding pairs and keep track of the offspring. You can setup whether they are split or not.

The url is: http://www.finchbreederdatabase.com/php ... e=register

[Matthias]

MariusStegmann


thanks for the link.will have a look at it.

have u experienced aggression with housing cut throats I a mixed aviary.when I've done it In the past I can safely say they were the quietest In the aviary and first to breed within a week and had 3 babies 2 weeks after. Was I just lucky ?

[Matthias]

Spent all morning next to the aviary today.the cherry heads seem to have taken to some serious nest building.only thing is I have no idea where . :/ .I mounted box like shelves to place the nests in and one of them is close to the ceiling of the inner part of the aviary which is only about 3 in he's away from the ceiling in which I stuffed it with twigs to go e some ambience to the wooden shelving.thats where they seem to be going however there is no way for me to verify this as I would have to dismantle the shelving from the wall which in turn would mean dropping and messing around the twigs on the top part and if it's the case of them building a nest there I would be destroying it.i guess the only way to know if they are going to breed is to wait for a some 6 weeks and have a look in the aviary to see if I have more than two cherry heads.ohhhh the curiosity.from over 25 different shapes and sizes of nests tthey had to chose a place which I couldn't check.

The bengalese seem to have started playing around with some nesting material also today but doesn't seem serious.

Caught the cubans mating today.i hope it means she will lay eggs as there nest has been ready for ages now.

Caught the parrot finches mating also.this looked strange as like the star finches they don't have a completed nest either.

[MariusStegmann]

Matthias Maybe you were lucky. I know them to be very aggressive. See this excerpt from finchinfo.com on them.

Special considerations
Due to their aggressive and interfering nature while breeding, Cut-throats should not be housed with smaller birds such as waxbills while breeding. Cut-throats have been known to investigate the nests of less-bold species and throw out their eggs and young in order to commandeer the nest, though they tend to remain peaceful towards other cut-throats even while breeding (if a spacious enough enclosure is provided). In a nonbreeding aviary, Cut-throats may be peaceful inhabitants, but if they show signs of aggression, they may need to be separated from the more passive species.

[Matthias]

yes in fact thats what i read about them previously also but i always take them descriptions with a pinch of salt and prefer listening to personal experiences such as yours for instance .. because ive read the same about the cubans if not worse especially to yellow or black feathered birds but i can safely say they are the quietest pair in all the aviary

[MariusStegmann]

Matthias I fear Cubans more than any finch. The cutthroats might be aggressive, but they won't gang up a particular bird. I have read up on the research that was done on Cubans. Apparently, if you have an aggressive pair, that trait is transferred to the offspring and in the same way non-aggression is also transferred to the offspring. My pair was fine, until I put my Peter Twinspot male into the aviary. I saw that they were chasing him, but thought he would be ok, since he is double their size. The next day I caught him out because he was bleeding on the head, I treated his wound, but he still died. Then they were fine for a long time until they turned on my lemon-breasted canaries. They killed 3 of them before I could step in. Even the females (not a colourful bird). The biggest problem is that a pair act in concert, and they don't let up. I really loved my cubans, especially the male, he was so curious, whenever he saw me near the aviary he would fly up to me and beg for treats.

[Matthias]

MariusStegmann

Wow that was an aggressive pair of cubans u had.to actually manage to kill canaries who are triple their size.yes I read up about them and the info I found was very harsh regarding their behaviour just like u are saying.

I at least till now seem to be lucky and have a quiet pair.i risked buying them as I NEVER came across cubans in malta.i was prepared to the them out of the aviary if they turned out to be aggressive .I was worried two days ago when I released a pair of green singers into the aviary but still no reaction .

and yes I feel the same way as u do about them.them together with the lavenders must be the most interesting finch to look at in the aviary although the cubans are friendlier and come closer to me when im inside the aviary.

I have a sort of silly question for you guys on here.this evening I was sitting by the aviary and caught a pair of hecks mating.now this is becoming weird.them together with the star finches and parrot Finches have mated but do not have nests well the parrots and stars have attempted nests but as said before they are nowhere near completion .now from previous experience when a pair of any finch get to building a nest they are done from building a bulky well packed nest in a matter of a day or maximum two.ive never experienced such slow starts or attempts in the past and even less have I experienced pairs mating without having nests read. Could this mean something ? Am I doing something wrong ? Are they lacking anything ? Or is it normal behaviour but I just so never happened to experience such behaviours in the past ?