Attempting a breeding journal / Habits/behaviour updates

[finchmix22]

It is so hard. I admit with my Society's fostering, I feel free to check every hour or so, but I really need to just leave them alone. They are good parents and fosters, but it's so hard to wait and not peek.

[Matthias]

finchmix22

Oh my yes its too hard.when I was younger and had finches I ruined so many clutches and nestlings because of nest checks.i hope it won't repeat itself now that I'm older and supposedly wiser

[Matthias]

So today i spent some time next by the aviary to try and identify the inhabiters of the nest with eggs.....but.... no luck once again.. however i took a photo of the nests entrance and upon looking at the photo i realised there was a blue feather stuck in the entrance.. the feather is of a cordon bleu but who knows if its them who are nesting in this nest.. the mystery continuessssss

on the other hand found out the cubans have eggs also.. i promised myself ill do nest checks only to find out if the pair have eggs and wont bother the nest again.. extremely excited about the cubans..will see in just under a month if any chicks pop out from the nest...

managed to somehow take a photo of the nest built by the cherry heads in the gap between the top shelve and the ceiling.. quite sure they might have eggs also if not they are about to lay..

tried taking some photos of the birds with little luck as the aviary is long but narrow so once i go in they all fly to the other side and there are the trees in the way so i have no visual of the birds..

photos to follow in the next post

[Matthias]

The photos

[Matthias]

More

[Matthias]

More

[Matthias]

unfortunately it wont let me upload the photo of the mystery nest with the blue feather at the entrance due to size.

[finchmix22]

Looks like a great aviary set up! They have lots of fun and interesting places to make nests! If you save the photo or export out of the photo software, you have a choice to reduce the size of the photo so it will upload here.

[finchandlovebird]

Wow......this is an aviary to keep you very busy I'm amazed at the variety of different nests you have; should keep the birds happy & busy

[Matthias]

finchandlovebird

oh yes i can assure you that its a luna park for the birds.. they dont stop for a second .. always flying around and in and out of nests

[Matthias]

Update of behaviour of the finches on eggs to date :

Cubans : Described to be as one of the most aggressive finches and an absolute no no in a mixed aviary, they are continuing to provide me with a delightful surprise. Contrary to popular belief they acted very calmly before they had eggs, would explore many nests for the fun of it and got down to laying eggs.Due to all the negative i ready about them i was lead to believe that they might be causing trouble now that they laid eggs ..... but no.. they continue being the usual calm and curious birds.. obviously the woman might pop out of the nest to shoo away any finch which gets to close to the entrance but when out they dont even mind the larger shaftail or the occasional cordon bleu temporarily perching on their nest..thumbs up to them.

the Cherries: Although im not 100% sure they have eggs.. the complexity of their nest leads me to believe so and also does their attitude towards anyone who dares to perch beside their nest..like the cubans they are vry peaceful around the aviary but must say they are more protective of the area closer to their nest.On the whole.. no trouble with them in the aviary either

The MYSTERY nest : I was hoping that the finches who laid in this nest would have shown some form of protection/aggression towards anyone went close or on their nest.. but STILL no luck with this.. all the finches have perched on their nest or close to the entrance at some point or another but no finch showed any interest in defending the nest... soooo.. the mystery continues and its driving me nutssssss


The rest : The bengalese are surprising me further. Previously i commented on how surprised i was that they showed ZERO interest in even entering a nest let alone breed despite the fame they have of prompt breeders. The past two days , two of the 3 pairs seem to have taken a liking to two neighbouring nests and are trying to carry nesting material into them.. the surprising part is the aggression they are showing to one another.. i never saw bengalese act like this towards each other with heavy chasing all around the aviary at random times and situations. have no idea what could be the cause. maybe someone can give me a pointer or two on this behaviour ??????? please


The star finches : Previously i said how ive seen them mate repeatedly but did not have one string of nesting material in the nest they took a liking to.The female would sit in this nest as though she was sitting on eggs.. i was previously suggested to add some nesting material myself to get them going and when i went back home after work i was going to do so but i found some lose strings of coconut fibre inside it so i thought best to leave them do their thing. However after 4 days the few lose strings remained the same so i decided to construct the nest for them with cocounut fibre as the base and a lining made from a mix of cotton,sisal,thread like material. They seemed to have taken a liking to the nest i built and are spending more time in it and the male has carried some few pieces of natural pieces of straw and few more bits of coconut fibre. Hopefully they will get their act together now.


The parrots : Unexplainable how i catch these two mate every day in different places with no shame. Yesterday it was in the middle of the feeding dish whilst the green singers,lavenders and shaft tails were eating around them .. it was hilarious to watch this.. i wished i had my mobile turned on on video to capture this moment.Although i catch them mate nearly everyday,which behaviour has been going on for about a week or more now they dont seem to have settled in the nest they previously attempted to build.. in fact the female actually seems to be scared to enter the nest as opposed to the male who continuously goes in and out of the nest as though to incite the female to join. Having said that this particular nest is nowhere next to ready.

Lavenders,green singers : no signs of breeding

Cordon bleus : The two males are constantly picking at coconut fibre singing their song of courtship to the their ladies but nothing is happening as of yet.

Shaftails : A Pair of these i caught mating this past week seem to have taken a liking to one of the nests but it seems to be the same problem as the stars. VERY flimsy attempt at building the nest. Might take matters into my own hands and do the same thing i did for the stars.
The other pair of shaftails is still not showing any interest

Parsons : The past week ive seen the male flying down for coconut fibre and fly up to somewhere i couldnt figure out. I didnt think much of it as i thought they were just playing around with this. But yesterday i was sitting at a certain angle next to the aviary and followed the male after he picked up the coconut fibre. He is carrying it behind the nest box of the bengalese.This nest box of the bengalese is 3 nests boxes attached to each other made out of wood and on a top most shelve in the outer part of the aviary whose back is not touching the wall of the aviary but is about 3 inches away from the wall..and that gap is where the male is taking the material . Dont know if any nest building is going on in there or just playing around though.

Regarding the flimsy or no nest building but sitting as though brooding:

At first i thought it might have been the distance from where i place the nesting material (around a stick in the large pot of the trees) I thought that since all the finches i have come from breeders and always lived in regular 1 pair breeding cages that they could not figure out the distances between the nest and nesting material which not only is far but provides different obstacles such as the very bushy trees and perches between the nesting material and nests themselves. For some it came naturally like the ones who laid eggs

So i decided to put pieces of nesting material through the wire mesh from the outside to higher parts of the aviary but the flimsy nest builders still dont show any nest construction skills. Can it be that they just are not ready to breed and are just playing around ? but how could one explain the multiple mating of the stars and parrots and the once i caught the shaftails ? Can anyone shed any light on this? previous experiences ? if im doing the right thing with building the nests for them like i did for the stars?

[Matthias]

So weekend update

The stars seen to have taken a liking to the nest I built for them.they applied minor adjustments to the nest and today I found their first eggs

I think I finally found out who's the mystery nest is.well it's just an assumption at this point as I NEVER saw them sitting and doubt their will be much success from this nest.buuuuuuut however I caught the male parrot finch carrying some more nesting material to this nest and hung around inside it for a few minutes.i really wish they manage to have chicks as I would love to see what mutation will come out from a pied male and red face female

And also my Fife canaries laid their first egg today or last night

[Matthias]

Mystery nest update : Its confirmed .. the nest is of the parrot finches .. hadnt seen the female in two days.. got worried and got into the aviary and walked to the nest to check it.. before i could move it she peeped through the nesting material.. so i immediately walked back out of the aviary ..

considering how bad i was in the past with nest checks im really doing well.. havent bothered any of the nests since ive found out they laid eggs.. Lets hope August will be a busy month chick wise..

[Matthias]

more mystery has come my way today ..found 3 nests which i had no idea had nesting material inside.. 2 of which have eggs.. one nest has two and the other has one.. these two do not have heavily constructed nests.. very basic as though they were done up in a rush .. the other one more complex but has no eggs.. i have no idea whose these eggs might be so i sat down as usual by the aviary to catch the perpetrators and attempt to solve the mystery ..

I was delighted to catch both pair of cordon bleus entering the nests with eggs and spent a good 10 minutes inside it .. but there is a big BUT ... immediately after the cordon bleus left the nest the hecks took over and sat inside for another good 10 minutes .. this got me confused.. as though it werent enough along came the bengalese finches to sit inside these nests.. so i absolutely NO clue who these eggs and finished nest belong to.

If the bengalese,Cb's and hecks keep going in and out of them i guess there will be no way to tell whose they are until eventually,if im lucky, they hatch and the babies survive and will tell from the plumage. Or else maybe the actual pairs get to sit down on them permanently and show some aggression,protectiveness over the nesting area as the other finches do when there little area is invaded.


In the meantime i took out a pair of hecks.. the ones which seemed least bonded and the pair of parsons too.. tomorrow i pick up the pair of owls and pair of cutthroats

[Matthias]

So yesterday after feeding the birds i sat by the aviary as i always do because as soon as i walk out of the aviary they ALL rush down in groups to see what ive offered. I happened to pay particular attention to the Cubans yesterday and saw a behaviour that i never noticed before..

Since they have laid eggs the male NEVER and i mean NEVER even hinted at entering the nest. The female did all the incubation. However yesterday i noticed the male was eating from the dried mixed insect food and egg/biscuit/shrimp food as he normally does. However this time he flew next to the female and fed her like they do with chicks and immediately after, before the female went back to the nest he made his way to the entrance of the nest, Just half way in. And i noticed his tail moving up and down as though in balance whilst feeding potential chicks or rather that is what im hoping. I didnt keep tabs on who laid when. I know however that the ones which laid eggs till now all laid in the same week apart from the canaries which laid last.

Im thinking they should be close to hatching day (if fertile) and also noticing the female is entering the nest much less often. If it were the case they hatched im not concerned much about the female entering less as its scorching hot here at 35 celcius so they wont be needing too much heat from the female during the day .

Im terrified of the idea to check the nest as i dont want to risk nest abandonment. In the past i did nest checks nearly daily and lost a uncountable amount of eggs/chicks due to that and this time i managed to avoid them gloriously just up until i found out they had eggs then id leave them alone completely.

Next time i find out about eggs ill definitely mark that down on a calendar. Im so excited to know if they have chicks or not. WIll see in a couple of days maybe i get to hear some screeching from begging for food. Very difficult though with the other finches going at there whistling.