My 1st eggs in ~12 years! :D

[WrenNAustinTX]

How to split band the babies:

[WrenNAustinTX]

More babies!

[MiaCarter]

Ha! Cute photos!
Happy to hear you got them banded without trouble. I've got to do mine in the next couple days.
I especially love the pic in the butter bin!

I always joke that I've got the circle of life in a Kool Aid canister.

I use the Kool Aid caps as nests, so I've had a few who started life in a Kool Aid cap.
The Kool Aid caps are also life-giving, as they also double as a lovely food cup!
And Kook Aid canisters are also convenient finch caskets. So they end their lives in a Kool Aid canister too.

So there you are. The entire circle of life in a Kool Aid canister!
I bet you can do the same with the butter bin! LOL

How old are these little ones today?
I love, love, love the little baby fluff feathers sticking out from amidst the new grown up feathers!

[WrenNAustinTX]

Kool Aid is totally missing a great marking opportunity!

Um, Yellow is 16 days. Blue and Red are 15 days, Green is 14 days, and Purple is 13 days

[WrenNAustinTX]

MiaCarter afinch cindy

Quick question...um....none of my chicks have black cheeks? Anyone else getting that vibe? despite dad being Black cheek and mom being an obvious visual split to black cheek?

And before you ask, she didn't have access to any other males at any time.

efinch says they should have black cheeks upon fledging...no wait time to see if they are black cheek. zebrafinch.com agrees. We should be seeing cheeks, like this:

[WrenNAustinTX]

Got pics of mom and dad. Dad is obvious. Mom doesnt have the biggest tear drop in the world, but she also has chest bars.

[Lacybug]

Hmm well, I've seen females split to black cheek in which the tear marks look smeared into a "half-cheek" size. I don't know if chest markings are a marker?

[WrenNAustinTX]

Usually full BC females have that "half cheek" going on. My BCBF female is rocking that look, for sure lol

My other /BC female has chest bars, too, and efinch and zebrafinch.com both say that's a sign of a female split.

Just checked with the breeder I got the pair from, their last clutch was 3 eggs, 2 BC, one split (which sounds just right, you'd expect 1/2 BC, 1/2 splits). In fact he just shipped out one of their BC kids recently.

Really just checking to make sure I'm not crazy, cause 5/5 no BC is totally possible, if improbable.

[afinch]

That hole thing about female chest bars is wack man

[afinch]

Also 5/5 no BC (in your case /BC) is WACK!

[WrenNAustinTX]

Dude. Dude. I got so sad. I named them all after parts of Lunchables out of sadness. Capri-sun, Turkey, Ham, Cheese, and Cracker. Cracker is the only one with even a tiny bit of darkness in his face. He is my only hope.

[afinch]

Breeder lies? Forgetfulness? Confusion? Drunken breeder? This can't be mere odds man. We're talking 5/5 here!

[WrenNAustinTX]

Breeder is totally trustworthy. But I'm gonna run the mom's closed band # by him tomorrow and make sure I didn't put the /penguin female with my BC male instead of the /BC female (got all three at same time). I don't think I made that mistake but, man, I could have, right? All those NG splits look the same. Best to check.

[WrenNAustinTX]

Fledglings! Yellow Capri-sun and Red Ham have come out to say hi!

Both have chest bars, but I'll wait to see orange in the cheeks to confirm sex.

[WrenNAustinTX]

We have also solved the mystery of the missing cheek patches; I did, in fact, switch the /BC and /penguin females I bought home together over 2 months ago, and never managed to realize my mistake. Confirmed it though closed leg bands with my breeder, so, mystery solved