Zebra Finch Bullies

[BBry]

Hey everyone! So I've got a little story about my bird family. I currently own a canary, a pair of pintail whydahs, 3 weaver finches, 2 gouldians, a pair of orange cheeked waxbills, 3 parakeets, and a pair of lovebirds. As of recently, we also had 3 zebra finche siblings. They were born and grew up in our house. However, they were very naughty little devils. Never getting along with each other, always being noisy, and messy, and never letting any of the other birdies sing!
About a month ago I decided to give them to a friend of mine who also loves birdies. Not two weeks after the little finches were gone, something amazing happened! Our silent little whydah spoke for the first time! Our male weaver also began to have his voice heard. The gouldians began singing louder and more frequently. Even our yellow canary was singing louder than ever! Now you can't even tell who is singing from the orchestra of bird songs coming from that room. Back when the finches were still around, they would start chirping and become rowdy every time one of the others tried to sing. But now they are all free to sing to their hearts content!

[lovezebs]

BBry

Just found this post, and had a good chuckle.

Yes, Zebras like to be loud and proud. Meeping, beeping, and honking all day long.

The rest of my guys, have learned to sing ' LOUDER' to be heared.

How are all of your singers doing now?

Elana

[BBry]

lovezebs
They are doing great! My canary is currently molting though so the little guy hasn't spoken for a while. My orange weaver has started singing recently but what really surprised me is our pintail whydah! He's the loudest one in the room. We even discovered that one of our "female" weavers is actually a boy! He started changing feathers and is soon to be a beautiful yellow weaver. He loves to sing to our female weaver but sadly she's not interested. Poor little guy just sings his heart out all day to her but keeps getting ignored. It's also funny watching our 2 male gouldians sing and occasionally jump up and down.

[lovezebs]

BBry

Your Weaver girl, is waiting for the duckling to become a swan, then she might give him a second look .

What does a Whydah sound like ? As in similar to what other species?

Regarding the hopping Gouldians, lol, mine are having contests, as to who can hop higher to impress the ladies. I'm amazed that they don't fall off the perches and break their necks. I guess they figure, that breeding season is just around the corner, and they have to be the highest hoppers to win their favorite gals.

Yea, my Canary headman Luciano, is molting as well, and silent. His sons, are attempting to sing at present, but without Dad to teach them, they are not doing so great. I play canary songs off the internet for them, but sadly it's just not the same.

Are you planning on breeding your Weavers at some point?

Elana

[BBry]

lovezebs
Yeah I have a feeling our little girl might warm up to him when he looks the part. I'm not really planning on breeding them since they are in a mixed cage with my gouldians and Orange cheeks.

As for the gouldians only one of the males likes to hop, the other one just kinda stares him down but it's still funny to watch! I think sometimes they have contests to see who sings the loudest though.

My canary, Bruno, is started to get his energy back. I've heard him chirp and whistle a couple times so he should be singing in no time! I think it's cute you have little canaries. I Would love to breed them but sadly we don't have the space for that right now.

The whydahs song is hard to describe. But I've attached a video you can watch. He sounds just like this one! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scvdAbxgokE&sns=em

[lovezebs]

BBry

Thanks for the Whydah video. This guy is absolutely adorable, and boy is he loud. All of my guys sure responded to his song. He had everyone whistling, singing, meeping and beeping, lol.

Space is always an issue when one gets into birds, sigh.....

Seeing as you can't have any baby Canaries, I decided to send you some on here to enjoy...

Elana

[lovezebs]

And...

[BBry]

lovezebs
I loved the pictures, thanks so much! They are adorable! I absolutely love those canaries with the little "wigs" And yes our whydah is just as loud as that video. Every morning I can hear him singing above all the other birds. And we have lovebirds too so that's pretty loud
Here's a pic of our canary by the way:

[lovezebs]

BBry

He's beautiful !

Canaries with wigs, lol. Gave me my chuckle for the day.
Dad (Luciano) is normal, but Mom (Sofia) is crested, or has a wig . Their babies, with one exception (who looks like a clone of his Dad) all came out crested.

Yes, Lovebirds, have a loud voice indeed. Trust me, I know. I had Lovebirds for almost twenty years, before getting into Canaries and Finches.

Here's pictures of Luciano and Sofia.

Elana

[BBry]

lovezebs
The parents are beautiful as well. Maybe some day I'll get a pair of canaries and start breeding them that would be great. I gotta tell you I really like lovebirds but our little girl is a tough one. She's quite territorial and it took a while before she stopped harassing the boy lovebird. She's calmed down a bit but I tell you I've never seen such a bold bird.

[lovezebs]

BBry

My Lovebird Peanut, the matriarch of the clan, was a witch, and not a 'good witch' either.

I got her from a lady, whose husband worked nights. The poor man was getting no sleep with all the squawking, and was threatening to barbeque the little darlin'.

So I got Peanut, the poor unwanted waif

She bit through the webbing between my thumb and first finger. Nipped my ears, pulled my hair, tormented me no end.

Then she started plucking herself. Everyone told me, that the poor sweetie was lonely. I bought her a beautiful boyfriend. He adored her. She plucked his tail out (all of it). She ripped one of his toe nails out (it looked like a crime scene from CSI) and there was blood everywhere.

Everyone told me, that the poor girl, wanted to breed....

In went the nesting box, and the eggs were laid, the babies were hatched, the babies were tormented, the babies were plucked and almost murdered in their own nest.....

The babies, were hand raised by Grandma, me..... sigh.....

What can I say, after almost twenty years, I swore off Lovebirds forever.

Elana

[BBry]

lovezebs
Wow! And we thought our lovebird was a bad girl that's really sad how she even almost killed her own babies! I wonder what drives them to be so hostile. My boyfriend has had the same lovebird for 13 years and he is the sweetest thing in the world! He'll climb onto your shoulder and just chill there all day. It's amazing how birds can have such distinct personalities.

[lovezebs]

BBry

I guess just like there are crazy people, there are also crazy birds, lol. Peanut was definitely Psycho Mama.

Funny enough, one pf her daughters, turned out just like her mother, so there was some genetic element in there.

Elana

[BBry]

lovezebs
Well, I guess it makes sense. I read that generally female lovebirds can be quite territorial and that's why they can be very nasty sometimes.

When we had our zebra finches and let them have babies, the parents were so attentive and patient with their babies. After the babies grew up they got pushy and mean and started to fight with their own siblings and even their parents! We ended up giving them all away because of how mean they got with each other.

[lovezebs]

BBry

Zebras will be Zebras. You either love them, hate them, or love to hate them.

With Zebras, once you have several..... (and I have...a-hem 'several' ), they eventually do figure out who the HEAD ZEBRA is, then things settle down for the most part.

I house my Zebbies with Society Finches, so thank goodness, some of the Society personality has rubbed off on the Zebras, making them somewhat calmer.

This is not to say, that we don't have the occasional squable (we do), but usually I let myself be heared above all the screaming, with a good "SETTLE DOWN!!!" And amazingly enough, it works.

Elana