question about Star Finches

[Leda]

I just purchased my first finches!!! Beautiful red faced Stars!!! After getting home and doing research, I am pretty sure they are both males. I really didnt buy them to breed, but for their beautiful song. They both sing like crazy!!!! My question is, can I keep the 2 males together. They wont fight or hurt each other? And if in the future I do decide to get a couple of females for them (my cage is big enough for 4) would I have to seperate each pair in their own cages?
Thank you!!!!

[dfcauley]

Hi Leda,

I have a pair of red face star finches. I find them to be very sweet and not agressive at all. They are very easy to sex as the male has a much larger mask on his face then the hen.

If you could post a picture I am sure we could let you know for sure.

You won't have any problems with them getting along.

[Sally]

Stars are very easy-going, for the most part. If both your birds are singing up a storm, you have males, because Star females don't sing. They will probably be best buddies. If you have the room and you decide to add two hens, you will have to watch them just in case--they may both decide they like the same hen! The down side to having two pairs of the same species share a cage is that you can't be sure of the true parentage of the babies.

[Leda]

I am sure they are both males. Large red face mask that goes under the chin and both sing like crazy!!! LOL Love it!!!! Where I live, not so sure I can find a couple of females. Right now I am just enjoying them very much. Why did I ever think parrots were the bird of choice???? Anyway, I am keeping my eyes out for a couple of females. No hurry thou. But would like to maybe have the females yellow faces. I am glad they wont fight and will be buddies. They seem like best friends already!!! Question, is it safe to have the birds shipped by mail?

[Domenic]

If you aren't interested in breeding a female yellow face would be a fine choice, but if you are interested in breeding you should know that only males can pass on the yellow-face gene, meaning that every chick will be a red head if the male is a red head.

You will find a large variety of opinions on this forum concerning shipping finches by mail. Some members have sworn to never do it again (I believe it was Pukasand who had a terrible experience, if I'm wrong someone can correct me), and others do it all the time with great success (Johnboy). As far as I know, most who have shipped have had smooth transactions and healthy birds. Considering your location though, I would definitely give shipping a try. There are a few websites that offer finches through mail like singing-wings-aviary.com and birdsexpress.com. I have never shipped before as I can usually finds birds in my area, but like I said, Johnboy has tons of experience with shipping so I would PM him if you have any questions.

Congrats on acquiring your stars by the way. I got mine by accident when a man at the bird store grabbed it by accident and put it in the box. I got a large discount on it so I decided I would just keep her, very glad I did!

[L in Ontario]

If you aren't interested in breeding a female yellow face would be a fine choice, but if you are interested in breeding you should know that only males can pass on the yellow-face gene, meaning that every chick will be a red head if the male is a red head.

Unless like me, you have a Red faced-split to Yellow male (I think that's how it works - I'm lousy at genetics). I have a male Red faced-split to Yellow male Star and a Yellow faced hen that gave me a Yellow faced male baby. I now have two more babies from this pair but they have not coloured up yet. You would never know my male is split to Yellow by looking at him.

[Leda]

Hummmmm, very interesting about the color of the faces. Since I bought them from a pet store I have no idea if they are even related. They do not have leg bands either. The owner of the pet store said she could get me 2 females from her breeder----but I dont know if I want to do that , not knowing if they would be related to my males. What do you guys think?

[Sally]

If you trust the owner of the pet shop, you could ask her if the breeder can supply two unrelated hens. Unfortunately, there are a few people who will have just one pair of birds, and they sell the offspring as unrelated if they know people want pairs. On the other hand, if the breeder has more than one pair, they may be able to come up with unrelated hens for you.

My understanding with Star face colors is that the yellow gene is sex-related, so only the males will carry the yellow gene. However, I have been told that if you mate a red-faced male with a yellow-faced hen, all offspring will be red-faced, but the males will be split to yellow. Then if you can pair one of those split to yellow males with a yellow hen, you will get yellow babies, as did Liz. On the other hand, I have been breeding a red male to a yellow hen, and all the babies are red--the males should be split/yellow, and the hens are normal red. There is no way to tell visually if a male is split to yellow.

[Leda]

I will go talk with her this weekend about her breeder. Hopefully she knows him well enough to be able to answer my questions. I am going to start a new topic because I have soooo many questions!!!!! LOL

[Leda]

After much web surfing, I found the breeder of my 2 male Stars. He has 2 breeding pairs and cant remember who the parents of mine are. So I will not be buying females from him. And thats ok, I am enjoying them. Right now they are picking up the mullet sticks and waving them around in their beaks. So cute!! The breeder raises Lady G's. So my Star's sing like Lady G's!!!!! Very funny!!!