Parrot Finches working nestbox

[L in Ontario]

WOW!!!! I hope they have babies and looking forward to seeing pictures of them!!!

Me too

[L in Ontario]

The last time I checked (yesterday morning) there were 4 eggs in the nestbox, and last night I went into the birdroom after lights out and could only see the male perched... meaning that the hen is sitting tight? Well this morning they were both out of the nestbox and he was chasing her around almost frantically. I understand Parrot Finches do this and the hen will most likely seek refuge in the nestbox. Silly fids.

[lovemyfinch]

Boy oh boy Liz, you sure did keep the egg laying a secret Congrats on eggs and sitting Here's hoping for more young fids.

[cindy]

Hooray EGGS!!!!

The Finch Fairy came through for you!!!!!

[L in Ontario]

Hooray EGGS!!!!

The Finch Fairy came through for you!!!!!

Noooooooooo that was the "Egg Fairy" The Finch Fairy comes later (in 2 weeks) and switches the eggs for teeny tiny finches!

[cindy]

Ahhhh!!! I am going to sit down sometime and do an illustration of what both the elusive Egg Fairy and Finch Fairy look like!!!! Time to dust off the old pen and ink and watercolors. Hmmmm, this could be fun!

[CandoAviary]

Parrot finches can be funny fids Curiousity got the better of me and yesterday I cut the zip tie that held the nest in place and peered in..... 10 eggs...... 9 pushed to the front and 1 in the nest cavitiy...
I put 2 that looked like they may have been fresher...the others were old and dry. I hung a new nest (a smaller box type)and gave them some fresh material. First time I ever had one do this.... we will see.

[L in Ontario]

Candace - TEN eggs?! Holy finch mom! How long did it take her to lay all them?

No new eggs here - same as before at 4.

Cindy - looking forward to your drawings!

[cindy]

I got new drawing pens and I'll be working on it, already have some ideas!

Candace...no peeking missy!!!!!!

[L in Ontario]

Can anyone tell me "how tight" these Parrot finches should sit? Does the male help the hen incubate at all?

With other Finches - I rarely see the hen at all during incubation. With this pair, I've seen the hen two or three times today and it doesn't seem like the male is helping out much if at all. Of course I'm away during the day and don't know what goes on then.

[CandoAviary]

My parrot finches have been tight sitters. Sometimes not catching a glimpse of the female for days. The male and female would both sit at night. and they have been know to swap rolls allowing Dad to do the sitting. I looked in the "rose aviary" nest this evening. 3 Fat chicks. Must be about 8 days old I will try and take a picture tommorrow and post.
The pair that had the 10 eggs...well a while back they got busy building the nest and they went through the motions of incubating. I left them alone. they started going through the eggfood so I thought there was chicks. Nothing.... then they were not consuming much eggfood. I then noticed them out more so I figured no chicks. Then back to sitting in the nest for long durations...started consuming more egg food. After 3 weeks I figured I had better look...maybe dead chick??? found the 10 eggs........ I changed the type of nest so I can do nest checks without to much disturbance. They were in a plastic gourd that was ankered with zip ties. So it had to be cut to be removed. Also it was in a 5 foot tall flight on a stand..That is why I had not looked before now.... This pair is young. One is my offspring male that was born last February. They are packing the new box nest full today so we will see this time if they can get them fertile....

[CandoAviary]

Meant to add my pairs usually have 4 to 5 eggs with 2 to 3 hatching. The nest I checked this evening had 3 chicks and 1 unhatched egg which I removed because the babies were already crowded. So I would say you have a normal cluth size.

[L in Ontario]

My pair are young too - hatched December 2008 so I'm not going to count this clutch unless I see live babies - which I doubt at this time. They were both out of the nest last night after lights out and I haven't seen him in to incubate at all. So I'll consider this a practise run. I'll leave the eggs in for another week or a bit longer.

[CandoAviary]

Yes , This male is young though the female is older they obviously have not figured it out. I will let them play house with this new nest and if they have dud eggs again, I will seperate and wait for him to mature. After giving the female a break I may put here with the pied male that is proven??? I did get some pics of the 3 chicks in the nest. I will try and post them later when I have the time.
They may just not be ready or they may just not ready to set tight yet. I would let them incubate (or not) for the 16 or so days..... if they seem interested. I removed some eggs one time that I thought were duds/DIS. the female died and the male had abandonned the nest.... sad to say there were live chicks in there but had noone to put them under at the time They were hardly incubated that I saw but obviously they were incubated enough...... all 4 eggs had half developed live chicks

[L in Ontario]

Oh that's so sad, Candace. Yes I'll leave them to 'play house' for a couple of weeks. Thanks for sharing that. I know it's hard.