At that point she called me on the phone (I was fortunately visiting at the time) and I managed to catch it, very lucky as it could just have well have flown out out the coop again and disappeared forevever.
It was indeed a zebra finch! How it got there, we will never know. It must have been amazing pure chance that it found my parents' chicken coop, probably flew in for the warmth and chance for food and water? The thing is, it was still very young, a fledgling. It hadn't even begun to get its adult colours yet, just some orange on its beak. Whether the original owner released it or if it escaped, there's no way to know. I'm pretty certain it would not have survived the Swedish climate for long though so it was very lucky. When I first caught her, she was pretty exhausted but after being presented with warmth and food she quickly got a lot more lively.
Photo from when I first caught it, in a very temporary cage at the farm:
https://scontent-a-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hph ... 6406_n.jpg
(Let me know if that link doesn't work)
That's the background, then... a bit of a rough start for this bird! It turned out to be a grey hen. She has been an active and healthy bird despite her escape(?) into the wilderness. She'll be one year in April and has not had any offspring. I'm concerned about her because she shows pretty poor pigment and now most recently exhibits some sort of... I don't know... growth? on her beak. Looks a little like she's dopped it in flour or similar. I'm worried that she has some sort of illness going on. If she was not 100 % active and alert and happy like the others I would have been certain she's ill but she'd been pale for months with no apparent other issues so I haven't put her in a sick cage or similar, but now I'm wondering if I should? This white... stuff... on the beak is new and not something I've seen in my other birds before. Does anyone recognize what this is, should I be worried and/or if there anything I can do to help her? With her special past she is of course a favourite. I call her my Lilla Höna (Little Chicken) ;)
As mentioned, beyond looking pale she's acting very normal - she does not sit in a corner with her feathers fluffed up looking half-asleep etc - every bit as active as everyone else. Eats, drinks, honks, investigates her world etc.
A couple of photos of her, taken today:
Can add that I don't think her colours look that bad in these photos... It's a bit more apparent in RL that her beak is paler than my other birds', when you see them side by side. None of my hens have that many white feathers around their eyes either but maybe that's normal variation.
Any thoughts most welcome!
