Looking for friendly and easy to tame finch. Suggestions?

[mondo]

Someday I want a mixed species aviary,
more importantly, the birds need to see me as "friend" not predator.

What species do you suggest would be easy to tame and befriend?
I'm not looking for circus-trick tame, all I want, is when I enter and offer food they could gather instead of fluttering to opposite direction.

Right now canaries inhabit the aviary, since they're the easiest and most trusting species, they will be the most numerous bird I keep, hopefully influencing other birds to come and feed.

In my head I wanted local finches, like strawberry, pintailed parrotfinch, tawny breasted parrotfinch, and also imported species like gouldians. Any of those friendly?
Java finch is out of the list, I've kept 6 for a year and none of them ever want to touch me.

[DanteD716]

I would suggest javas, but you've put them on the black list lol my canaries and zebras have been the most tame in th aviary, and are some of the few that will fly to me out of curiosity. The diamond doves too

[paul-inAZ]

Bengalese [societies]

[lovezebs]

mondo

Hello again.

Regarding tame finches...
I know, that you know, that Finches are not really all that much into people.

Even when you hand raise and hand feed them from babyhood, once they grow up and get together with other finches, they tend to lose their trust of humans.

Out of the three you mentioned, Gouldians, Parrot Finches, and Strawberries, I find that Gouldians, tend to be more calm and curious about people. However, even some of the kids that I have handled as babies and supplement fed, are not what I would call tame.

Strawberries, are flighty around people, and my Parrot Finches (Redfaced), are curious, but too busy to ever stay in one place for too long.

Not sure how large your aviary is, but spending a lot of time quietly around your birds, will teach them to remain more calm around you. If you can place a chair in your aviary, and spend time in there, reading, drawing, or just talking softly to your birds, eventually some will come to check you out. Having some of their favourite foods available nearby won't hurt, and once they come to eat, the next time place favourite foods a little closer, and so on.

Good luck

[delray]

mondo although they are not naturally take, I would say that society finches are easily the friendliest finches. I would give them a try. They have great mutation choices, and should be great for you. I do not have an aviary, but since my societies are in a main part of my house they are always flying to out faces at the cage bars. If I had the time, I would really like to tame mine. Good luck

[wildbird]

I have two Javas. One is a hand fed and very tame. He almost always jumps on my hand to play when I change food dishes. When he got out of the cage, he flew right to me. The female was not hand fed, but is quite tame. She won't get on my hand, but they both come to me and nibble on my fingers. But they are not in an aviary. Spending time with them as Lovezebs stated will give you the best chance of them trusting you.

[dunker817]

Mondo, here comes another opinion. Or situation. I have Gouldians, Cordon Bleus, and Parrot Finches. My Gouldians will fly right to me and sit with me while I am in my bird room. The Cordon Bleus will come close but not as close as the Gouldians. And the Parrot Finches, well, they stay as much to themselves as they can.

[Rox]

Out of all of my birds, the gouldian's and canaries are definitely the 'tamest'. But a lot also depends on the individual bird. None of the waxbills will ever be really tame birds, they are just too flighty overall.

Like Elana says, you need to spend a lot of time with the birds before they will become anything close to tame. That means spending time on a regular basis in the aviary with them and feeding them their favorite treats in a dish while you stand/sit really quietly near the food dish and let them come to you. It's a process that can take months but is worth it if you have the patience. My mom feeds the birds for me during the week while I am at work and between her efforts and mine on weekends, I now have 1 gouldian hen than comes and lands on the food dish as we enter the aviary. This took a year before she had the courage to actually land on the dish. The other birds in the aviary still aren't keen. So please don't expect tame birds overnight.