27/01/25
Gouldians are no longer housed in this cage instead it has a pair of Bourke Parrots and a pair of Pied Red Faced Parrot Finches.
01/05/24
Finally some action took place in this cage since the previous post. We had moved a Aust Yellow hen into the cage and she has paired up with the Aust Yellow cock and they are currently brooding a clutch of 7 eggs due to have hatched 5 days ago – will listen for hatchlings over the coming days.
The Blue cock bird has been a disappointment in not pairing with any of the three spare Aust Yellow hens in the cage. There’s still another two months to go however.
Finally, we moved the Lutino pair of Bourke Parrots to the Main Aviary and replaced them with a pair of Pied Bourke Parrots (the hen is from Main Aviary and a cock bird we purchased at the Geelong bird sale).
03/04/24
It’s been quiet in this cage from a Gouldian finch breeding perspective with a pair just starting to nest today!
Will hopefully have more to say with the next post.
We recently purchased a pair of Lutino Bourke Parrots that we placed in this cage for now. They are still to young to breed.
And finally, we moved 9 two month old King Quail chicks into this cage from the Main Aviary for now. We will likely sell all 9 birds at an upcoming ASA bird sale.
01/01/24
Many of the brids previously in ths cage have been moved to other locations so we start the 2024 breeding season with 3 hen and 2 cock birds (Gouldians) in the cage plus a resting Bourke parrot hen.
Pictures of the Gouldians and one with the Bourke parrot are below.
09/07/23
To start, we added a hen Bourke Parrot to this cage in May and she is currently sitting on a clutch of eggs that she started incubating 3 days ago.
The pair of Gouldians we added to this cage from Cage 39/40 (per the previous post) successfully brought a brood of four fledglings. Some of these birds are pictured below.
We recently removed two of these fledglings and placed them in Cage 37/38 where they will be managed until they colour up and then sold around Christmas.
The other pairing in the cage went to nest twice (since the previous post) but only produced infertile eggs or unhatched partly formed embryos. It was the hen bird’s first year for egg laying so we expect better results from her next year.
07/04/23
A few changes to ‘personnel’ in this cage since our previous post.
We have given away one of our Bourke Parrot cocks to another parrot breeder in exchange for a hen bird which we will pick up in May.
We also added the pair of Australian Gouldians from Cage39/40 to this cage recently. They appeared to be having trouble settling into their second brood in the smaller cage. Hopefully this change of scenery will help them on their way.
Their first brood produced a single fledgling – pictures below of this ‘single’ bird.
The first picture shows the young bird still in the nest box, while the second picture shows it having fledged.
05/03/23
In this cage we lost one of our successful breeding Australian Yellow hens just over a fortnight ago. She and her partner from 2022 had initially set up in NB14 after being placed in this cage on 3 January. She quickly laid three eggs but then seemed to be in trouble in the cage – she seemed egg bound, so we treated her vent with some mineral oil and she recovered about two days later and with the cock bird, resumed incubating the nest with three eggs and a ‘wind egg’ (no shell/yolk).
After the normal incubation period had elapsed by an extra week, we completed a NB check and found the eggs had not developed, so removed them.
A week later, she and her mate went to nest a second time and all seemed good this time until one day we noticed her struggling and found her dead the next day on the cage floor. She had managed to lay 5 eggs as part of this second brood for the season.
We suspect she had developed health complications from going to nest so soon after the issues she had with the first brood. Her vent seemed clean but her crop was noticeably empty.
This left the cock bird on his own after the hen bird’s death and he attempted to incubate the eggs for a couple of days on his own before abandoning the nest.
We had been working with a young pair of Australian Yellow birds in Cage 33/34 but they didn’t seem to be interested in one another, so we moved this pair into this cage to see if the more experienced cock bird might take up with the newly added hen bird. These three are in the pic below. The transferred pair are on the upper branch. The cock bird on left has a half lilac coloured breast while the hen is a BH (expressed as white) WB bird. She is also the 2022 offspring of the hen above who died.
Above is a wider image of the birds in this cage which includes two Bourke parrots (cock birds) as well as the three Australian Yellow Gouldian finches.
27/10/22
A very different make up of cage ‘inhabitants’ since the last post below. It is currently a holding cage for the adult Gouldian birds as they go through their annual moult. The Bourke parrots were previously in the Main Aviary, but moved out when the pair of Pied Bourke Parrots started nesting.
20/04/22
It hasn’t been a good story from this cage in the last month. The Blue Gouldian we placed in the cage has been active in trying to attract a hen bird into NB22, but neither spare hen has responded to his attentions (we added a Normal hen from Aviary 3).
The pair who failed in NB23 in the last post, have failed again with a further brood of 6 infertile eggs – clearly there is a problem with the birds in the mating process and we will look to seperate them at some stage.
The pair who brought out the single hatchling that later died after two weeks in NB21 have repeated the exercise with another single hatchling – but this one has survived to be around the three week old mark, so should get to fledgling status in the next week.
20/03/22
Since our previous post, we have added a Blue Gouldian cock from Cage39/40 to this cage in hope it will pair up with the spare hen in this cage (SF Pastel Green).
We mentioned we had a pair of birds incubating a clutch of 11 eggs and had hopes there was to be a successful lot of hatchlings. Instead, there was just the one hatchling which died from the cold overnight once it was two weeks old and the parents ‘naturally’ let it fend for itself. If there had been other hatchlings in NB21, then it would have been kept warm by the mutual body temperature of more than one hatchling. When we removed the dead bird from the cage, we also removed 11 infertile eggs.
Since then, the two birds have gone back to nest and are currently sitting on a brood of 8 eggs – again in NB21.
We had an even greater failure in NB23, with the birds abandoning the nest box today and we removed 9 infertile eggs. So far this season, this pair has had two broods for a total of 13 infertile eggs – there may be a problem with the birds ‘connecting’ when they mate. This is the first breeding season for the hen, while the cock bird has been around a couple of years, but only ever raised one fledgling (with a different partner). We had also noted in the previous post the cock bird had appeared unwell at the time the eggs were being laid.
Some pics below of birds in this cage.
03/03/22
In this cage, a Normal BH WB cock and hen have hatchlings in NB21 that are around two weeks old. We don’t think it is a large brood although there were 11 eggs in the nest box per our previous post.
Also in this cage, the other pairing utilising NB23 (see previous post) have settled on a second brood and have been incubating that lot for just over a week now. We do have one worry however – the cock bird seems to be unwell when not attending the nest box – he is sitting all fluffed up on a perch which is not a good sign given the temperatures in Melbourne have been 25C+ most days. we will monitor his health as best we can without having to remove him from the cage.
08/02/22
We lost a Blue Gouldian cock bird a couple of weeks ago from this cage. He looked like he had been ‘knocked’ out as he had a small head injury. Whatever it was, he was stone cold dead the morning we found him.
We had a different surprise in this cage last week. We were sure a pair had started a brood in NB21 and a recent nest box check showed 11 eggs being incubated by the parent birds. We would have liked to have removed at least 4-5 eggs if we could, but we were unaware of which eggs to take and which to leave, so left the brood as is. It will be interesting to check the hatchlings (if any) that are due in a weeks time.
Another pair in the cage recently started incubating a clutch of 4 eggs in NB23. We tempted fate and changed over two of the eggs with eggs from the Split Blue/Yellow pairing in Cage 35/36. Unfortunately we must have ‘upset’ the sitting pair as they abandoned their brood the following day, so our experiment of changing over two of the eggs met with failure. We are yet to remove the eggs from NB23 but will do so over the coming days to allow the pair to commence a second brood (which we won’t interfere with!)
20/01/22
We placed nest boxes in the cage around 10 days ago and already a Normal pair have made claims for NB21 (as per the pic in our main blog post).
The other four birds in the cage are yet to pair up in any shape or form. As a result it is not really possible to determine what their expected progeny might be – we can only predict the Normal pair having Normal offspring!
As there is a Double Factor Blue Gouldian cock in the cage, any of his offspring will be split for Blue. There is also a Single Factor Pastel Green cock in the cage and his offspring will likely be Green bodied birds or Single Factor Pastel Greens birds like their father.
03/01/22
In the last week we have moved three birds out and two birds into this cage as we plan our breeding requirements for 2022.
Out went our best Normal hen to Cage39/40 (for pairing with a Blue Gouldian cock) and a SF Pastel Green pair (to Cage35/36).
Into this cage we moved a RH PB Normal hen from Aviary2 (bred 2021) and a Blue Gouldian cock from the Main Aviary. This Blue Gouldian cock (he is the bird top left in the pic below) has a real light shading of lilac/blue on his breast this year (he was bred 2021 by another breeder). It will be interesting to see his eventual breast colour in a couple of years time.
We will add nesting boxes (3 in total) to this cage in the next couple of days. In the meantime we want the new cage inhabitants to settle in. The picture below shows all 6 birds in the cage.
19/07/21
We moved the four fledglings from this cage to Aviary 2 some weeks ago and added some birds from other cages in a bid to group our Normal and SF Pastel Green adult birds in the one place for the winter/spring months.
We are not sure of what our strategy will be for the 2022 breeding season – whether we hold onto any of these birds or only keep the Blue Gouldians and Aust Yellows birds for breeding purposes.
28/05/21
In our previous post we mentioned moving out a cock bird from this cage that had developed a nervous head twitch. We have since had to euthanise him.
The experiment of adding another cock bird (RH Aust Yellow) to this cage to hopefully pair off with our most productive Normal hen has not worked out after all.
The other two birds in the cage – a related pair of SF Pastel Green birds, went to nest again shortly after the previous post, but this time produced a brood of 4 infertile eggs only. Given this pair have failed with their three broods this season, we removed their preferred nest box (NB23) from this cage.
The four fledglings are slowly starting to colour up now and it won’t belong before we should also be able to determine their gender.
13/04/21
Quite a bit of change with the inhabitants in this cage since our previous report. We moved a SF Pastel Green hen into the Main Aviary and a SF Pastel Green cock to Cage 35/36 for the time being.
We moved this cock bird as he has developed a nerve related ‘twitching’ of his head. We suspect he has hit his head on the cage walls after being frightened, which caused this ‘twitching’ habit.
As he is unlikely to breed this season (due to stress), we have placed him in the smaller cage for now.
We also moved the young AVB cock back to Aviary 3 where he seemed more at home with his parent birds – we had hoped he would interact with the Normal hen in this cage, but as he showed no interest after 3 weeks, we moved him.
In order to have the Normal hen go to nest at least once more this season (she is our most productive breeding hen), we added a RH Australian Yellow cock bird from Cage 35/36 to this cage. We had been using him as a ‘companion bird’ for the other occupant of Cage 35/36. He is a much older bird and our thinking had been to not breed with him this year, but we have clearly relented!
The four fledglings are going ok and now fully weaned. We have placed coloured/numbered plastic rings on their legs for identification purposes.
This just leaves the final pair of SF Pastel Green birds who per our previous post, were sitting on five eggs up until three hatched, upon which the parent birds (likely the cock bird), tossed the three hatchlings onto the floor of the cage – most disappointing. We can only guess as to what upset the birds to take this action. This is the second time this brother/sister combination have tossed hatchlings from the nest box this breeding season, so we are seriously considering splitting them up for now, before they consider a third brood.
21/03/21
In this cage, the four fledglings are now two weeks old, so close to being weaned from being fed by their female parent. We suspect she is now being courted by one of the ‘bachelor’ cocks in the cage (unfortunately not the AVB cock), and ready to nest again – this has been her modus operandi in her previous two years of egg laying.
In the same cage we have a pair of SF Pastel Green possibly Blue splits incubating a brood for some 10 days now, so should find out by next week-end if this second brood comes thru for them. This pair are actually a brother/sister combination.
14/03/21
As our main Blog page mentioned, we have had good news and bad news in this cage over the last month.
We were able to welcome four new Normal fledglings but lost their male parent the day after they left NB21 when he somehow drowned overnight in the water dish. This is how we found him on the morning in question.
We placed the young AVB cock bird in the cage a week after this incident to see if he and the Normal hen bird can make something of the balance of the breeding season together. To date, he hasn’t shown any interest in any of the hen birds we have tried pairing him with in Aviary 3. His pic below in his new digs.
The good news of course are the four healthy fledglings who are pictured below with their female parent (BH/WB Normal).
In our previous update on 14/02, we mentioned a second pair in this cage sitting on a brood. Unfortunately, they only had a day old chick that was ‘tossed’ from the nest box. There was also two infertile eggs which we removed from NB23. This pair started sitting on a second brood two days ago, so we hope they have a better experience.
We are blaming the chick ‘tossing’ by the cock bird on our need to treat all the birds in the cage for air-sac mite in late February. We believe the action of having to catch every bird in the cage (along with the sitting parent birds), to apply an Ivomec solution onto their bodies ‘upset’ them.
This activity also upset the third pair in the cage who had only started to nest and immediately abandoned NB22 after laying just one egg. They are yet to look to breed again.
14/02/21
After placing three nest boxes in this cage on 18 January, we have two of the three pairs already setting their first broods in NB21 and NB23, in fact we strongly suspect that our best breeding pair (the pair of Normal birds in NB21), already have hatchlings – we will be able to confirm in a couple of days time when we should be able to hear their audible cries while being fed.
The third pair are still spending time in/out of the third nest box in the cage (NB22).
A picture of 5 of the 6 birds in this cage are below. The hen bird central on the perch (BH/WB) is one half of our best breeding pair.
26/12/20
During the intervening time since our last post we have settled on three pairs for this cage – our established Normal pair who have brought out 20+ fledglings in the last two seasons and two pairs of SF Pastel green birds.
The aim is to have another set of successful broods with the Normal pair and to have some first success with the other 4 birds.
All six birds in this cage are stock from our own breeding efforts over the past 3 years.
24/5/20
This is the only cage currently with a sitting pair of birds this evening.
It is the Normal Gouldian pair who are also incubating an egg we took from a Blue Hen that passed away a few days ago from the Main Aviary. We are hoping this reliable pair will successfully bring out one last lot of hatchlings for us.
The other two pairs of birds now in this cage were taken from other cages, while the three fledglings formerly in this cage were sold today.
The blue pair were moved to the Main Aviary.
10/5/20
More bad news in this cage during the week with our most reliable pair abandoning their brood of 5 eggs in NB21.
They did have one hatchling in the nest box, but they didn’t look after it.
This news is of course on top of one of the fledglings escaping the cage in the previous post.
Pic of all the birds in this cage below including the three remaining Normal fledglings.
30/4/20
Not a good week in this cage, not only did the brood of eggs in NB23 turn out to be infertile (we checked the nest box contents after it became clear the birds had abandoned it), but one of the four fledglings in the cage escaped while we were cleaning out the flooring of the cage. Most distressing, particularly as we seen no evidence of the bird that afternoon or the next morning, so can only assume it is now dead.
Otherwise, the parents of the three remaining fledglings continue to brood the 5 eggs in NB21.
The third pair we recently added to the cage (included a Blue Gouldian hen – see pic below with post dated 11/4), have shown no interest in nest building and may have no interest now for the rest of the season.
20/4/20
We cleaned this cage out during the week and took the opportunity to complete a NB check and found there were 5 eggs in NB21 (as well as the 5 eggs in NB23).
This means the most successful pairing who have already reared 11 Normal fledglings have gone to brood for a third time this season, so we expect them a be successful once again. Their 4 recent fledglings are still in the same cage and are now weaned, so we may move them out of this cage to give the adult birds some ‘space’ sometime soon.
11/4/20
We removed a spare Normal Gouldian cock bird we had in this cage and replaced him with a Blue Gouldian Hen and Split Blue Cock from Cage 9/10. We had been aware that this pair we moved into this new cage, had been very wary of ‘human’ activity while in the cage under the verandah, so hopefully will feel less stressed in this backyard cage. Their pic is below from the time they were in Cage 9/10.
Meanwhile, one of the Normal Gouldian pairings are incubating a brood of 5 eggs in NB23 while the other pair continue the feed their 4 fledgings who are all doing very nicely.
6/4/20
Today we cleaned out nestbox 21 and found a dead hatchling amongst the nesting material from the pairs first brood. We estimate this hatchling would have died when we experienced a couple of days of 44 degree heat over the New Year.
While in the cage, we placed plastic numbered bands on the four recent fledglings – see pics below.
Meanwhile, the other pair in this cage have a second brood of 5 eggs they are currently incubating.
3/4/20
Well we have another 4 fledglings for season 2020 – that makes 14 young birds in total (including a pastel blue fledgling).
Below is a pic of the first bird to emerge this week from NB21.
The other pair in this cage are looking to start on their second brood.
28/3/20
All going well with the 4 hatchlings in NB21 – we expect them to emerge from the nest box early next week.
The other pairing in the cage are yet to set a second brood.
21/3/20
Well, we spoke too soon in the last post having assumed there were hatchlings in both nest boxes when in fact there is just the 4 hatchlings (as seen below) in NB21 belonging to the parents of the 7 fledglings.
In the other nest box, instead of hatchlings, we found five eggs of which 2 were infertile and 3 had partly formed birds inside.
14/3/20
Much excitement (and noise) coming from this cage with both pairs having hatchlings that are around 4-5 days old now in NB21 and NB23.
We haven’t completed any nest box checks, but estimate at least 4-6 hatchlings in each brood.
Might try and get some pics for the next post for this cage.
Oh…and the seven fledglings are doing fine still.
4/3/20
The seven Normal fledglings in this cage have now been weaned from relying on their parents for food, and just as well, as mum and dad are about to have their second brood for the season hatch in the coming days.
Meanwhile, by our estimates, the other pair in this cage should have 3-4 day old hatchlings in NB23. We will listen out for ‘cheeping’ sounds over the coming week to confirm our ‘estimate’. Below is the hen bird of the ‘hoped for’ hatchlings in NB23.
Fledgling below trying out wild seed grass for the first time.
23/2/20
The seven fledglings in this cage doing well and starting to eat independent of parent birds who have started on a second brood.
The other pair in this cage are also still sitting.
Below is some pics of the cock bird from the second pairing feeding on some wild seed grass.
16/2/20
We couldn’t believe our eyes when we noted seven fledgling had survived the heat on Jan 31 while in NB21 and all 7 are out flying now!
In fact they are doing so well their parents are setting up for the next brood in NB21 as per the pic below where 6 fledglings can be seen. (Hen bird coming out of NB21 to see what all the commotion is about while the cock bird is in the foreground)
The other good news in this cage is the other pair have started incubating their first brood.
8/2/20
As noted in the main blog page, we now have our season first fledglings!
As of today, there were five of the young birds out flying with their parents. We don’t think there are any remaining birds in the nest box meaning there is likely three deceased birds therein – not surprising given the weather on 31 Jan here in Melbourne.
The parent birds have been very diligent so far protecting their tribe and making sure they are well fed.
The other pairing in this cage look as though they may be starting the nest building stage.
2/2/20
Well the very hot day on 31 January may have impacted the number of hatchlings that will come out of NB 21.
In the pic below you can see two of the hatchlings trying to find some fresh air on the very hot day (44 degrees).
We expect the young birds to fledge any day soon.
Pics below of some of the adult birds chomping on some newly supplied cuttlefish.
27/1/20
The cheeping in this cage continues and we think there might be 8 chicks in the nest box (you count them and see what you think!). They are approximately 2 weeks old at present. This pic was taken a week ago.
We also added a further spare cock bird to this cage for now. His pic is below. He was previously in Cage 31/32 but wasn’t making any progress with the two different hens we had introduced to him.
16/1/20
We cleaned out this cage today with fresh wood shavings and while completing this task, could hear the cheeping of the newly arrived hatchlings that we estimate are now about a week old.
We tried for a pic, but the nest was so dense with nesting material, we couldn’t manage it for now.
The other pair in this cage are yet to show any real courtship behaviour although the cock bird has put together a very good nest for when the opportunity for mating arises!
9/1/20
It is possible that today marks the hatching of the eggs belonging to the ‘older’ pair of Gouldians in this cage.
The incubation time for Gouldians is 14 days and today marks the 14th day since we noticed the parent birds incubating the eggs ‘full time’.
Typically, the hen bird does most of the incubation including the night time period while the cock bird spends some time in the nest box during the day.
This pair are our most ‘experienced’ parent birds, so we are confidnet we will see all the hatchlings migrate through to the fledgling stage over the next four weeks.
The other couple in this cage are still to start egg laying.
3/1/20
We changed over the younger hen in this cage three days ago, with her sister from Aviary 3 who is identical but more ‘active’. The younger bird seemed disinterested in the advances of the cock bird, so she is now in Aviary 3.
This new pairing seems to be hitting it off straight away, so this was a good move. The cock bird is a really good looking Normal bird, so we are expecting strong stock from ths pairing.
The ‘older’ couple in this cage who are brooding a clutch of 6 eggs are going well and were able to negotiate the very hot day when it was 40+ degrees.
It is likely we will have most of our successes this breeding season from this cage and these two pairs.
29/12/19
Well a quick check of two of the three nest boxes in this cage yesterday revealed the older pair of birds have a clutch of 6 eggs they are now brooding.
Clearly the two eggs we found in the other nest box belong to the same hen – she therefore has laid 8 eggs in this exercise.
We removed the two eggs from this second nest box, as she seemed to want to visit them from time to time and we wanted her to focus on her clutch of 6 eggs.
The other pair in this cage have shown no ‘breeding’ activity – although the cock bird keeps chasing the older hen around the cage when she is not sitting!
25/12/19
We checked the nest boxes in this cage earlier this week and noticed a single egg in each of the boxes along the back wall. A rechecked two days later and there were two eggs in each box.
This would suggest both hens have started their broods, BUT we suspect it is the same hen (the older of the two in the cage), that has laid all four eggs!
The reason for saying this is the total disinterest of the other hen in the nest boxes (she is a young bird), and the fact the older hen goes in and out of both nest boxes. We have noticed this unusual behaviour with a different hen bird last breeding season.
We may have to remove the eggs physically from one box to ‘force’ her into a decision.
Pic from today of the four birds in this cage who are all Normal Gouldians.
18/12/19
Still quiet in this cage while the birds work out their surroundings and which nest box to choose (3 options for the two pairs). Pics of the hen birds below.
14/12/19
We moved two pairs of Normal Gouldians into this cage today.
We took a white breasted pair from Aviary 3 and the 2019 most productive Normal pairing from one of the cages under the verandah where they had already built a next!
Hopefully it won’t take them long to adapt to their new (and much bigger) surroundings.
12/12/19
Today we sold off the Tri coloured Parrot finches after selling the two pairs of Red Headed Pied Parrot finches earlier in the week.
At present the cage is empty but won’t be for long! (Aviary 1 is the cage to the left).
8/12/19
Yesterday we checked the nestbox of the Tri coloured Parrot finches and the four egg were infertile, so we removed the nest (again).
In the other two nest boxes are three eggs each belonging to the Red Headed Pied Parrot finches, but we also suspect these are ‘just for show; with the birds not setting.
Today we decided we would sell these birds in the near future and just focus on Gouldians.
23/11/19
Gee these birds are unpredictable…the Tri coloured finches have nested again, but over the top of one of the RH Pied Parrot finches nests after the they kicked the eggs out!
This second clutch is four eggs, so we are hoping we see hatchlings in the next week or so.
Meanwhile the two RH Pied Parrot finches seem to be in and out of the other two nest boxes in the cage. Fingers crossed something good comes of their activity.
16/11/19
The Tri coloured Parrot finches have built a new nest but we don’t think the hen has started laying yet, while the pair of Red Headed Pied Parrot finches are still visiting the nest box we found eggs in a couple of weeks ago.
5/11/19
Checked the nest box of the Tri coloured Parrot finches after we noted the parent birds were no longer visiting the next box and found five unhatched eggs, so we removed the eggs and nesting material.
In another nesting box, a pair of Red Headed Pied Parrot finches (orange and white leg bands) have two eggs currently they are incubating.
Mid September
The pair of Tri coloured finches have commenced nest building.
17/8/19
Placed the four Red Headed Pied Parrot finches and the two Tri coloured Parrot finches (or Tanimbars) into this cage in order to separate them from the Gouldian finches and see if this assisted their breeding efforts.
24/6/19
Both pairs in this cage laid a further brood since our last report but abandoned the nest boxes, so we moved the 4 adult Gouldians and single Gouldian fledgling into Aviary 2 yesterday.
We moved the Red Headed Pied Parrot finches into the Main Aviary.
25/5/19
A bit of a mixed bag in this cage since our last report.
The recent fledgling belonging to the yellow bodied pair in this cage is doing fine as the pic below attests. It is sitting between its father (to the right) and the Red Headed Pied Parrot finch hen (on its left).
The picture also includes some of the other birds in this cage and the four nest boxes.
During the last week, the all three pairs of birds (2 Gouldian pairs and the Red Headed Pied Parrot finch pair), have laid eggs but the two Gouldian pairs have already abandoned the nests shortly after having laid the eggs. Not sure why…..
Meanwhile, the Red Headed Pied Parrot finch pair have covered up the two eggs previously in the nest box they were using and laid a further egg this last week therein(?)
We can only guess that there is something disturbing the birds at night in Aviaries 1-3 (possum/neighbours cat on top of cage) as there has been some real ‘misses’ in the last week.
13/5/19
Some pics of the hatchling now turned fledgling yesterday in this cage.
We will watch carefully this small bird’s progress, as being a single chick and still to fully ‘feather up’, will be challenged by any sudden cold snaps in the weather over the next week.
We removed the nest box and the eggs of the second Gouldian pair in this cage as they had abandoned the nest box. The Red Headed Pied Parrot finches have done the same in the nest box they had eggs in.
We also removed the nest box the fledgling came from and found 4 other eggs in the nest box that didn’t hatch.
The pictured fledgling then is the only success story so far in this cage from the whole season!
4/5/19
The single hatchling belonging to the yellow bodied Gouldian pair is still alive (approximately 12 days old now) and we have noticed the other Gouldian pair in this cage have started laying again with two eggs in the right hand nest box.
The Red Headed Pied Parrot finches haven’t added to the single egg laid in their nest box this week, so likely they are just teasing us (again!)
28/4/19
There is better news in this report from this cage with the Yellow bodied Gouldian pair’s single hatchling still alive after a week. We did expect there to be more than one hatchling from the clutch of four eggs, but an inspection of the nest box today revealed just the one bird and two unhatched eggs (not sure what happened to the third egg!)
In this cage are also a pair of Red Headed Pied Parrot finches and they have assembled a new nest in a nest box along the back wall of the cage and have a single egg as of today.
22/4/19
Sadly the 3 hatchlings that were doing so well earlier in the week have died. With clearly empty crops, it is plain the parent birds stopped feeding them. A major disturbance in Aviaries 1-3 the other night is the likely cause for the parents leaving the chicks.
The sad finding is posted below (look away if you prefer not to see the deceased hatchlings). When we cleaned out this nest box, we also found two eggs buried within the nest material. This explains where the ‘missing’ eggs from the original brood size of six eggs went.
On a much more positive note, the nest box with four eggs on the side wall has at least one hatchling (first noticed two days ago) from the 4 eggs that were being incubated by the parent birds.
17/4/19
Another pic of the new hatchlings in this cage is below.
Clearly the two birds on the right will be Normal coloured birds, but the one on the left with the lighter coloured head could be something different – likely a Split bodied bird.
13/4/19
We have three new hatchlings this week belonging to the Normal hen and Normal/Blue Split cock.
Last week when we checked the nest box there were 6 eggs, but three have gone ‘missing’ while the other three have hatched and as of today the hatchlings are about four days old. They are pictured below. All birds appear to be likely to be Normal coloured going by their current colouring i.e. dark heads and bodies.
The other Gouldian pair in this cage continue to incubate their nest of 4 eggs which should hatch mid next week.
6/4/19
All is good in this cage with one pair of Gouldians incubating a clutch of 6 eggs and the other Gouldian pair (yellow bodied) incubating a clutch that has advanced from 3 per our last report to 4 eggs.
1/4/19
Still six eggs in the main clutch in the nest taken over by generally Normal Gouldian pair, so looks like things have settled down for the moment.
Meanwhile, the pair of yellow bodied Gouldians have three eggs in a nest box on the wall facing Aviary 2. This is their second brood having abandoned the first brood of four eggs earlier last month.
Red Headed Pied Parrot finch pair not up to much.
27/3/19
Eggs in the nest box taken over by the Gouldian finch pairing continue to ‘move’ around mysteriously!
We removed two eggs today from around the entrance of the nest box – one egg was clearly a Red Headed Pied Parrot finch egg (slightly larger) and the other a Gouldian finch egg. This now leaves six eggs in the main clutch and a quick inspection using our new egg candling torch indicated possibly 4 fertile and 2 infertile eggs.
Nothing else to report with the other four birds in this cage yet.
25/3/19
Ok, we got into the cage today to check what was happening in the nest box that has been taken over by the Gouldian pair (Normal/Split Blue cock and Normal hen) from the Red Headed Pied Parrot finch pair.
In the nest box today we found a clutch of 7 eggs and another egg ‘moved’ to near the nest box entrance – suspect this is the second egg moved and belonged to the Red Headed Pied Parrot finches.
The Gouldians have started the formal brood process.
In order to re-motivate the other two pairs of birds in this cage, we added a further nest box, so there are now four nest boxes catering for three pairs of birds.
24/3/19
Well…where do we start. Firstly the clutch of 4 eggs identified in the cage from our previous post proved to be infertile (we used our new ‘egg candling’ torch to help us determine this status), so we removed them last Monday. We believe they belonged to the yellow bodied Gouldian pair in this cage.
The number of eggs laid in the Red Headed Pied Parrot finch nest box rose to 4 the day following our previous post then to 7 by the end of the week (including one egg at the nest box entrance that was clearly ‘put’ there out of the way, so we removed it).
We make reference to this ‘nest box entrance scenario’ as we believe a Gouldian pair has taken over the nest box and started laying their own brood of eggs in the same nest as the Red Headed Pied Parrot finches (and pushed some eggs of the previous occupants out of the way!)
We are unsure exactly what is happening but clearly one pair of Gouldians (Normal/Split Blue cock with Normal hen) has started a formal brood, but we are not sure in what nest box – we will check further tomorrow.
17/3/19
As surprised as we were finding a nesting box in this cage with four eggs, we are still unable to establish the parents birds!
We had thought it was the yellow bodies birds, but after making some observations today, the Normal/Split Blue cock bird seems to be one of the interested parties!
However the bigger issue is that no further eggs have been laid since the last post and no-one seems to be commencing a formal brood process suggesting the nest may now be abandoned!
Will watch with interest who belongs to who!
The Red Headed Pied Parrot finch have 3 eggs in their nest box (we took a peek into the complex nest yesterday) but we are still unsure if they are formally brooding as both parent birds have tended to be out of the nest box over the last 3 days when we go and observe the birds. Maybe those hatchlings we found in the bottom of the cage the other day were their young and they have now abandoned the remaining eggs in the nest box.
13/3/19
We were surprised today to find there is a ‘mated up’ pair of Gouldians in this cage after finding 4 eggs in the nest box on the wall facing Aviary 2. We suspect it is the two yellow bodied birds that have started this new brood and will confirm over the coming days when they start the formal brood process and we will see clearly which birds are in and out of the nest box.
We were surprised as we hadn’t observed anything in particular with the activities of the four Gouldians in this cage.
The Red Headed Pied Parrot finch pair continue with the formal brooding of the eggs in their nest box even though we think we may have found some dead hatchlings thrown from the nest box…we are not sure, so will monitor.
6/3/19
It has been very quiet in this cage, however maybe the very hot weather had something to do with holding back the Gouldians from interacting.
The Red Headed Pied Parrot finch pair have been a bit hot and cold with the care of their brood. They seemed to have let the brood go for a couple of days and now they are back in the nest box.
Hopefully we will get a better indication of what they are up to over the following week.
25/2/19
The only action in this cage is by the Red Headed Pied Parrot finches who commenced formal brooding a couple of days ago after making the left hand nest box theirs.
Below are some pics from the cage including the new Normal/Split Blue cock bird we purchased from a Grovedale breeder. He is sitting ‘forward’ and way up on top of the nest box in the left hand picture.
17/2/19
Today we placed a new Gouldian purchase in this cage. He is a Red Headed/Purple Breasted Normal/Blue Split cock (pic to follow), whom we purchased from a breeder in Grovedale.
To make sure he is not alone, we will take the spare Normal Gouldian Hen from Aviary 2 tomorrow as a potential partner for him.
As it is, the other couple of Gouldians in this cage are yet to ‘mate’, so we may end up with any of the four birds coming together which we would be comfortable with given the potential offspring permutations.
We pulled the Red Headed Pied Parrot finch nest out earlier this week as it was clear they had ‘stopped’ attending the nest box. So what did they do…they rebuilt a new complex nest within 48 hours…still no eggs from this second nest build.
11/2/19
We checked the Red Headed Pied Parrot finch nest, but the structure of the nest does not allow us to confirm the size of the brood we suspect is therein.
The nesting box available to the Gouldian pair remains untouched.
6/2/19
We moved the red headed Australian Yellow cock bird into this cage from Cage37/38 and moved the SF Pastel Green hen bird out and into Aviary 2.
This was done as part of a ‘mix it up and see’ as there was not much happening in Cage37/38.
This leaves the new cock bird with a Normal/Yellow split hen whom we bred last season and are more likely to breed Australian Yellow progeny from this preferred pairing.
We checked the Red Headed Pied Parrot finch nest and there was one egg therein, so hopefully there will be more on the way over the coming days.
2/2/19
Red Headed Pied Parrot finches continue caring for their brood with one or both birds in the nesting box on the back wall.
We are considering getting a further two Gouldian cock birds to pair up with the two spare hen birds currently in Aviary 1, but we will wait until after this hot week-end has passed.
26/1/19
The main site page has separately advised the sad passing of the SF Pastel Green cock bird we had in this cage up until yesterday, when the temperature hit 44 degrees Celsius after going for 40 degrees Celsius the day before.
In order to keep the SF Pastel Green hen bird (his mother) company, we have moved one of the Normal hen birds (her daughter from season 2018), from Aviary 3 into Aviary 1.
The Red Headed Pied Parrot Finches in this cage appear to be now in a more formal brooding phase. Difficult to see the size of the brood due to the intricate nest they have built in the nesting box.
21/1/19
Having observed the Red Headed Pied Parrot finches closely over the last few days, we are certain the hen bird has commenced laying. Still not at the formal brood phase as that is likely to start until later this week.
19/1/19
We noticed the Red Headed Pied Parrot Finch in the left hand nesting box this morning, so we may see the start of egg laying soon with this pairing of birds.
Today we swapped the Gouldian cock bird out of this cage (SF Pastel Green/Yellow split) with his brother (but from a different brood) who had been in Aviary 2. The hen bird (also both siblings mother) had not shown any interest in her younger son, so we thought we would try her out with her older offspring – both from the 2018 breeding season.
Fingers crossed we have made a right decision.
10/1/19
Checked the nesting box claimed by the Red Headed Pied Parrot finches and they have built quite a complex nest but no eggs yet.
We are starting to think the two Gouldians are not compatible and may look at introducing new options for both birds.
At present the hen bird who is a Single Factor Pastel Green/Yellow Split (or Euro Yellow) is happy to sit on one of the water bottles in the cage and look across into Aviary 2 (see pic below)
3/1/19
Still to early to call any major action happening in this cage other than clearly the Gouldians have preference for the nesting box on the right hand side of this cage while the Red Headed Pied Parrot finches have ‘dibs’ on the left hand nesting box which we noticed has had some nesting material added to it in the last 24 hours.
30/12/18
The SF Pastel Green cock bird in Aviary 1 is finally coming out of his moult with only a half dozen or so pin feathers still present on top of his head. His partner in the cage (who is also his mother), is clearly in good breeding nick at present and looking quite pretty with her yellow (orange) head and purple chest – trouble is she seems to be attracted to another one of her sons in Aviary 2 next door (she can see him through the wire partition). Hopefully her fancy will pass and she will look to her younger son who is certainly interested in her, given the amount of ‘strutting’ he is guilty of!
The pair of Red Headed Pied Parrot finches in Aviary 1 are still getting to know each other. No obvious nest building going at present. Might be another week away from seeing some action from them.
26/12/18
Pic of Aviary 1 which currently has a single pair of Gouldian finches and a pair of Red Headed Pied Parrot finches. Two nesting boxes can be seen against the back wall of the aviary.
There has been very little interaction between the two Gouldian finches whereas the Red Headed Pied Parrot finches have been very close and seem to have taken a liking to the nesting box on the right hand side.
22/12/18
Checked the nesting boxes and found a single egg sitting just inside the entry hole – clearly the Red Headed Pied Parrot finch hen has laid this after having started a second brood when she was with her former partner while in the Main Aviary. We have removed the egg to enable her to start afresh with the cock bird she is now partnered with.
19/12/18
Canaries removed after their brood of two hatchlings died so we have added a pair of Red Headed Pied Parrot finches to Aviary 1 instead. See all birds together in pic below.
The green bodied Red Headed Pied Parrot finch on the left is the cock bird, while the Red Headed Pied Parrot finch with the yellow body is the hen bird.
We will need to keep as eye on the Red Headed Pied Parrot Finch hen as she had laid two eggs in the past week while in the Main Aviary before we moved her into this new cage with a new partner.
We did this on the advice of a local breeder in St Albans who suggested we likely had a brother/sister combination, hence no luck with their first brood.
13/12/18
The pairing is of a Single Factor Pastel Green (or Euro Yellow) hen on the right and her Single Factor Pastel Green/Yellow split son on the left who was born earlier this year and is still in the moult phase.
We are bringing these two birds together hoping for further Pastel Green/Yellow split progeny.
To this point the young ‘buck’ is trying hard to attract his mother’s attention but not with much luck – he is just 6 months old after all!
This pair are currently sharing this aviary space with a pair of canaries who are raising their own brood (not pictured).
Blue Gouldian Finches 