27/01/25
Gouldians are no longer housed in this cage instead it has 2 pairs of Bourke Parrots (Lutino) and 2 pairs of Pied Red Faced Parrot Finches plus a small family of King Quail (5 members).
01/05/24
We’ve moved some birds on from this cage since the last post. We took the King quail chicks (Aviary 1) and three Bourke Parrots to the Dandenong Bird Sales to sell and purchased a pair of Lutino Bourkes from the Geelong Bird Sales.
The Pied Parrot finches have been nesting and laying eggs but indiscriminately, so generally the nests have been abandoned. We have removed 7 eggs from two separate nest boxes in the last week. Most were no good while a couple had developing embryos.
03/04/24
It has been quiet in this cage generally since the last post.
The Bourke Parrot hen who mothered the two chicks from the previous post died, so we moved the spare Bourke Parrot hen from Aviary 1 to be with the cock bird. The two chicks are now well and trully developed and are Pink Bourke parrots (after the hen bird).
At ground level one of the King Quail hens brought out 9 hatchlings which we have since moved into Aviary 1 as the older birds were ‘picking’ on the smaller birds after a while. See pic below of some of these chicks.
Meanwhile, the Red Faced Parrot Finches in the cage have nested a couple of times, but not brought out any further young. They are a frustrating bird to manage when it comes to breeding!
01/01/24
A real mix of birds in the cage but they all get along well. The Bourke parrot pair (a Cream cock and a Pink hen) currently have two 3 week old chicks in NBE.
Meanwhile we have a pair of RFPF sitting on three eggs in NB21 and two recent fledglings (belonging to the same pair now on eggs), going about their business in this cage.
The 5 King Quail (there were previously 6 but we sold a hen bird recently) continue to keep the cage floor clean (and randomly lay eggs all over the place!)
Pics of the birds are below starting with the adult RFPF and their two fledglings.
Next the Bourke parrot parents….
And of course the 5 King Quail keeping the cage floor clean!
09/07/23
The Bourke parrots did go back to nesting and the hen has been incubating a brood for around 10-11 days now.
Meanwhile, we purchased a Red Faced Parrot Finch hen from a regional bird sale and she immediately paired up with the Pied cock bird and they have been busy constructing a nest for the past two months. Clearly they want it to be perfect!
The quail in the cage have been randomly laying eggs with no brooding taking place during this period.
07/04/23
Not a lot of change in this Main cage since our previous post. We decided to re-introduce the parrot nesting box the other day to see if the pair of Bourke parrots can have better luck with the mating process this time around. We also moved one of the young quail (a hen bird) in with the single male quail in Aviary 2 for company.
At the Geelong Bird Sale we bought a pair of Red Faced Pied Parrot Finches and placed these into this cage as well. However, after the first night, we found the hen bird dead on the cage floor – there was no clear reason for her passing so quickly. Her now ‘lonely’ partner has thrived in retrospect. Will get a picture of this cock bird for the next post.
05/03/23
Having purchased a small number (6) of Bourke parrots during the winter of 2022, we determined to have just the one pair of birds in this cage over the 2023 breeding season (the Gouldians have been distributed among the smaller cages/aviaries we have).
The pair of Pied Bourke parrots we have are lovely in appearance, but have not been successful with any of the four broods they have incubated over the last 5 months.
From watching the birds carefully, it appears the actual mating exercise is not being completed properly by the cock bird. He is mounting the hen, but seems to slip from her back before the actual mating exercise can take place.
The hen bird is a very dedicated mother tending the nest box even thru the hottest days in the past summer.
We only just recently removed the infertile eggs from her most recent brood and at the same time removed all the nest boxes form the main Aviary to give her a break (she is pictured below while her breeding partner is pictured in the post below dated 27/10/22.
We also had 5 quail chicks hatch in this cage in early January 2023. They are now 2 months old and adult size. Also in the cage are two adult hen Quail one being the mother of the 5 chicks.
27/10/22
We moved all the Gouldians out of this Main Aviary when we installed the parrot breeding boxes as the Gouldians started using the parrot nesting boxes for themselves (we removed 4 seperate Gouldian nests from the 6 parrot boxes we had installed!)
Below is a pic of the pied Bourke parrot cock bird who is currently incubating a brood with a pied Bourke hen.
20/04/22
Since our previous post, we have another 3 fledglings – this time from NB15 to Normal split Blue parents. All three young birds are very healthy but Normal in appearance (ie no Blue Gouldians).
Together with the three fledglings that were noted in the previous post, we now have 6 young birds from this season’s breeding in this cage. We placed rings on the birds earlier this week for identification purposes.
This new crop and their hen bird parent are pictured below.
We added the AVB cock into this cage about a week ago after he and his mother/partner had failed with a third infertile brood for the season. He might strike up a pairing with one of the three spare hens in this cage.
In other news, the pair that had three fledglings previously in NB13, have a new brood of hatchlings in the same nest box (we heard them cheeping for the first time today.) Surprisingly, we even noted one of the fledglings from the previous brood take nesting material into the NB while the cock bird was setting with the hatchlings!
The parent birds of the more recent fledglings in NB15 have set a new brood of at least 3 eggs in NB16 in the last week, so hopefully they have a successful second brood but with a Blue Gouldian offspring this time around!
Below are some pics of birds feeding on the BVM Probiotic pink powder we have for the birds in all the cages. It is surprisingly popular with the birds – even the young ones as the pics below attest.
We have also included a pic of two of the four Bourke Parrots we have recently purchased for breeding later this year.
20/03/22
Since our previous post, we added a SF Pastel Green split for Blue hen from Cage39/40 after having no luck with her mating with a Blue Gouldian cock bird.
We have also had 3 birds fledge this morning and they are pictured on the main blog page and again here below.
There are also three hatchlings in NB15 that are due out next week.
For both lots of birds (fledglings/hatchlings) the parent birds were Normal split Blues, so we were hoping for a Blue Gouldian. The above three birds are all Normal (green) birds unfortunately from NB13 – we are hoping for a better result from NB15 next week.
The remaining 5 birds have been fairly inactive in this cage, except for one hen who laid 5 infertile eggs without a mate in NB14 which we have since removed.
Once the hatchlings from NB15 fledge, we will get into the cage proper and move some of these 5 inactive birds to other cages to see if they pair up.
Pics below of successful nesting boxes – 13 and 15.
03/03/22
Since our previous post the ‘obvious’ pairing in this cage now have hatchlings in NB13 that are around a week old. We are hoping that at least one chick is a Blue Gouldian given both parents are Normal split for Blue Gouldians.
Further, since our previous post, a second pair (also Normal split for Blue) have been incubating a brood in NB15 which are due to hatch today, so we will keep an eye out for any tossed hatchlings before we expect to hear some ‘cheeping’ from the nest box in around a week.
The remaining four birds (2 cocks/2 hens) are yet to make a commitment to each other, instead one of the hens went on an egg-laying sojourn laying at least 12 eggs across 3 empty nest boxes without a mate.
We have had this happen literally each breeding season with at least one or more hens that just lay eggs randomly (like chooks) with no input from a cock bird.
08/02/22
There is just the one obvious pairing in this cage so far who have settled on NB13. The hen is yet to lay (we completed a NB check two days ago), but suggest she is close. We changed over one of the cock birds a couple of days ago. We moved the SF pastel Green split Blue cock into Cage 31/32 and added the YH Normal split Blue from that same cage back into this Main Aviary.
As things have been quiet, we have just decided to post a pic of two of the hen birds inspecting one of the nest boxes per below.
20/01/22
In the previous post we mentioned moving some birds out of this cage and into the smaller cages on the back verandah which we completed a fortnight ago. This has left us with our ideal number of 8 birds or 4 potential pairings.
As all the birds are either Single Factor or Double Factor Blue Gouldians, we are looking to breed Blue Gouldian and split Blue Gouldians in this cage this season. There are also two birds carrying the yellow bodied gene and could produce a silver bird if they pair up with the right partner.
We also purchased a pair of Rosa Bourke parrots that we placed in this bigger cage. A pic of one of these parrots along with the eight Gouldians is below.
03/01/22
As we consider our preferred breeding outcomes for 2022, the inhabitants of this cage will play a big part in our hopefully increasing our Blue Gouldian stock.
Today we moved three Blue Gouldian cock birds out of this cage and into Aviary1 (1 bird) and Aviary2 (2 birds including a Pastel Blue).
Remaining are two Blue Gouldian hens and 10 other birds being a combination of split Blue and split Blue/Yellow cock and hen birds.
We have determined we had too many potential pairs in this cage in 2021 (7 potential pairings) so are going with just 4 pairs this season meaning we need to move two pairs out to the empty Cages 31/32 and 33/34. We will do this over the coming week after we decide which birds have started pairing up and would therefore be best candidates for the smaller cages under the back verandah.
Some recent pictures from a month or so ago of occupants (past and present) in this cage are below.
21/07/21
This cage was a ‘bomb’ this breeding season. We were teased on a couple of occasions with birds laying and sitting, but any chicks were tossed or abandoned – very disappointing (including broods reported on 28 May). We removed all the nest boxes a few weeks ago and amalgamated all the Blue Goudian/Blue Gouldian derivations into this cage at that time.
Some pictures below of the birds feeding on native seed grass.
28/05/21
We continue to have no success in this cage which has generally housed 12 adult birds all 2021 breeding season (ie 6 cocks, 6 hens). The birds (both cock and hens), are active during the day in peering into nest boxes, but nothing further.
There was some action however since our previous post. We had one pair of birds sit for three weeks on a brood of 5 infertile eggs. As this was the pair’s second brood of infertile eggs, we moved the hen into Cage 39/40 with a different cock bird we also took from this Main Aviary. (We are of the opinion that infertile eggs are the faulty of the cock bird).
As we have become a bit frustrated with the activity of the birds in this cage, we also swapped out a further 3 birds and placed them into Cages 31/32 and 33/34. The birds previously in those cages were moved into the Main Aviary to bring the numbers back to an even dozen in this cage.
Surprisingly, the pair moved from Cage 39/40 have gone to brood already with 4 eggs in NB15, so fingers crossed we might end up with something yet in this Main Aviary. This pair are just under 12 months old, so they are showing up all the older birds in the cage! Their pictures are below.
13/04/21
Three weeks have elapsed since our previous post below and we are still waiting for a further pair (any pair!), to go to nest in this cage where we are ‘colony’ breeding this season.
Just over a fortnight ago, we added a SF Pastel Green hen from Aviary 1 to this cage to see if the introduction of a new hen might get something happening, but so far, nothing.
21/03/21
In our last post we had our fingers crossed with the birds sitting in NB15 in this cage. We had been counting down the days until we expected the eggs to hatch which was a week ago, so we expected this week-end to hear the cries of any hatchlings.
Instead we noted both parent birds had abandoned the nest box yesterday and when we checked the nest box, we found three infertile eggs which we removed. An earlier nest box check had shown four eggs, but only three remained.
The ‘potential’ parent birds were a Blue Gouldian hen and a RH/PB Normal split for Blue cock.
For the rest of the birds in the cage, there appears to be no pairing off and it is possible we will get nothing from this cage in 2021 with time marching on.
14/03/21
We had high expectations this year for this much bigger cage and can only advise we have just the one pair sitting on a clutch of four eggs that are due to hatch any day now (Blue Gouldian hen and Normal split Blue cock).
There has been some sporadic egg laying by one of the three Blue Gouldian hens in the cage who has laid 5 eggs during the past month across two nest boxes but abandoned them immediately. She did this last year to start the breeding season before settling down to have one successful brood.
Hopefully we will have more to report with the next post!
14/02/21
We set this cage up for the 2021 breeding season last as we needed to settle on which birds we wanted in there and how many as well (we felt we had too many birds/potential pairs in the cage in 2020).
We settled initally on 10 birds – all but one being either Blue Gouldians or split Blue Gouldians and placed 6 nest boxes in the cage on 26 January.
As nothing had happened in terms of nest box ‘action’ up until yesterday, we added an 11th bird (Blue Pastel cock) to ‘mix things up’ which he has over the past 24 hours.
We had not intended breeding with the Pastel Blue cock, but as he is close to 11 months old, we decided to add him into the mix and he has certainly put the ‘cat among the Gouldians’ so to speak.
The picture below from the Main Aviary shows some of the Blue and split Blue Gouldians in the cage at present.
24/5/20
Not a good fortnight in this cage – we had two pairs of birds rear a single hatchling up to 2 weeks and then in both cases the single hatchling died with the cold weather.
This weekend, we moved all our Blue and split Blue birds from other cages into this main cage as we settle them down for the winter break and then the moulting season in Spring.
Sadly, one of the Blue Gouldian hens in this cage died during the week. We found her weak and on the floor of the cage one morning. We put her up high into the cage but found her dead later in the day in the seed dish.
A nest box check yesterday in this cage while moving the birds around, showed no hens currently brooding, so it will be a good time to remove the seven nest boxes when the weather improves one day this coming week.
10/5/20
Good news and bad news with this cage – we have one new hatchling in NB12 and sitting birds in NB11 and NB13, but not so with the other two pairs brooding per our previous post.
One of these pairs abandoned NB16 which is most disappointing and confusing…not only did they abandon a brood of 6 eggs, but we suspect the hen bird also had something to do with 9 eggs we found abandoned in NB17!
Meanwhile the other pair were looking after the single hatchling in NB14 who was around 15-16 days old but died one cold night – always a challenge for single chick broods and something we noted in our previous post.
Some pics from inside the Main Aviary…
30/4/20
Our credo with the breeding birds in this cage is to avoid the temptation to check the nest boxes, so the only thing we are sure of is the single hatchling in NB14 is still going ok as we can hear it calling when his parents enter the nest box to feed it.
Meanwhile, four other pairs are sitting on eggs in the various nest boxes in the cage, with one pair ‘abstaining’ for now.
We will keep an ‘ear’ out for any further eggs hatching over the coming two weeks.
20/4/20
Been a quiet week in this cage with just the four eggs in NB14 resulting in one live hatchling, one dead hatchling, one partly formed chick ‘dead in the egg’ and one infertile egg!
The one hatchling going OK so far and is about a week old, but it will be challenged with the weather cooling down and being on its own in the nest box. What has been surprising with this hatchling has been it’s ‘quietness’ – usually after a week, hatchlings are quite vociferous when their parents enter the next box, but this one had been silent so far, so much so, that we suspected it was dead!
In the other nest boxes, the various pairings are sitting on eggs at present.
11/4/20
We noticed shortly after taking the pics in the previous post of the newly fledged yellow bird in this cage, that it had a left foot deformity. Its rear facing toe was ‘caught’ up under it’s three fore toes making standing upright a challenge. In the pic below you can see how the fledgling leans slightly to the side when placing weight on its two legs with the left leg slightly ‘askew’. It hasn’t stopped the general well being of the bird who is quite demanding of his parents following them everywhere around this big cage.
Here he is again getting some tucker in from dad.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in this cage, we now have nest box choices finally sorted!
6/4/20
Well the news today from this cage is the emergence from NB13 of the single hatchling belonging to the Blue Gouldian hen (meaning he is a split Blue).
Some pics of him and our placing a plastic numbered ring on his leg.
As he was clearly too young to be out of the nest box so early, we returned him to NB13 once we had placed the plastic ring on his left leg.
Meanwhile, a quick review of the 7 nestboxes in the cage showed a smattering of eggs having been laid recently by the pairs who currently occupy the cage.
We are a bit concerned however for one of the pairs we recently introduced into the cage, as we think the Blue Gouldian hen bird has been on the end of some fairly ‘savage’ attacks by the more robust cock birds in the cage who are trying to protect their nest boxes. We may move the pair back into one of the smaller breeding cages later this week if things don’t improve.
3/4/20
With the Covid-19 virus keeping us at home at present, we have more time to watch the birds and their activities in the various cages and the viewing in this particular cage are most interesting as the two new pairs we placed in the cage recently ‘fight’ it out with the birds already in the cage, for nestbox rights.
There are 7 nest boxes in this cage and six defined pairs and it is surprising how many times in the one day, a pair will visit 2-3 different nest boxes without making a commitment.
The challenge is from the other pairs, in particular the cock birds, who have been quite ‘spiteful’ in their attacks on any other bird (male or female) they think is encroaching on their nest box preference.
It is not unusual for ‘colony’ breeding to have this scenario with the strongest birds surviving the challenges and setting up a nest with their mate and hopefully producing the strongest progeny.
No doubt the ‘toughest’ pairing in the cage are the parents of the single hatchling pictured below who continues to do well.
There is also a pair sitting with their second brood of 4 eggs in NB14 and they represent the second ‘toughest’ pairing in the cage.
The question is…will any of the other 4 pairs get lucky with their own nestbox before the breeding season finishes?!
28/3/20
We made some further changes to the ‘contents’ of this cage and decided to remove (i) the three recent fledglings and place them in Cage 5/6 and (ii) three ‘spare’ adult cock birds, moving them into Cage 3/4. At the same time we moved the two birds from Cage 3/4 into the Main Aviary, so that we now have 6 breeding pairs therein.
Pic of the pair recently moved is below.
In our previous post we advised there was a brood of 5 eggs in NB11 – unfortunately during the week this nest was abandoned with the chicks tossed onto the cage floor and unhatched eggs left in the nest box (which we have since cleaned out).
The only good news in this cage is the single hatchling in NB13 is still alive and the pair previously in NB14, have started a new brood with 4 eggs so far. Pic of the hatchling in NB13 is below.
21/3/20
We noticed during the week that the parent birds with the hatchlings in NB14 were wary of entering the nest box, and a quick look proved our worst fears with three well fed but stone cold and dead hatchlings therein. You can see in the pic below that the two lower birds would have been ‘yellow’ with white pin feathers starting to come thru and the top bird likely a normal coloured bird. We suspect a possum has jumped on the cage roof in the middle of the night and frightened the parent bird from the nestbox on what was a particularly cold night (for Melbourne), in March.
In NB13 there is a single hatchling now about a week old belonging to the Blue Gouldian hen in this cage. This will be very difficult for the hatchling to survive thru to the fledgling stage as it will likely only have it’s own body heat soon to keep it warm at night (parent birds tend to sit at night for around two weeks before leaving the hatchlings to keep themselves warm at night). We will keep pour fingers crossed.
In NB11 the pair are incubating a brood of 5 eggs and all looks good so far.
We had mistakenly thought that the pair in NB15 were incuabting a brood per our previous post, but not the case. There is a well made nest therein, but no eggs (yet).
Finally – today we moved the pair from Cage 5/6 into this cage to see if they have better luck after abandoned a third brood earlier in the week while in Cage 5/6. We figured a change of scenery may help. She is a Blue Gouldian and he is a Normal Split Blue. Their pic below from when they were in Cage 5/6.
14/3/20
Well so far we can definitely hear hatchlings in NB14 where two of our 2019 birds have nested. Unfortunately they have thrown out two hatchlings when they were 1-2 days old, but seem to be ok now with the remaining birds.
We were also hoping we might have heard cheeping from NB13 where the hen is a Blue Gouldian, but no such luck (yet!)
The other two hens and their partners continue to incubate their broods in this cage in NB11 and NB15, and hopefully we will have something to report in the next post.
4/3/20
We are thinking our two dominant couples’ broods must be due to hatch any day now, so will keep a look out for any differing behaviour by the 4 parent birds.
Meanwhile, our oldest hen bird has started her first brood for the season in NB15 and we look forward to her raising another successful brood in this our third breeding season.
The three recent fledglings (who are now almost 4 months old), are really starting to colour up and we can see all three are cock birds with Normal coloured plumage.
23/2/20
There is still a lot of ‘chasing’ around the cage in the Main Aviary – we likely have too many cock birds in proportion to hens and outside of two dominant couples, we believe the other two hens in the cage have taken to laying eggs in random nest boxes (as they haven’t been able to settle with just the one nest box).
The Blue Gouldian hen in this cage and her dominant SF WB Pastel Green cock are sitting on four eggs in NB13, while the other ‘power’ couple in the cage are sitting on a brood of six eggs in NB14.
16/2/20
Well nothing has come of the Blue Gouldian’s brood – there were 8 eggs in the end. There is no doubt that the competition for nest boxes/hens amongst the males, has caused the Blue Gouldian hen and another of the hens who had laid just the one egg, to abandon their respective nest boxes since our last post.
This was most disappointing, but with every dark cloud comes a silver lining and we noted that in 3 of the 7 nest boxes in this cage this week, had the start of a brood for three of the hens.
So now we will sit back and try and work out what belongs to who!
8/2/20
We are a bit clearer around who is in NB13 where there are now 7 eggs – they belong to the Blue Gouldian hen – her pic is below (taken some time ago).
The Blue Gouldian hen has mated with a SF Pastel Green cock bird who is one of our 2019 fledglings.
There was a single egg also in NB14 as reported in the previous post, but this has been abandoned and now removed. We suspect the Blue Gouldian hen laid this egg as well.
Finally the pair of birds from this cage that had a brood of six eggs with one hatchling that died after 1 day, have commenced laying again with one egg so far in NB15.
We can also see that two other hens have seemingly selected their partners from the range of options.
2/2/20
The fighting for supremacy and the attention of the 5 hen birds has dominated the activity in this cage over the past week.
Today we found 2 eggs in NB 13 and 1 egg in NB 14, but we aren’t sure who the two (or possibly same) hen is who laid the eggs, let alone their partners.
This is the challenge with ‘colony’ breeding, where we have allowed the birds to select partners versus dictating the pairing as we have in the smaller cages.
Pic below of various birds feeding in this cage on some wild seed grass collected in the local neighbourhood. In the pic are three adult birds (including a Blue Gouldian hen in the foreground), and a recent fledgling to the far right still with an olive/grey body.
27/1/20
We moved two more hen birds and one cock bird into the Main Aviary this week as we try to balance up the ratio of hens to cock birds (currently 7 cocks and 5 hens plus 3 recent fledlings – all cocks unfortunately).
We moved the hen birds from Cages 11/12 and 31/32 as they were not taking up with the cock birds we had paired them off with. We also moved a cock bird whom we had been managing from Cage 41/42 into this cage. He had some foot issues when we purchased him and we had been making sure he was capable of sitting on a perch first, before moving him.
In the previous post we advised there was a pair nesting with a brood of 6 eggs. Sadly we need to report only one hatchling came out and died after one day while the remaining 5 eggs all proved to be infertile.
We added 2 more nest boxes to the cage in a bid to reduce the fighting going on between the cock birds for the right to host a nest themselves!
Pics below of birds inspecting one of the new nest boxes (Blue Gouldian hen and a SF Pastel Green cock)
We mentioned in the previous post trying to determine the sex of the third fledling. His pics below showing him starting to get his adult plumage. It’s possible he may be our first Double Factor Pastel Green cock bird. All our other Pastel Greens are single factor (we have a dozen of them!)
16/1/20
The pair that have been incubating their brood have continued to be good parents and we expect hatchlings some time next week.
Otherwise, there is still a lot of jostling for the attention of the unattached two hen birds in this cage. We are most keen to see who ends up with the Blue Gouldian hen – she is pictured below checking out one of the 5 nest boxes in the cage.
This last week we were also able to ascertain that the third recent fledgling is also a cock bird, meaning there are 9 cocks and 3 hens in the cage.
Below are various pics of the birds from this cage enjoying the cuttlefish and seed grass on offer.
9/1/20
Firstly, two of the three fledglings are cock birds as we have seen them both ‘practicing’ their singing. One of the two birds is even starting to colour up.
In the previous post we noted egg laying had commenced in one of the nest boxes and the pair responsible (brother/sister combo) are now incubating the eggs laid – they started the process on 5 January.
This cage now houses the Blue Gouldian hen bird and SF White Breasted Pastel Green cock bird moved from Cage 1/2 as they weren’t compatible.
We also moved into this cage the yellow headed hen bird from Cage 31/32 as she was not interested in the cock bird from that cage.
This means we now have three hen birds in this cage to ‘tempt’ the many cock birds therein!
3/1/20
We removed the only Normal cock bird from this cage a few days ago and placed him in Aviary 3 leaving only Single Factor Pastel Green adult birds in the cage.
There one hen bird had laid three eggs when we checked 2 days ago.
We are watching carefully, as we suspect she may commence incubating her clutch any day now along with her partner who is also her 2019 brood ‘brother’.
This leaves us with 5 feisty adult cock birds ‘flitting’ around the cage who are without partners plus the three recent fledglings from 4 months ago (one of which is clearly a cock bird which adds to the mix).
29/12/19
After placing a new Blue Gouldian hen in this cage a week ago, we needed to move her out as she was being ‘chased’ around the cage by the cock birds. She seemed quite stressed and was seeking shelter on the floor of the cage in one of the corners.
With the daily temperature on the increase (expected to be 40+ degrees tomorrow), we removed her from this cage and placed her in smaller Cage 41/42 where we can monitor her.
On a very different note, the other hen bird in this cage has started laying – we noticed one egg in the left hand nest box against the back wall. The egg was rather odd shaped and larger than the average Gouldian egg size – it was also her first egg as she is one of our 2019 fledglings.
As there are seven cock birds in the cage with her, it has been a bit of a challenge to identify her partner, but we suspect (unfortunately), it is her brother from the same 2019 brood.
There are five totally unrelated cock birds in this cage, but she has ended up with her closest relative instead!
25/12/19
Some ins/outs this week with respect to the population in this cage.
We placed the AVB youngster back with its parent birds in Cage 39/40 and added to the cage, a Blue Gouldian hen and SF Pastel Green split for Blue cock bird (both purchased from seperate sellers this week).
This leaves us with 2 hens, 7 cock birds and 3 younger birds not yet ready for breeding, in this cage.
We may need to sell off one or two of the cock birds.
18/12/19
After all the movement of birds, this cage has ended up with all the extra adult cock birds (mostly SF Pastel Green cocks) along with a single SF Pastel Green hen.
She is certainly getting plenty of interest!
There are also 4 young birds that aren’t in breeding condition yet, in the cage.
14/12/19
Today we ‘centralised’ the placement of our Pastel Green birds into this Main Aviary. Included in the cage are four recent fledglings including the AVB fledgling we purchased the other week.
12/12/19
We moved a number of birds from this Main Aviary into other cages today and as of this evening, there are only 7 birds remaining (there were 20+ birds in the cage the day before), so it seems quite ‘bare’ at present.
Our intention is to place all spare birds not for breeding this year in this cage along with any fledglings that are produced during the 2020 breeding season.
8/12/19
We think some of the pics best define where these birds are at….
23/11/19
Again the unfortunate focus of the birds in this Main Aviary is around the death of one of the recent fledglings – this time the Blue coloured bird (see main Blog entry for the day).
Here some more pics of the birds as they are at present.
16/11/19
As per the main Blog post for today, one of the recent fledglings was found dead on the floor in the Main Aviary.
We suspect starvation with the parent birds not feeding the chick and it being unable to feed itself yet. It’s four siblings on the other hand have been independent for at least a week and are slightly larger birds in size. We suspect the dead fledgling was the youngest/smallest member of this recent brood.
6/11/19
This cage now has just Gouldians after we moved the other 2 finch breeds we had into Aviary 1 in August and sold the pair of Strawberry Finch males we had at the Shepparton bird show in July.
We have had a couple of deaths over the winter months and currently this Main Aviary has 10 adult and 17 young birds including 5 that fledged just a week ago from a surprising coupling of two adult birds. These new youngsters are referenced in more detail in the main Blog posts of the last three weeks.
Below are some pics of the birds from the main aviary taken a couple of days ago including some of the Blue Gouldians.
24/6/19
We moved many of the birds from the smaller cages into this Main Aviary where we now have 39 birds in total resting over winter.
This includes 31 Gouldian finches.
25/5/19
We have now removed the nest box that was in this cage that was being used by the Tri coloured Parrot finch pairing.
The main aviary is now our ‘flight aviary’ where no breeding opportunities are available for the birds therein.
All the birds are looking healthy and happily sharing the much bigger space.
We placed some further perches in the cage during the week as well as purchasing some further seed hoppers for them to feed from.
13/5/19
We are now setting up this cage as our ‘flight aviary’ and as part of that restructure, moved 13 fledglings from Aviary 2 into this larger space which they have easily adopted.
We also moved the spare cock bird from Aviary 2 into this cage – his mate died suddenly during the week, so we thought it best to leave only the other two pairs in Aviary 2.
We checked the nest box of the Tri coloured Parrot finches, but the 5 eggs remain unhatched. As the cock bird is only 6 months old, it is likely the brood is infertile.
We’ll leave it for a bit longer, but we will likely to remove this one remaining nest box out of the cage nest week to truly make the cage a ‘flight aviary’ only.
4/5/19
We moved the remaining fledgling from Cage 37/38 (ie the silver bird) into the Main Aviary this week.
The Tri coloured Parrot finches continue to incubate 5 eggs (previously noted 4 eggs) and continue to be the only breeding pair in this cage.
28/4/19
We moved a further two Gouldian finch fledglings from Cage 37/38 into this cage during the week and they are doing fine along with their siblings moved a couple of days prior.
They have dark green bands on their left legs numbered 43 and 46.
The Tri coloured Parrot finches continue to incubate their clutch of 4 eggs. Usually these birds are easily disturbed and leave the nest box when only slightly disturbed, but we noticed today that when we entered the cage, the bird brooding in the nest box stayed there, so maybe they are getting serious (?)
The Strawberry finches purchased recently are still doing fine as are the Red Headed Pied Parrot finch pair in this cage. Nothing happening with the Gouldian finch pair unfortunately.
22/4/19
We moved two fledglings from Cage 37/38 into the Main Aviary yesterday (as it was getting a bit crowded in the smaller cage with the two adults and five fledglings). They are doing fine as we observed them eating and drinking independently in the much bigger cage. A pic below of one of the fledglings in the ‘digs’.
We placed rings on the two fledglings today (dark green bands with white numbers 41 and 42) and while in the Main Aviary noticed a very poorly nest built by the Tri Coloured parrot finches on a ledge had 2 eggs in it! Not only that, but they have since moved into a nest box on the same ledge and laid a further four eggs.
They are a funny little bird as they never seem to settle in the cage, rather flitter from one side to the other. It took us some time to identify them as the owners of the eggs in the nest box as they don’t seem to be incubating the eggs in the same way as the Gouldians do – maybe they are still to start the formal brood process.
17/4/19
We managed to get some more pics of birds in this cage today. see below.
In the first pic are the Gouldian pair we have installed in this cage, while the right hand pic shows the two Strawberry finches to the left of one of the Tri coloured Parrot finches.
13/4/19
Well the Main Aviary has two new occupants over the last week with the purchase of a 2 Strawberry finch cocks that were going cheaply from a breeder wishing to sell up his aviary stock. These birds are also know as Red Avadavats. See pic below for one of the new cock birds to the right of the Blue Gouldian cock bird.
Last week we thought the Tri Coloured Parrot finches eggs may have hatched, but a quick check of the nest box this week showed they had abandoned their eggs, so we removed the nest box contents and reset the nest box.
So at the end of the day, the Main Aviary continues to be the home of the ‘childless’ couples! Maybe there is just too much space in the cage(?)
6/4/19
Just the Tri coloured Parrot finches still incubating a clutch of at least 3 eggs in this cage at present. Their incubation period must almost be at an end, but we don’t want to disturb the nest (they are ultra touchy birds), so will have to listen out for any cheeping coming from their nest box over the coming week.
Earlier in the week, we moved the Normal/Split hen from this cage into Cage 2 (see that cages page for details), and introduced a Normal hen to the Blue Gouldian cock bird we placed in this cage a little while ago.
We don’t expect this pair to mate, so anything will be a bonus if they do, albeit a wasted opportunity to have the Blue Gouldian cock in with a /Split Blue hen. We suspect he is immature still for breeding.
The pair of Red Headed Pied Parrot finches are resting for now and not nest building.
1/4/19
Only the Tri coloured Parrot finch are making any moves at the moment as they continue their formal brood. Must be close to hatchlings, but we aren’t comfortable taking a look in case we frighten the new parents from returning to the nest.
The Blue Gouldians in this cage are still not up to much.
27/3/19
We got around to checking the nest box the Red Headed Pied Parrot finches had spent some time in and found an abandoned brood of 5 eggs which we removed.
Still no action from the recent new pairing of Blue Gouldians in this cage, but the tiny Tri coloured Parrot finch pair continue to formally brood their clutch of at least three eggs.
23/3/19
Some pics of the Main Aviary cock birds below.
In the main pic above is the Blue Gouldian cock bird. He is accompanied on his perch in the right hand pics by the Tri Coloured Parrot finch in the top pic and the Red Headed Pied Parrot finch in the lower pic.
It appears the Tri coloured parrot finches are now brooding in a nest box they took over from the Red Headed Pied Parrot finches. They actually built a nest on top of the brood of eggs the other birds had abandoned recently in the same nest box! There were three eggs in the nest when we looked the other day. Pic below.
In turn, the Red Headed Pied Parrot finch have laid a further clutch of 5 eggs in an adjoining nest box just for fun, but are not formally brooding – seems they have just laid a clutch of eggs for the fun of it!
No news with the recent new pairing of Gouldian finches in this cage.
17/3/19
We decided the time was up for the Blue Gouldian brood in this cage and sure enough as we suspected, all five eggs were infertile, so we removed the eggs and reset the nest.
As we were concerned with the cock bird in this pairing (he is still unsteady on his feet some three weeks after we first noticed his challenge to stay on a perch), we moved him into the smaller cage 39/40 and took the Blue Gouldian cock bird (who is the youngest we have), from 39/40 and placed him in the Main Aviary.
He is yet to mate this season with any of the birds we have tried pairing him with, but we suspect this is due to him being a young bird when we purchased him.
Not sure what the Red Headed Parrot finches are doing and slowly losing a bit of interest in their nesting campaigns. They just don’t seem to be as settled as the Gouldian Finches.
13/3/19
Checked the Blue Gouldian nest box and no hatchlings yet – if they are to hatch it will be in the next couple of days, else the brood is infertile as we suspect.
Another thing going against this pair is the general health of the cock bird who continues to be unsteady on the perch and is looking worse this week than last week. If the brood does progress to hatchling phase, we are not sure how much care he will be able to give the young ones, given his own issues. Having said that, he still does his daily share of brooding in the nest box.
The Tri coloured Parrot finches have lost interest in the nest they compiled in the seed hopper tray – we suspect that the wind likely blew away all the nesting material they had gathered.
The Red Headed Pied Parrot finch continue to tease, one day suggesting they are brooding and the next day both birds seem disinterested in their nest box. We are just going to let them do their own thing as they seem such a ‘touch and go’ bird breed.
6/3/19
The Blue Gouldian pair have a clutch of 5 eggs that we were able to check today, however we are slightly concerned as the eggs appear to be infertile. In the pic below you can see how each of the eggs appear to have a whiter section than the rest of the egg. Fertile eggs should be all the same whitish colour according to the advice we received from another breeder.
After building a new nest, the Red Headed Pied Parrot finch pair have commenced brooding again. We have not checked the nest box as we think these birds are quite ‘touchy’ about nest inspections, so will have to sit and wait to see what comes….
Meanwhile, the tiny Tri coloured Parrot finches have built a most unruly nest in one of the seed hoppers in this cage – see pic below. If they actually laid an egg, we are not sure they would be able to find it amongst this ‘mess’!
25/2/19
All looking good with the Blue Gouldian cock bird in this cage after all – not sure why he was so ‘wobbly’ on his feet the other day. He and his partner have now started the formal brood of their first clutch of at least 4 eggs (noted on 23/2/19).
The Red Headed Pied Parrot finches had laid a clutch of four eggs but have now abandoned that nest box and built a new nest in a different box.
We are a bit perplexed by the activities of this pair – we think we may have disturbed their brooding activities in the nest box with the four eggs when we ‘checked’ the nest box the other week.
The tiny Tri Coloured Parrot finch pair are getting along fine but not expected to ‘mate’ until later in the year.
20/2/19
Today we purchased a Tri Coloured Parrot finch cock to match up with the hen we have, whose previous partner was lost to the heat a few weeks ago.
We also found that the Blue Gouldian pair have finally started their first brood although we are seriously worried about the cock bird who seems to have a serious case of vertigo. We are thinking he may have had a stroke or the like which usually ends in death. We will watch out for his ongoing condition with interest.
17/2/19
Still no egg laying by the Gouldian hen in this cage, but the Red Headed Pied Parrot finch have subsequently laid 4 eggs since the last report. Hopefully they will be successful with this first brood of theirs.
11/2/19
We noticed the Gouldian hen in the right hand nesting box today, so the ‘complex’ nest belongs to the Red Headed Pied Parrot finches after all!
9/2/19
It’s a little confusing what is happening in the Main Aviary.
We spend a fair bit of time observing the birds, but they give nothing away in terms of who is building a nest and where.
Today, we discovered that in the last couple of days, a quite complex nest has been built in the far left hand nest box – the question is – who built it, the Gouldians or the Red Headed Pied Parrot finches. We are guessing the latter as the nest is quite complex, whereas the Gouldians tend to have a simpler nest set up.
We’ll just have to up the ‘ante’ with our observations.
2/2/19
From the biggest cage we have, there is not much to report this week!
A check of the single pair of Blue Gouldian’s nesting box shows it is ‘ready’ for egg laying but still empty.
The three parrot finches sharing the cage are just holding fort at present….
28/1/19
Well…a lot has happened this week in the Main Aviary.
The first thing to report is the death of the Tri Coloured Parrot finch cock, who like one of the Gouldian finches, died of heat exhaustion on the 44 degree Celsius day. This leaves us with just the one Tri Coloured Parrot finch. We discussed getting another cock bird, having seen a recent advertisement with one for sale, but a follow up phone call advised the bird had been sold.
We might sit this out for a while before deciding whether to obtain a second bird or trade out the remaining hen.
In the last post we were sure the Red Headed Pied Parrot Finches had started egg laying, but now we are thinking that both birds are in fact the same sex i.e. both are cock birds. We will continue to monitor.
With the Blue Gouldian pair, things are continuing to slowly progress with the hen bird finally starting to spend time on her own in the nesting box suggesting she may be close to starting a brood this week.
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.
20/1/19
Since the last entry, we have moved two of the Gouldian birds out of this cage and left just the one pair behind together with a pair of Red Headed Pied Parrot finches and a pair of Tri Coloured Parrot finches.
We moved the Blue Gouldian cock bird into Cage 39/40 and the Red Headed Normal/Blue split hen into Cage 37/38 – each with a new potential mating partner.
12/1/19
Still not a lot to report from the main aviary.
In a bid to ‘mix’ things up a bit, we moved some of the nest boxes around and changed over a nesting box from another cage to see if this will get the mating ‘juices’ flowing.
8/1/19
We can confirm the pairing of the two birds described in the post of 3/1/19 below, with their preferred nesting box in the far right hand corner of the main aviary.
Early days still, but we have seen both birds in the nesting box at the same time which means they could be mating in the lead up to commencing egg laying.
We also noticed the Tri Coloured finches going in and out a small nesting box we placed in the Main Aviary specifically for them, so hopefully something will come of their activity.
3/1/19
Noticed the older of the Blue Gouldian cock birds entering a nesting box (on the far right in this cage) with the Normal black headed split blue hen. Will keep an eye out for repeated activity of this kind before declaring them ‘man and wife’ for the season!
Here he is munching on some grass seeds.
30/12/18
Still relatively quiet in the Main Aviary. We placed some field hay in all the nesting boxes to get the various birds ‘interested’ and noticed the younger Blue Gouldian cock bird peering into the entrance of each nesting box as a result.
Suspect it might be some time into the new year before we see any real action.
26/12/18
There are no obvious pairings with the four Gouldians at present.
We did notice today one of the cock birds picking up nesting material, but he failed to actually take it into a nesting box. Very much a wait and see at this stage.
No action with the pair of Red Headed Pied Parrot finches or the Tri Coloured finches either.
19/12/18
We have set the main aviary up with two Blue Gouldian cock birds and two split blue hens.
In the same aviary, are a pair of Tri Coloured Parrot Finches and a pairing of a yellow bodied Red Headed Pied Parrot Finch cock with a green bodied Red Headed Pied Parrot Finch hen.
Blue Gouldian Finches 