Canaries and Gouldian Finches

Ken has decided to devote his aviaries to Gouldian Finches and Canaries (with one aviary set aside as a home for the chooks).

He sold all the budgies and Zebra Finches to free up aviary space, so he now has two aviaries with nest boxes in for breeding pairs of Gouldians, one aviary for the juveniles when they've fledged and can feed themselves, and one for mutations. Here he is trying to catch up birds to transfer them to their new homes...it takes him ages, they are like tiny missiles!

He has two pairs of canaries, each pair in separate aviaries with Gouldians, as they are quite compatible. The Canaries use open baskets to lay their eggs - hard to believe she will raise her babies in here once they hatch, but they do!   This one is sitting on eggs.

In the other aviary, three chicks are hatched and growing fast.

Mum has a job trying to feed them all!

The Gouldians use enclosed nest boxes, so there is no competition for nesting space.  Little face peering out of this nest box.  Ken has numbered the four boxes so he can keep track of who's who.

These two are so called mutations, with a white chest instead of purple or mauve.
  They can have black or red heads.

My camera doesn't always record the colour properly, but this photo has captured the purple chest on this male very well.  Notice his head is neither red nor black, but a shade of orange, which is also happens occasionally in breeding mixed pairs.

This photo taken at the sunny end of the aviary shows the brilliance of the red heads on these white breasted birds.

We spend hours out here on a weekend, just watching our beautiful birds!