One day later...

Great news - four baby quails hatched today! I'll try to get some photos in the next few days.

December report.

It has been a busy year in our aviaries - I don't know if the end of the drought has anything to do with it, but we've had many new babies, some of which didn't survive, but there were new ones hatching all the time.

The 12 eggs in the budgies' nest book only yielded three fledglings, of which there are a heap of photos here. I couldn't stop myself with the camera yesterday; we had them out of the aviary and were playing with them for ages (they are too young to fly away).

The two Gouldian juveniles are colouring up beautifully, and there are two more babies in the nest. They probably won't fledge for a few weeks.
Two canaries survived from the second lot to hatch, and they are just about fully grown. There are two more young ones in the nest, and we are crossing our fingers that they will survive, as the mother doesn't seem to be looking after them as well as she did with the previous clutch.

The quails have had several lots of eggs, with only one hatching. It survived for a couple of months, but eventually died. We suspect it was because of the cold at the time. Even though we brought it and the mother inside, it wasn't enough. She is now sitting on yet another clutch of eggs, so we'll just have to wait and see.

The Zebra finches have always got babies, so there's nothing new to report on them!

Oops! Nearly fell off!

That's better.

I love the colours of this blue and grey male, waiting for his mate to come out of the nest box.

You can see why budgies are called Love birds - isn't that sweet!





The bird on the left is a mature male, unrelated to the young ones. His face should be all black, but he has been moulting, and the feathers haven't yet come back completely. The bird in the centre is the juvenile female and the one on the right is the juvenile male. The female is going to have a black face, but we aren't sure about the male - it won't be black; possibly red or yellow, depending on who the parents were.
(Please ignore the date imprint on these photos - they were all taken this weekend, but I hadn't figured out how to change the date on the camera!)

Three days later.

Nature really is incredible. Baby birds grow so fast, you could almost set up one of those time lapse cameras in the aviary and watch them grow overnight! The baby zebra finches have nearly doubled in size, and you can see their little beaks gaping open waiting to be fed.


I had to very patient to get these next photos; finches are never still! The finch on the left is one of our immature Gouldians. These birds take about a year to develop their full colours. This one is just starting to show the mauve on his chest. The one in the middle is a Zebra finch, and on the right is a mature Gouldian.

If it is a male, he will look like his Dad in this pic.


This is our Diamond Firetail Finch - so called because of the brilliant red feathers under his tail that can only be seen when he is in flight. One day if I'm patient enough, I may get a pic of him in flight.


I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the baby canaries this week. From barely feathered little creatures, they were out of the nest and flitting around on the floor of the aviary within a few days! This was taken the day before they fledged.

Early November in the aviaries.

The Zebra Finches seem to breed all year round, but we don't usually see them this small. The mother made a nest in a feeding basket (the white things are cuttlefish), so her babies were hatched out in the open instead of in their usual nestboxes.


The Ménage à trois canary family are busy. We have one male and two females, one of which has just hatched five babies. One baby fell out of the nest and didn't survive, but the other four appear to be doing well.



Ken finally put two nest boxes in the budgies' aviary, and they have been excitedly checking them out ever since. There are nine eggs in one, but we have no idea who the mother is, as several budgies go in and out of there all the time!

September bird news.

Spring is here, and with it comes the urge to mate. Our Silver Quails have laid five eggs, and the female is sitting on them all the time, which is a good sign. Her first clutch wasn't successful, as she laid them too early in the season, and it was too cold. Despite bringing the only surviving baby inside, he eventually died, so we are hoping now that winter is over, she will successfully rear this clutch.

The budgies have been laying eggs all over the floor of their aviary because there are no nest boxes in there. Ken doesn't want them to mate, because they are all brothers and sisters, except for the father of all of them, and two males that he bought a while ago. He intends to put those two unrelated males into a separate aviary with some of the females, but hasn't got around to it.

The new pair of Gouldian finches he bought a month ago have bonded, and are sitting on eggs, as are the original pair. So we are hoping for a new little flock in a few weeks. The first pair of babies are still in the adjoining aviary, with an unrelated male Gouldian, which Ken hopes to pair up with one of them, if they are females. Here is one of the males sitting outside his nest box waiting for the female to emerge so he can take his place minding their eggs.


The Zebra Finches as usual have eggs all over the place. Not just in the five nests we supplied them, but they pick up all the grasses and leaves on the floor and make new nests in feeding baskets and wherever else they can find a spot! This one has build hers in a little wire basket meant to hold seeding grasses for them to eat!

Gouldians and a baby quail.

I took my camera up to our aviaries today, hoping to get some new photos of our birds. I was in luck with the Gouldian finches. We have the new adult pair in with our original pair, but Ken put the two babies from the first pair into the adjoining aviary. The first pair are sitting on eggs again, and their babies were making a nuisance of themselves, hopping in and out of the nest box. Mum Gouldian was getting quite cross with them, so that is why Ken moved them. It is so cute to see them at night; the young ones sit together on the perch nearest the adjoining aviary, so they can be near their parents, who sit on the other side of the wire when they aren't on their eggs.

These are the two males. One of the babies is on the right.

In this photo, the two females seem to be chatting to both of the young ones through the wire.


The Quail has only hatched one egg out of the five she was sitting on. On the day it hatched, it was freezing cold, and the little one was in danger of dying, as the mother wasn't keeping it under her wings. So Ken brought it inside, warmed it up in his hand, and put it in a little box to keep it warm. When he decided it might survive, he brought the mother quail inside, and put them both in a bird carry cage, with a bit of food and water. They have been there for 3 days now and the chick is more active, and growing more down. I'll try to take another photo of it in a day or so. This one was taken the day it hatched.

Three more new birds.

Today we attended the Avicultural Society birds sale in Warragul, which is about an hour's drive south east of Melbourne. Ken bought a pair of Gouldian Finches for $40, and a male Diamond Firetail Finch, which cost $50. He only bought the Diamond Firetail because it was a very good price (they are usually closer to $100), and we only had enough money between us for one! He has always loved these finches, but they are hard to come by, as they are an endangered species. He may buy a female at one of the bird sales later this year, but he will have to decide what to do with some of the birds he has at the moment, as they are not always compatible with other finches.
Our resident Gouldians seemed happy to have a new pair moving in with them. Ken will put another nest box in the aviary so the new ones will be able to lay eggs without disturbing the old ones nestbox.
I haven't got any photos yet, as it was raining when we got home - too wet and cold to mess about taking photos of excited/stressed little birds flying around like little rockets! Here is a photo of a Diamond Firetail, which I found on the website of the Australian Finch Society.