aviary – Gabe Feathers McGee

The Gouldian Finches have been breeding up a storm in Andrew’s aviary.

As you may remember from an earlier blog, Zorro and Senorita managed to breed in our indoor aviary.

Since moving to the deluxe suite in the backyard, we have had four more clutches hatch and another clutch is about to hatch (or there may already be chicks inside) in one of the nest boxes.

The chicks take about 21 days to develop the full set of feathers and to leave the nest box. It takes a few months before the chicks and juveniles begin to get the beautiful colours of the adults.

The creamy white and yellow juveniles are gorgeous and are the offspring of Sapphire and Jeff, who both have red heads. I can’t wait to see how they colour up at maturity.

The fathers do most of the feeding of young (just like the male emus I was telling you about previously).

Good to see the males getting stuck into the parental duties.

So now we have about 25 to 30 Gouldian Finches.

Well done little birdies (and Andrew).

There is no bird quite like the charismatic and beautiful Gouldian Finch with it’s intense colours ranging from red, yellow, purple, green, blue, black, and white. It is only a small bird of about 130-140mm long and is found naturally in the tropical northern part of Australia where it is very hot and humid.

The Gouldian Finch is one of the most popular pet birds throughout the world. This is just as well because their numbers have reduced dramatically in the wild and they are now an endangered species. Some scientists have estimated that there are only about 2,500 left in the wild. The decline is due to factors including loss of habitat, disease (air sac mites), and fire.

We have begun to breed Gouldian Finches. Our first two Gouldian’s, Senorita and Zorro, were housed inside in a stock-standard bird cage. The male has what looks like a black mask on his face, hence the name. Senorita has since passed away but was replaced by Senorita. Zorro is a strong male and now proud father of 10 juveniles. Apparently it’s impossible to breed inside a house without artificial lights so my husband Andrew was pretty chuffed with himself for achieving the impossible. I personally think Zorro had a lot to do with it!

We also purchased another pair which we creatively named Jill and Jeff. Jeff has a red head and is completely jealous of Zorro’s achievements. Jill sadly passed away leaving Jeff broken hearted, but was quickly replaced with a stunner called Sapphire (dark red head).

A large outdoor aviary has since been built by Andrew to house the expanding collection. This is the Taj Mahal of aviaries and propably could withstand a cyclone. It is reinforced and insulated and has plumbing (a tap to attach a hose for cleaning – hubby is a plumber so piece of cake to install for him!). It has 2 gates (just like at the zoo) to ensure no escapees. It is padlocked and I have only had the pleasure of going inside twice – under supervision. Anyone would think he doesn’t trust me.