Nest checks - Waxbills

[Rox]

Hi all,

I know nest checks are a big no-no for most waxbills but I am curious to know if any of you check nests after birds were due to fledge? I have a pair of orange-cheeks that now seem to have abandoned the nest after 5 weeks and I want to have a look inside the nest to see if they did actually lay and hatch chicks. All signs were there, frantic attack of live food (maggots & mealworms) after approx. 2 weeks brooding, curious birds at the nest beginning of week 4 (frantically chased away by the parents) but nothing has emerged yet and the parents are now building a new nest (this past weekend was 5 weeks since they first started brooding seriously).

When is it safe to assume the nest has been officially abandoned? The only way for me to look into the nest would be to partly destroy it.


Thanks in advance

Roxanne

[mccabe_07]

I'm not sure when is the right time to do it depends on incubation times for orange cheeks as a few finches are a little different. Then you have to allow for being accurate with when it began and give a day or 2 extra. Completely different bird but my masked finches tend to build the next nest right before the young fledge I've done it before looking into the nest to find young ones 2-5 days shy of leaving for themselves and they've been ushered out by my lack of patience/knowledge.

I'd like to hear more about the outcome

Matt

[Craig52]

Hi Rox,after five weeks i would check the nest if they have abandoned it.You will probably find infertile eggs in there as it's 12 to 13 days to hatch and another 21 days to fledging,if there are young in there they will jump pretty much advanced.Use a table spoon and slowly rotate to the bottom of the nest.Good luck
Craig

[Rox]

Thanks to both of you! I gave the nest a few firm nudges yesterday and nothing emerged. I was hoping for a flurry of feathers

I didn't have the heart to break into the nest yet, as it is still a nice tight ball. But this coming weekend will be 6 weeks and then I will definitely have a proper dig around and I will report back with any findings.

These waxbills are driving me dotty. Beautiful to keep and watch but testing my patience, lol! But they have all had between 8 - 10 months to settle and are now nesting for the first time, so we will see. Most of the waxbills we get are wild-caught, so always a challenge to get breeding. Golden-breasts have so far proved the easiest, while the cordon bleu's have me catching tossed chicks

[Craig52]

Rox,do you have access to termites? I don't think you will have much success without them. Craig

[Rox]

I have hunted the country side near where I live but no termite mounds to be found. The guys up north have better luck getting all the termites. The birds happily eat the maggots and mealies, so I'm hoping that will work. I also have dishes for fruit flies and things creep into the aviary which half is an enclosed wooden wendy house, other half is heavily planted with indigenous plants/grasses. I opted to heavily plant due to noticing how little the wild-caught are interested in prepared food. They eat the indigenous plants with relish, loving new shoots and buds.


We are still early into the spring/summer breeding season, so I am still hopeful

[Tiaris]

The last bloke I bought Orange-cheeks from bred them quite well on maggots & mealworms.

[Rox]

Tiaris, thank you! I needed to hear that

[Rox]

Apologies for the late reply, I've been on holiday and spent most of my time in front of the aviary's instead of a PC

So I eventually broke into the nest and found 1 dead chick and 3 dud eggs. The pair are on a new nest, so we shall see. I have 3 pairs in total and 2 pairs are sitting. I'm holding thumbs

[finchbreeder]

Good luck with them. At least they hatched 1 chick, so they have a slight idea what they are doing.
LML