Aussie Finch Forum

Pic is poor, but you can see fanned tail feathers & fluffed up torso feathers - clear signs of illness in a Saint Helena which are otherwise a sleek, slender bird when in good health.

Point taken. Thats what you get for not seeing a sick Saint before.
LML

An update on this bird. The person who had it on hold never came for it so I am now the owner of this bird.
I had to pick a mate for it because the shop had excess males and this bird is a female and they won't sell lone females in that case.
When picking a male I found one which has some white on his flight feathers. When I looked at them in the shop they did not appear to be sick but my eye isn't as trained as I image yours is Tiaris however regardless of health they have gone into isolation to begin their quarantine.
Here are some photos of the two birds and a close up of the white in the flight feathers. Excuse the messy carry cage it is time for a clean. The female also lost some of her tail feathers when she was caught in the shop.

You will have to wait and see regarding the pied on the hen bird. The bit of white in the wing of the cock bird is nothing, probably a bit of earlier protein deficiency imo. Craig

Good luck and look forward to the progress reports, at monthly intervals.
LML

As Craig said a little like that on the wing would be a deficiancey. But around the neck definite Pied. Seems to be common around the neck and on the head for Pied in my opinion.

4 and a bit months on, what happened with this pair?
LML

Going well, I had an interrupted beginning of the season but they have settled in. They built a nest and the hen bird has had a definite curved tail for the last 6 weeks. They are now the first ones to the livefood tray. All the signs are positive but I will keep you posted

Does she still have the white collar? Has she done a moult? Good luck in breeding with them.
LML

She has moulted and still has the white collar. Some bad news I noticed ants around the nest today. I had a look and 4 dead chicks. All had full crops and around a week old. Not sure if it was the ants that killed them or not.