lavender finches

[Tiaris]

The decision to not import finches was nothing to do with non-viability of importing finches. It certainly was viable for rare species with the numbers and species which were being arranged & was only curtailed due to the closure of exotic avian species importations by the Federal Government due to the detection of disease in imported Macaws. At the time, a syndicate of interested finch breeders was organised by Russell Kingston and were "ready to go" immediately prior to the Government's decision. I can assure all that no legal finch importations occurred at all - not for the want of trying though. At the time of the early parrot importations I was intricately involved with the fight against exotic bird registration as part of the then AAPA & took a very keen and hands on involvement in all matters pertaining to importation and regulation of aviary species. Lavender Waxbills certainly were a target species for importation but it simply did not occur with any finches - guaranteed.

[arthur]

Just in case you missed it . . and you don't have to check with anybody . .

There were NO FINCHES imported in the '90's

In the 70's a mate and I were going to go halves in a pair of Lavenders . . can't remember the asking price but must have been up there. .

But as it turned out we couldn't raise the dough . . so they must have been in low numbers then

Pleased to hear that some remain

As far as rare birds go . . the wise old jungle saying: "If you don't open your mouth, you don't catch flies." . . applies

And perhaps a more modern saying along similar lines should be coined about posting on the web

[Craig52]

I did see lavenders at a Melbourne breeders home back in the 90s,this guy doesn't live there anymore and doesn't keep birds anymore.Also seen at this chaps place was purple grenaders,violet eared waxbills and peters twinspots and all in good numbers.
I don't know what happened to these birds,but the remendents of the purple grenaders and peters twinspots are still around,so there must be someone who has the lavenders. Craig

[TomDeGraaff]

"A glyph of harsh words Uraeginthus, I wouldn't be so sure and certainly would not discuss things I don't know!
Not everything that is imported legally is advertised!

Sorry to sound harsh, Netsurfer. I was involved directly with making the lists of species to have risk assessments developed for importation. The problem with actually getting stock to import was that they needed to be closed rung and of course captive bred. They needed to be held in a quarantine facility for a number of months before being exported here. The finches simply didn't fit the criteria. None, therefore, were cleared to be brought in.

Perhaps some people might wish them to be considered legal, suggesting that they were legally imported (???)

I'm sure the birds here have been kept going by careful breeding over the years.

[Myzomela]

I can certainly back up Tiaris, Uraeginthus and Arthur's assertions that there were never any finches legally imported in the last 30 yrs.

I was directly involved with several of the parrot importation & budgie syndicates at the time and was aware of the occupancy rate of the Spotswood facility and at no time were finches ever listed. There were never any finches mixed with the parrots or budgies either (unfortunately).

As Tiaris stated, the risk assessment for finches wasn't even begun back then.

No risk assessment = no chance of even being considered for importation.

However, some of the rarer finches were still here in secreted private collections so who knows what still exists today? The problem, as always, is the genetic viability of these birds. The short generation time in finches means that inbreeding depression can set in early when dealing with rarer species.
Fingers crossed that viable numbers still exist of our rarer species.

[djb78]

Ive been following this thread and have found it to be interesting. Can someone enlighten me to why finches have never had a risk assessment? Is it due to they are more fragile than a parrot? I know breeders in Europe and America that need to close ring young so this shouldn't have need to stop them.

[Myzomela]

Hi Danny,

It all has to do with money & political pressure.

Basically, racing pigeons, poultry, parrots and then zoo birds had higher priority than finches when it came to the perceived smuggling threat and political pressure to allow importation.

To undertake a risk assessment on a particular family of birds takes many years unfortunately-we are dealing with a government department after all!!

So first you have to convince them to undertake the risk assessment. Then you have to wait for the outcome of that assessment- which may warn against importation of certain species based on their pest potential etc. Then you have to fulfil the requirements of sourcing aviary bred birds, from approved countries, have them tested in pre-export quarantine overseas, then arrange transport, then quarantine in an approved facility in Australia before you get the birds.
The whole thing can be knocked on the head at any stage during this process, particularly if birds die and are found to carry any exotic diseases.

This is at least a 10 yr process, unless the government changes its requirements.

What we really need is a John Singleton or Clive Palmer to want to import finches- then watch how quickly things would fall into place!!

[E Orix]

Even if all is cleared and the birds are sitting in a local quarantine station things can turn nasty.
The best example happened a few years ago in NZ,the birds were in the country ready to be distributed when
some Gov.Official or Gov.Vet got cold feet said they were deseased and promptly had the whole shipment destroyed.
As they were incinerated there was no way of proving that they were or were not deseased.
Common thought,just someone panicked and that is now history and some people poorer $ wise and a big number of dead birds.

It would have been great for the Aust. Aviculture if the Govt. would have allowed a couple of decent shipments in because when major importing was stopped for WW2 reasons a huge amount of the bird breeders were out of the country fighting,seed was hard to get and collections died out because there were few breeders. I can remember talking to Ray Murray about what happened to his collection,he was lucky as his mother feed his birds but when he returned from active duty his collection had shrunk greatly and what was left were mostly to old to breed.
No one had a chance to stock pile or at least get their collections back to a workable number.

[Netsurfer]

I know breeders in Europe and America that need to close ring young so this shouldn't have need to stop them.

That makes me angry! To hear that some "No experience Vet or a birrocrat" comes up with a decision that all finches have to be closed banded to qualify for import/export. Try banding Lavender, Orange-cheeks or many other Finches, you all know what would happen and that's from experience! Right???

Hi Danny,

What we really need is a John Singleton or Clive Palmer to want to import finches- then watch how quickly things would fall into place!!

I was gonna say that but you beat me to it there is something incredibly wrong with the Australian Aviculture, it seems that there is not a single person that has got any credibility or a say or at least to stand up against the handful of birrocts or "decision makers" when it come to import/export finches. While in countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, USA and even the UK where people have been keeping birds for hundreds of years, shipments of many species often get in. Not that they haven't tried to ban the import of birds and animals. But legalizing importation is not something I would like to see, the name is "restricting" which means once or twice every 10 years or so would be just fine! However, for those of you who said finches were never legally brought into the country, I remember when the last shipment of Redpolls and Yellowhammer came in from the New Zealand and that was in the early 80!

[Myzomela]

Yes you're right- I forgot about those, but I did say the last 30 yrs.

My comments were directed at general importation of finches through Spotswood. Back then, NZ's doors were still available to us but alas no longer.