Blue faced parrot finches

[gomer]

They look great as a fledgling those little guys.

[Diane]

Ring the parents as well.

All my birds get banded, Im a bit pedantic about that, I like my records kept right
The young are in a separate cage from the parents at the moment but with that trilling from the fledgling male I think I will be putting him in with the gouldian boys. There will be no hanky panky between siblings here!

That is why I tell people to buy Parrot Finches from a known person as in my experience Blues breed well in their 1st and 2nd year and by the 3rd they are struggling to rear small clutches.They still look great even at 5+ years old but useless as breeders.

Seems they like early retirement while they still look good
If that is the case with BFPF it seems that either they breed fast to compensate for lack of breeding length or because they breed so prolifically in the first couple of years they burn themselves out. Either way I cant see it would be good for the bird.
My adult pair are one year old, both from reliable breeders so Im ok for the moment with them.

As far as I can recollect they all fledge with yellow beaks and are very noisy.

The only difference I can see between the birds at fledging and in the following weeks before the blue colouring comes in is the depth of the beak where it joins the face. I feel the males have the deeper/wider area and it seems to stay yellow for longer. The hens have already started to lose the yellow in their beaks. There probably is some difference in the red feathers at the base of the tail but Im giving this beak theory a go so I havnt taken much notice of the feathering.
I will try and get another pic of them to compare with the earlier one.

[crazy cuban]

the babys are so cute

[bleeding green]

Instead of starting a new thread I thought I'd ask here.
I have read/heard conflicting opinoins on keep bfpf in the same flight as rfpf. If I only had one pair of each would there be a problem?

[Jayburd]

I would say no, UNLESS there were unpaired birds in the aviary. hey are related, they will crossbreed. I wouldn't do it, but others have. I know someone who keeps sea greens/tri colours/blue faces in the same aviary with no mishaps.

[bleeding green]

I was thinking of waiting till 1 had an estblished pair of red faced before introducing the Blue. I heard the blue are too agressive though.

[Diane]

My BFPF seems to be quite shy, preferring the back corner of the aviary. Must admit I have never kept them with anything other than gouldians. But they are FAST
The RFPF are in an aviary on their own as the cock seemed to be a bit of a bully around the food station in the mixed aviary.

Update on the BFPF...they have two more babies.