Aussie Finch Forum

Popped out today! This is my first ever Parrot Finch baby, from a pair I bought a few months ago. So cute! She (I think) is an only child so should end up big n fat...

Grats, there could be more in the nest, unless you checked, but I don't touch there nests or babies unless ones real small on the ground & I try to put it back in nest, that ring you put on, did you do in nest?, if you handle any, they often fly from nest & hard to keep them in, I don't normally ring my babies until after the parents have finished feeding them, I don't like to take any chances as the parents might stop feeding them, when I handle any young I rub my hands in the seed first to make sure the is no scent on my hands.

With Gouldians, Zebras, etc, I try to ring the babies in the first 36 hours out of the nest, as that's the only time in their life they are easy to catch! I have never rung babies in the nest as I don't have a setup which allows me to do that without disrupting them too much, and even if I could I'm not sure that I would.

With the Parrot Finches I thought it was especially important to ring babies on their first day, because they get so agile so fast! I saw dad feeding this one shortly after. I don't think they are fazed.

Congratulations Nice Work

Finchy wrote:Popped out today! This is my first ever Parrot Finch baby, from a pair I bought a few months ago. So cute! She (I think) is an only child so should end up big n fat...

Good on you...but how do you know it is a hen?

I believe it's a hen because it looks Seagreen to me. The bird I believe to be the dad is Seagreen and the mum, from whom she gets her piedness (yellow beak is the clue), is Normal pied. Because Seagreen is sex-linked, if it is Seagreen then it can only be female, because males need 'double factor' Seagreen to display it but females only need single factor.

It's a total brain-ache!

(I actually bought two pairs - one pied Normal and one Seagreen - but when I introduced them to the aviary they swapped partners! I think it happened because the pied Normal hen lost an eye somehow, then her alpha male husband dumped her for the other alpha female. The result is a genetic head scratch, but they are the two best birds out of my four RFPFs so I don't really mind.)

EDIT: But then again, I have never seen a newly fledged RFPF before, so for all I know that's what Normal colouring looks like in babies. Anyone...? Seagreen or Normal?

It has seagreen colouring.

Good stuff

its a good looking one!