Aussie Finch Forum

I watch with interest being a new member to the finch forum, the banter from all corners about anything and everything that everyone thinks they know, yet to me it is no different to other organizations that I have been involved with. I started breeding gouldian finches 8 years ago and it is only now that I believe I have the quality to be happy with. It therefore disappoints me greatly when I see people selling gouldians for $20 and people who ring and ask for birds for $20. Are we serious about this magnificent AUSTRALIA Finch, I think not !!!! To stop all the bickering, jealousy and greed, i cannot believe that there is not a common standard by which a bird of this beauty ( and Australian ) is not judged. For the good of the species, why is there not a national GOULDIAN FINCH CLUB ?????????? In this way anyone who does not want to be a member and strive to raise the quality and profile of the gouldian finch, will quickly realise that trying to make a quick dollar cannot be acheived, thus upholding the quality and reputation of this fine finch. Mutations will be ratified be a national body, this will eliminate people assuming they have created a new mutation ( usually to try and extract maximum dollars from people who do not have the knowledge to be safeguarded against unscrupulous so called breeders ) in the end I am sure that all genuine breeders of the gouldian finches have the welfare of the bird at heart, but there must be a unified body for all to be comfortable with and that shares one common goal, the interest and " good of the GOULDIAN FINCH "!!!!

Maybe I am missing something, but dont breeders of Gouldians (and other finches) already try and do the best for the particular species they keep?.

I, like Bernie, am surprised that a species as popular as the Gouldian does not have a specialist Gouldian club/society in Australia by now. I also think a national standard will come if/when such a club evolves & runs shows,etc. So far when anyone proposes a standard or advocates what it should include they are shouted down with criticism over this feature or that. Perhaps it will take a Gouldian Finch body with runs on the board as "the" Gouldian finch body to establish such a standard at some stage in the future??

i think forum member Ripley was looking into starting a national gouldian finch society ( maybe he can chime in on this post )

misso

Form a club. Create a standard. Have the Gouldian go the way of the show budgie circa 80s style. Create a new standard because the old one is too easy to recreate. Have the Gouldian go the way of the show budgie circa 90s style. Have the oldies and the newbies form cliques and try to oust each other from the committee. Have the Gouldian go the way of the English show budgie coz there's nothing left to achieve. No thanks!

I fail to see how repeating the mistakes of the budgie breeding programs of "last century" is good for the species in captivity.

Thank heavens you chipped in Natamambo,hear hear Craig

Do we want gouldians as big as show zebs,as big as or bigger than diamond firetails. No thanks

natamambo wrote:Form a club. Create a standard. Have the Gouldian go the way of the show budgie circa 80s style. Create a new standard because the old one is too easy to recreate. Have the Gouldian go the way of the show budgie circa 90s style. Have the oldies and the newbies form cliques and try to oust each other from the committee. Have the Gouldian go the way of the English show budgie coz there's nothing left to achieve. No thanks!

I fail to see how repeating the mistakes of the budgie breeding programs of "last century" is good for the species in captivity.

It seems to me that the breeders who aim to preserve wild type of finches in captivity are in minority so why not form some kind of Finch preservation Society and totally break away from the rest of the Aviculture, but maybe not funny!

If such a standard were to come into play it would have to be as close to wild type as possible imo.
like crocnshas said the last thing we would want is to degrade the Gouldian by making it bigger or out of form like the zeb's and budgie's compared to their wild cousins. It's a privilege to have such a naturally beautiful finch.

Where ever there is showing there ends up being alteration and slow "progress" till the bird/cat/dog etc resembles nothing like the wild animal, is that what we want to see with the gouldian? And I don't think it starts out as a plan it's just human nature, we aim for a standard and in so doing alter the animal...maybe with gouldians it would end up with smaller birds (if the standard called for a petite bird for example) the problem is as soon as we say one thing is "better" that gets exaggerated.
And why the shock that the bird is valued at $20 doesn't that mean it has become easier to breed and is now available to more people, a drop in price is basically die to an increase in breeding success, I'd say it is a good thing as it means the birds become accessible to more people.

I'm sure there is a standard for all species somewhere.
It is called the type specimen and is found and described from the wild by those discovering and/or studying the species
Does this not apply to the Gouldian?