cuban eggs on ground

[Hannes]

Hi, I have just found the second cuban egg broken on the ground. It is a young pair and as far as i know they have no nest.

[finchbreeder]

Try round fishing floats. For some reason those I have had, have shown a marked preference for round recepticles to stuff full of materials, leaving a tiny round nest space in the centre.
LML

[Finch_Breeder]

Try round fishing floats. For some reason those I have had, have shown a marked preference for round recepticles to stuff full of materials, leaving a tiny round nest space in the centre.
LML

Never heard of that one before

[E Orix]

In the past to get them to build I just put a piece of Carpet Felt(not the synthetic one) in and that seemed to be the stimuli
to get them going.
I do not know your aviary layout but they can be very secretive with regard building a nest and even smarter when incubating.
You will rarely catch a bird coming off the nest as the mate will call as son as it sees you.
Many years ago, I had a pair of Cubans that would be happily feeding on my lawn when I came home,I would catch them up and next
evening they would be out again. I patched places where something half the size couldn't get through. My mother found the hole(that long ago)
in the wire at eye level. Any way the hole was patched and no more getting out. Three days later they fledged chicks, unbeknown to me they
were going in and out all day. The point is they can be nesting and you might not know. She will lay again soon and hopefully in a nest this time.
I presume the eggs were fresh and not old infertile eggs being discarded.

[SamDavis]

Mine have always found coconut fibre and kapok irresistible for nest building, although they will use fine grass and feathers if those materials are not available. I'm pretty sure my Cubans have always built from scratch in brush.

[Hannes]

Thanks for the advise. But i have lots of nesting materials and feathers. But the eggs on the ground is always broken.

[finchbreeder]

The point is they can be nesting and you might not know.
Same here. Only suspect when they get extra crazy for the greens.
Do you have lots of nests to go with the nesting materials? Do you have any finches of the interfering kind? Could some other bird be causeing trouble for the Cubans? Just thinking of possibilities here. And yes I know that very few birds are daft enought to bother Cubans.
LML

[Hannes]

They are in a 3x4.5 m cage the birds in the aviary are. 1 pr SGPF, 2 pr diomond firetails, 1pr grass finches and 1 pr star finches. And one pair namaqau doves.