Homing Finches

[toothlessjaws]

Lately I have kept my very elderly cuban in a cage suspended in the safety hatch section of my aviary as he was attacking some young RFPF's that i'd bred and were sharing his space while they coloured up. Anyhow, Yesterday i failed to notice that my OB pair had flown into the safe area and were perched on top of his cage as I exited and out zipped my hen.

As i raced off for the net I watched her take off over the fence and head skyward and that sinking feeling hit where i knew i'd just never see her again.
nonetheless, i left the first door of the hatch open for the day. put down some seed and water and devastated, headed off to work.

I nearly fell over when I came home that evening to find her patiently waiting to be reunited with her mate, atop my cuban's cage in the hatch!

I've had a pair of cubans who literally spent and entire 24hrs living free in my yard and flew straight back into the aviary when my then housemate (who was the reason for their escape) cut a hole in the wire and held it open for them to return in, then quickly stitched it back up. Another time an escaped ruddy spent a day watching me from outside the house and even trying to fly to me and crashing into windows - as i packed my bags for an OS trip. unable to spare a few hrs trying to catch him i had to just let it go. upon my return I was informed that he'd survived over a week living in the vicinity of the house and my then housemate (a different one from the former) eventually found him dead on the grass outside the avairy.

My recent homing Orangebreast hen made me realise: out of about 5 or 6 escapes - 4 have come back! anyone else had any cases of finches with Stockholm syndrome? are certain species prone to it?

[vettepilot_6]

Double bars and ruddies for me..when I was a teen used to let them out and they always came back for food and water....

[starman]

My experiences with escapees have never been positive. There is a huge Camphor Laurel tree adjacent to my property that is the equivalent of an Avian Black Hole, once a finch enters it is only a matter of minutes before there is an audible scuffle and the finches are never seen nor heard again.I think the tree is home to at least a few predators and unfortunately once a finch escapes it is so happy with its new-found freedom that it tends to sing and flit about making it an easy target.The longest I have maintained contact with an escapee is about three minutes, so now I am resigned to the fact that an escaped finch is a doomed finch....sad but realistic in my situation...
I'm happy that your experiences have been more positive.

Sm.

[Masterfincher]

I had a dog dig under an aviary where i couldn't see and half a dozen birds escaped; i noticed them flitting about in front of the aviary that afternoon after work. Set up the trap, caught a couple that arvie and the rest over the next day or 2.
Luckily I have plenty of trees and cover, but i do make sure to put my 2 little dogs in the shed- they would kill them given the chance.

[Shane Gowland]

Never finches, but I once had a group of Masked Lovebirds return to me. Two of them flew back into the aviary the following day, one returned about three days later and sat in a nearby apple tree waiting to be let back into the aviary.

Mostly strangely, a fourth dropped out of a tree and onto the road right in front of my car as I was driving to work a full week later. Sadly, she didn't survive the day, but it was still an incredible coincidence.

[Zippythedoublebar]

2 of my pure Wild zebras got out one day saw them again in 2 months they has several chicks with them I was gong to catch them but I thought they are pure wild there'll be no problem that was 3 years ago they are still hanging around my Aviary to the day....

[D0NKEY]

Not quite a homing story, but similar.

When i started with finches quite a few years back now, I also had some Bengalese. After one season I decided I didn't want to stay with Bengos, and caught them up to take to the local pet produce store. One escaped. Thought it was gone and didn't think much more of it as it flew over the fence. I took the rest and swapped them for some seed. A week later I went for some more supplies and thought to myself to check out if any of the Bengos I had taken them had sold. None had. But I did notice another Bengo in there. It was the Bengo that had escaped - no question about it, same colour, same split coloured ring on each leg too !

[E Orix]

May have told this before.
One of the first species of non Aust. finches I kept were Cubans.
This particular pair were housed in a 1.8 X 2.4 aviary. I came home one afternoon to
be greeted by the pair happily feeding on the lawn, they were caught up easily and I checked
out the aviary and found a small hole and it was mended. The next afternoon once again the
Cubans were outside, they were caught up again. This same ritual went on for nearly a week.
I couldn't find the hole, my mother actually discovered the opening with a fault in the wire.
It was quickly repaired and the escapees were restricted to the aviary.
All was good, then a couple of days later I was greeted to 3 small Cubans sitting on the perch
with mum and dad. It turns out that they were go in and out of the hole each day.

[shnapper20]

Ive had gouldians find their way back into the safety area when Ive left the outer door open for them. I had a double bar appear outside the aviary a few days after I had sold it locally. I didn't know at the time, weeks later the purchaser returned and explained how it had escaped when he went to introduce it into his aviary, he lived 10-20km away . ( I think)