Aussie Finch Forum

Hi folks,

Got home from work this arvo, did the usual quick scan of the cages... no jumping blue faced parrot finches

Look down to the bottom of the cage, 4 dead parrot finches.

It appears 'something' got into my bird area. I think it was probably a bird of some sort, not sure what though, haven't seen anything hanging around.

One had injuries that looked like it had flown into the cage, two looked normal, they other poor soul was missing his head...

Looks like i'll be without the parroties for a while until i can sort out better housing for them. Luckily the goulds with fledgings in the cabinet underneath were unharmed.

Keeping birds/finches can absolutely break your heart at times...

Cheers
Ian

Hi Ian,

Sound's like it was a Butcher Bird to me, the pattern of killing fit's exactly, 2 frightened to death, 1 he didn't quite get hold of and 1 he did get

I've had this problem in the past as well, with cabinets that are exposed. The way I protected the bird's was to make another wire screen that fitted over the whole front of the cabinets, it was made of the thicker gauge 12mm square wire, I measured the outside dimensions of the cabinet cage front's then added 75mm to the borders all round, cut out a 75mm square in each corner and bent the 75mm edge strips up at right angles creating a sort of wire tray with turned up edges. I hung this up on the front of the cabinet's with a few small cup hooks creating a 75mm gap between the cabinet fronts and the outside of the wire.

This prevents a butcher bird or the like actually getting at the bird's but doesn't stop them being frightened

Keeping birds/finches can absolutely break your heart at times... Yes your right there.

Hope this helps........Cheers Tony

Having butcher bird troubles here also , might be the season for aggressive behaviour.
Finchy friend here lost 15 birds in 2 days , she thought it was the cold weather Id lay money its a predator of some sort.

oh no!

so sorry for you're loss

Sorry to hear about the Parott finches, glad the Gouldians are fine but.
LML

Thanks for all your responses. I haven't seen any suspects around since.

I thought the area they were in was bird proof (except for the odd sparrow). There are now plans to fully/properly enclose the area to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Apparently it didn't phase the gouldians at all, they have started laying since the ordeal.

Cheers
Ian