Aussie Finch Forum

Are gouldians the only finch who's chicks have the bright blue around the beak?

The reason I ask this is I have a mystery in our finch aviary, a couple of weeks ago we lost one of our hens, leaving us 3 cocks and one hen, this hen is currently nursing 5 baby's, but in another nest I have found 2 more baby's with the blue around their beak.

there are also 7 young Goulds in the aviary that have not yet coloured up, 1 is about 6 months old, the others about 4 or 5 months old, could these have bred even though not coloured up?

I also have zebs and bengalese in the same aviary, do their babies have the blue around the beak, as I have not noticed this before, or is it possible that the hen that died had laid and either the zebs or bengalese have incubated the eggs?, I have seen Zebs hanging around the box but it is a mystery to me

Hi and welcome to the forum

Crackatinny wrote:there are also 7 young Goulds in the aviary that have not yet coloured up, 1 is about 6 months old, the others about 4 or 5 months old, could these have bred even though not coloured up?

I wouldnt have thought that they could have bred at that age.
Ive never had Bengalese so I cant say anything about them and the zebs I had hatched their babies in a very elaborate nest so I didnt get to see them until they fledged.
Try this page for the mouth marking for several types of finches.
http://www.efinch.com/gape.htm
Hope its some help to you, let us know what it turns out to be.

Guessing u mean 3 shiny blue/green dots either side of the beak, Pretty sure the proper name is beak nodules. Goulds have em' and beleive parrot finches do aswell. Zebs and bengo's don't, goulds reach sexual maturity at about 6 monts but u should wait till 12 months to breed them. It's possible for the young goulds to have bred already, but more probable the zebs or bengo's are fostering them.

dRAG_jUNKIE wrote:Goulds have em' and beleive parrot finches do aswell. Zebs and bengo's don't,

Most finches have a mouth marking of some sort. bengos are apparently variable, I've seen ones that do have nodules, some that have lines. parrot finches, gouldians, have nodules always, and several others. Longtails, zebras, etc. etc. have flourescent lines.

mouth markings are interesting. here's a link to some photos:
http://www.efinch.com/gape.htm

Could they be young Gouldians being feed by the Bengalese.
Bengalese have been known to take over nests of eggs (in particular 2 males) and rear them as if they were their own.

Today I did notice a zeb in there, and the wife says she has seen a zeb in there, it is the flouro blue markings, so all I can think is the gould laid before she died and the zeb has fostered the eggs.

Crackatinny wrote:Today I did notice a zeb in there, and the wife says she has seen a zeb in there, it is the flouro blue markings, so all I can think is the gould laid before she died and the zeb has fostered the eggs.

I reckon you've cracked the case ;) ........thats 24 tinnys

My old Aust Finches by Klaus Immelmann is tops....the Gouldians are the only ones out of your selection with the nodules or "gape spots"......I've scanned the relevant page for each species.....fingers crossed they turn out..........

NB: As suggested, reproduced not-for-profit from Klaus Immelmann's revised edition of Australian Finches.......

Hey Mick, is the revised edition much different to the original? I've got the first edition (1965) and all the mouth markings are all spread over two pages.

Its a long time since I've looked at a 1st edition so I'm not real sure how dramatically it differs......but......the mouth marking diagrams are with each species' descriptions............Its a great book, love Neville Cayley's paintings