Aussie Finch Forum

This one has puzzled me for sometime so i hope someone can sort it out.Two pairs of Redbrows in an aviary and i will call them pair A and B.There is also a few fully coloured young in the aviary from these birds.Pair A is dominant and raised 3 consecutive nests of four chicks.Pair B raises one chick over the same period.Pair A has chicks ready to fledge and pair B has eggs.Four chicks fledge from pair A.Next week another chick appears but i only see 4 being fed by pair A.The following weekend another chick appears but i still only see four being fed.I now have six chicks around the same age,but at feeding time only ever count four lining up on the ground to be fed.Pair B has chicks that have just hatched but the nest is noisy. I stick my finger in and there is tiny young and one fledged young one that flies out.
Two of the fledged young are being fed by pair B in the nest containing newly hatched young.Not sure who they belong to or exactly what went on but ususally even with a large clutch over a two week period surely they would all line up when they hear the other siblings being fed.I did on one one occasion see 5 on the ground but one wasn`t included in that feeding session.
Yes i do like beer but im generally fairly observant and pair B later fledged two and all 8 are still going.These finches are also supposed to be fairly aggressive around the nest site and not tolerate inspections.
Any thoughts as to what occurred ? When the pairs previously nested at the same time im sure at least one of pair B`s young ended up in Pair A`s nest.The young do return to the nest for a week or so after fledging

Is pair B siblings of Pair A?

No buzzard but i think Pair A and B hens are sisters.Just for the record i dont sell the siblings as unrelated pairs.

That blows my theory as some family groups will share parenting as a group usually siblings only as support feeding etc.

dunno if this helps but ive commented on this before. I have a pair of redbrows that always feed my young goudian chicks both in a out of the nest. I rekon they would feed other redbrow young with out a doubht. I had a look and young redbrows look very muck like young gouldians. I think there just highly parental. Which is very weird as they aint the easiast of birds to bloody breed.

Ben

That sort of behaviour raises some questions.What really makes me curious is the complete lack of aggresion shown by these pairs.Another theory i had was that either A or B had depostited eggs in the other pairs nest.Not sure thats possible but it would be another way of not putting all your eggs in one basket and doubling the chance of survival for some of your young ones.Without having the time or funds to actually sit and watch all day its hard to know what really does go on.Im happy to solve that puzzle if there is some sponsors out there