Green Singers Want to Breed Again #4

Geez, quite a few days have past since my last entry regarding the goings-on of our finches. The inhabitants of the aviary seem to be doing okay, but honestly, we've all been paying much more attention to the activity in and around the green singers' nest. Who wouldn't?

ABOVE and BELOW:
Chris, the male green singer in various stages
of going into and getting out of the nest.

After what seemed like a lot of wasted effort with the nest being built then demolished then built again, things  settled down. The first egg appeared Wednesday morning, the second Thursday morning and the third egg on Friday. On both Wednesday and Thursday, Bev sat on the eggs most of the day, but not at night. My educated guess is that these first two eggs have not been consistently incubated and will amount to nothing. This scenario leaves the third egg, which was incubated day and night by Bev since it was laid, to be the sole opportunity from which a chick may emerge.

Since Bev has not left her nest much lately, even when I've fed them or changed the flight's paper, I have no idea if a fourth egg has been laid. It seems that she's been doing most of the incubating. For the first couple of days, I did not see Chris anywhere near the nest, not even on top of it.

Subsequent days, however, he's taken more interest and, as shown in the photos to the right, has been observed entering and exiting the nest. There are enormous poops in the flight's floor, evidence to me that Bev does occasionally come out, though it doesn't seem frequent or long enough for me to be assured she's eating or drinking properly. But she must be, right? No creature is going to forego food for the two week incubation period! I'm not glued to their flight and cannot possibly know who's doing what when, so she must be getting regular food and such.

Bev's been in the nest the most and Chris can be heard early morning and later in the evening, particularly at lights out time, singing his heart out. I'd love to record his song and post it to the site, but it's a little too involved a thing for me to be doing right now.

We'll just have to wait until about October 15th to see if any of the eggs hatch. In my heart of hearts I doubt there will be any chicks this time, or if we'll even allow them to try again this season. Only time will tell.

BELOW LEFT: Chris emerging from the nest.

BELOW RIGHT: Bev, alone at last!

Green Singers Want to Breed Again #5

I'd long suspected that the reason the female green singer could stay so long in the nest was that the male would feed her. This pair of ours have had a long relationship, since we got them actually, where she would beg and he would feed her.

ABOVE: Chris with egg in his mouth
(not on his face) on his way to feed Bev.

We'd thought this behaviour of her begging and him feeding was part of their courtship routine which would ensure her being able to incubate the eggs while he provided food for her while she did so. By our current observations, I think we were right. Gee, it's kinda nice to put two and two together and eventually get four!

Most of the other finches I'd read about share the incubation process more evenly, with both male and female would spend about equal amounts of time on the eggs. I suppose there'd been something all along with this pair of birds that we thought was a little different from our other finches. The female doing most of the egg incubating is just one more characteristic that sets them slightly apart from our other birds.

Hatch date, if the eggs are fertile, will be next Friday or Saturday - only a week away. I'm getting a little excited plus I'm also a little apprehensive. I mean, what if we actually have chicks in that nest? What are we going to do with them if they survive? I've thought about the real possibilities of chicks, but I also think its much more realistic to think their first clutch of eggs won't amount to much. But who the heck knows what's going to happen - not me!

I do have to remark that Chris is spending much more time lately coming and going from the nest. Occasionally when I'm watching I notice him in and out then back in again. I'm taking it as a good sign that he'll be a very attentive dad who will stuff full the little mouths of his begging chicks (if there are any...).

ABOVE and BELOW:
Chris coming and going.
Please don't mind me including so many
photos of our finches' bums.
I  do so because their feathers are
so perfect everywhere
on their little bodies.

Green Singers Want to Breed Again #6

Both birds are now spending a lot of time together in the nest. By my calculations, the eggs should hatch either today or tomorrow and am I ever getting anxious to know if there will be chicks or not! I had a brief look at the eggs early this morning, but couldn't tell a thing from looking at them. Fertile or not? Geez, I don't know. We'll all just have to wait a little while longer, I suppose. Darn!

The birds, however, are behaving as if the eggs will hatch at any moment, though I can't tell you how I interpret that behaviour. Just hatch, just hatch!

ABOVE:  Bev in the foreground,
Chris behind.