Our Responsibilities as Finchkeepers The finches in our care dwell with us because we, the finchkeepers, have willed it so. It is, therefore, our responsibility to provide proper care for our finches by identifying and meeting their needs. We feel we can accomplish this goal by educating ourselves through reading, communicating with other finchkeepers, and by carefully and open-mindedly observing our finches.

ABOVE: Left to right, our female and male red eared waxbills, one of the male society finches. ABOVE: Left to right, our male red cheeked cordon bleu waxbill, male society finch, and one of our red eared waxbills.

It is our intention to provide for our finches:

• proper nutrition to ensure optimum physical health.
  This goal is achieved by daily and continuous offerings of fresh water, varied foods, and nutritional supplements.

• a stimulating and as natural an environment as is possible to ensure optimum mental and physical health.
  This goal is achieved by furnishing ample space for our community of inhabitants, as well as by adding full spectrum lighting, privacy and natural perches in the indoor aviary.

• a clean environment to prevent disease.
  This goal is achieved by daily, weekly and bi-monthly cleaning regimens.

• a non-breeding environment to ensure the natural aggressive tendencies of some species is reduced.
  This goal has been achieved by not providing nests and nesting materials.

ABOVE: Left to right, female white headed nun, female and male
gold breasted waxbills, one of the St. Helena's waxbills,
one of the rosy rumped waxbills all caught by FinchCam sleeping.

Community Relations

I often view the complex interpersonal relationships between finches as being similar to those between people. With that perspective in mind, it's easy to view myself and the people around me mirrored by the goings-on within the aviary.

For the most part, the inhabitants of our finch community cooperate remarkably well. They take turns at the seed dishes, for example. On many occasions throughout each day, finches of different species will groom each other. When the activity cycle winds down for a mid-morning or an afternoon nap, the social waxbills will snuggle together. An alarm call of one finch alerts them all and in a mad rush, they fly to higher, safer perches.

At other times, however, finch territorial disputes and pecking order disputes arise, just as they do in the human workplace or home environments. In both finch and human microcosms, sensible solutions must be sought and implemented. Since our finches are captive by our choice and not theirs, the responsibility for finding solutions to any and all problems rests on us, the finchkeepers.

ABOVE: Left to right, the male gold breasted waxbill, female red cheeked cordon bleu waxbill, one of our male society finches.

A Non-Breeding Aviary

One of the most important decisions made that resulted in reduced stress in the finch community environment was to discourage all breeding and nesting activities.

At first, we bought wicker nests and made a few from plywood. We gathered natural nesting materials and did many wonderful things to encourage the birds to nest. A few clutches were laid by two pairs in particular, but nothing came of the eggs. Some of the finches, when showing their desires to nest, became quite territorial and chased other birds around the aviary. The pandemonium that ensued was stressful to watch and probably more stressful to live with inside the aviary.

The indoor aviary that we built was certainly larger than anything our birds had lived in previously. But it was still not large enough to accommodate breeding birds who required more space than we would ever provide. The solution to our problem of unnecessary breeding stress was to eliminate the breeding by removing all nests and anything that resembled nesting materials. Large food dishes were also removed because the two male society finches we'd kept persisted on making nests from lettuce in them.

Birds who continued to want to nest were separated for a few weeks to settle their hormones. When reintroduced to the community, they had, indeed, ceased to be interested in breeding.

Bathing

Quite inauspiciously in the quiet of the afternoon, a sole finch will lazily glide down to the birdbath. This one little bird will stand momentarily on the lip of the plastic vessel, tail twitching with excited expectation, before taking that fateful plunge. Once its feet are wet, all it will take will be a splash or two before a queue of finches forms on the aviary's lower perches to await their turn ... in the bath.

Another finch or two will hop from the nearest perch onto the lip of the bird bath while the first finch is, by now, splashing water everywhere. Other finches will take the spaces on the recently vacated perches, and soon, it seems like most of the aviary's inhabitants are caught up by the urge to bathe. On one occasion, when finch populations were high in the aviary, up to fourteen finches have been observed bathing in two birdbaths provided. More likely, however, three or four, or six or eight finches will bath at a time, though seldom will only one finch bath by itself.

Our finches get the urge to bath at anytime of the day or evening. While bathing is not the first activity of their day, usually within a half hour their water has been changed time, be assured that one little finch will begin the bathing cycle all over again.

While bathing definitely appears to be a communal activity enjoyed by all of our finches, only the green singing finches seemed to bathe in solitary. It was originally thought that they did not bathe at all, but I have observed a soaking wet green singer on occasion. They're just a little less public about getting wet than everyone else, I suspect.

ABOVE: Left to right, our female white headed nun, and the female and male gold breasted waxbills.

Introducing New Finches

Introducing new finches to the aviary has got to be one of the most stressful endeavors of finchkeeping. Whether the finch has been shipped via air to Edmonton, or we've simply brought home a new pair from a local pet store, we are truly empathetic to the finch's plight of changes in environment, food and community relationships.

If one of our newcomers has been in a crowded pet store for any length of time, for instance, he or she most certainly suffers from too little privacy, poorer nutrition, as well as exposure to any number of diseases. Luckily, we have yet to purchase birds that have had health difficulties, though, we are only beginning finchkeepers and we're sure the worst is yet to come. If our newcomers have been shipped by air, they have endured up to sixteen hours without food or water during the shipping process. And who knows what their circumstances had been prior to shipping?

Our practice is to segregate the new arrivals for a short period of time during which we carefully observe them. When we are certain they are healthy, we introduce them into the aviary. Often the period of time is about a day or two, though two to four weeks of segregation is often recommended.

Introducing only one finch at a time has been more upsetting to the established community than introducing two or more. We also usually change a few perches around just prior to the introduction. By doing this, the whole community has to readjust, not just the new bird(s). Everyone is on a little more even playing field when it comes to perch selection and such, so the new bird(s) is/are not the odd one out.

ABOVE: Left to right, the red eared waxbill pair and our male gold breasted waxbill.

Sleeping and Napping

Several times throughout the day, our finches' activity slows dramatically. Some birds snooze, some quietly preen themselves or preen a friend, while others are continue to move about without a peep.

Mornings, however, are not considered a quiet time at all. In mid-May, the finches begin calling and flying about shortly after sunrise, at about 5:30 a.m. Of course, only the most vocal of the group actually begins singing then - those being the society finches and the red cheeked cordon bleu waxbills, while these finches were still in our care.

Slowly the chorus built with the addition of the rosy rumped, St. Helena's and gold breasted waxbills along with the green singers. Last to join in were the owl finches. Once one pair starts up, however, the other pair never fail to answer. The cacophony does not cease until close to 11:00 a.m. or so when the first quiet time can be noticed.

Bedtime is something for which we have learned to prepare the finches. Simply shutting out the aviary lights sends them into a bit of a panic. If no other lights are on in the living room or kitchen they crash into the walls, the perches, and each other.

The racket is frightful and their fear must be at quite a high. To ease their environment into darkness, and therefore reduce their stress, we've installed a 7.5 watt light which switches on, by timer, a few minutes before the full spectrum lighting switches off, also on a timer. The low wattage bulb stays on for a half hour which enables the finches to find their favorite roosting spots. The half hour is more than ample, though right after a major furnishing change the finches definitely require a longer settling down time.

ABOVE: Left to right, our female gold breasted waxbill preening the male red cheeked cordon bleu, and the male gold breast.

All food and water dishes are hung on the bars of one of the Dream Aviary's doors, except for an outdoor hopper-type feeder which has been placed on the floor away from perches.

Hung on the food door, too, is a bird baths. It is important for birds to bathe on a daily basis, all the better for all of us who happen to catch their bathtime antics!

The door opposite the kitchen has mineral and iodine blocks clipped to the bars along with cuttlebone and a frequently replenished dish of crushed oyster shell.

Food and water dishes are washed in warm, soapy water and are replenished every morning.

RIGHT: Outdoor hopper-type feeder suspended from the coated wire ceiling. This feeder has since been placed on the floor because a number of finches tried to build nests in it.

BELOW: The aviary's right door panel where
the feed and water dishes, and bathing station have been hung.

• two 4" square (approximately) pieces of lettuce or spinach are washed and clipped to the aviary's bars.

• fresh water laced with Prime vitamins is placed in a pair of large dishes and are cleaned in hot soapy water and replenished each morning.

• bird bath is also cleaned in hot soapy water and replenished each morning.

• purchased in bulk from the local feed mill, a finch seed mix is always on hand. A batch of 12 cups of seed is mixed with 1 tablespoon each of cold-pressed wheat germ oil (purchased from the health food store and kept refrigerated) plus a tablespoon of cod liver oil (stored in a cool dark place). Seed that is not used immediately, is refrigerated.

• replenished monthly

• replenished whenever needed