Fledgling and misc. pictures

Rose

Cosmos

Rose

Mums

Mock Orange

Cosmos

Mums

Couldn't resist posting some fall flowers.

 Another nest of gouldians and other eggs fostered to societies.  These are more babies from the pair who are very light sitters.  I finally separated the pair and paired them with other partners to see if incompatibility is the reason for such unenthusiastic parenting.

 Close-up shows a hatching egg, so there soon should be 2 baby gouldians.

 Here are a couple of older siblings of the hatching egg and the just hatched baby; these 2 just fledged yesterday.  One is dilute so is a boy, and the second one is yellow.

  Two more yellow siblings of the previously mentioned babies and fledglings - note everyone has a red leg band to keep parentage straight.  These two are fostered with different societies and have fledged for about a week now.  They've gotten very good at chasing down their foster parents demanding to be fed.  Their foster parents are the one raising the recently hatched baby and the just hatching egg.  Young society fledglings are being raised in the same cage.

 Here's another society baby, a pied fawn.  Society babies tend to be almost overly precocious and will fledge before they have all their feathers.

 Ken's new siblings.  Three fledged with 2 more still in the nest.

Here's dad feeding baby.

"cream" shaft tail hen

Creamino shaft tail male

a pair of red faced star finch with a male gold breast waxbill showing off his orange rump

red headed parrot finch, pair of gold breasts, and red faced star finch hen in the back

Blush stretching, male gold breast, and male red faced star

yellow tipped beak black headed purple breast green back gouldian male

 Everybody loves to bath,

male pintail whydah enjoying a splash

 One never gets the bathing facility to oneself for long.  The red-factor canary wants a turn.

 My new lutino scarlet chested grasskeet hen with her split to ino sons eating lunch.

 Close up of Scarlet.  I can get this close because this side is her bad eye.

 Another society fledgling who looks like it should have stayed in it's nest for a few more days - surprisingly good flyers though.

Fledging day...

Apparently today is a good day for fledging.  Young gouldians fostered under societies and Ken's new siblings decided to fledge.  New society babies also came out of their nest - three more pied fawns.  All of Scarlet and Red's 4 babies have fledged; unfortunately Red seems more keen in plucking his babies than feeding them, so I've pulled them for hand feeding.  This time, Coral and Blush are being perfect parents.  Of Red and Scarlet's babies, 1 male, 2 hens, and 1 I'm thinking will be a hen as well but not sure due to the white line under the wing not being very prominent.  Of Coral and Blush's babies, 1 male, 1 hen, and 2 more too young for me to tell just yet.  

Sadly, Ken's sister from last year, my black headed white breasted silver hen had died.  Looks like my problem with blue and silver gouldians continues.  

All of the the shaft tails are restarting.  There were a lot of clear eggs, so we're "rebooting".

On the up side, my creamino hen with her 2 young split to creamino consorts have laid more eggs, so far 2 looks to be fertile.  Hopefully some will be creamino babies.  

I am planning on trading my linnies for some more bourkes.  Cream Puff is starting to lay thin shelled eggs.  She just keeps laying eggs without properly sitting on them, so I have removed their nest box and forcing a rest period.  Time for an extended rest period.  I have decided, at this point, linnies are not the right species for me.  If they do successfully hatch out babies, having to hand feed in order to have tame pets may be too time consuming for me.  They are very cute and sweet, but I think I need to stick with finches and grasskeets for now.  Fortunately I was able to find a breeder very interested in working with them to take them in.  I will miss them, but I think it's the best decision for both the linnies and me.

Baby update

The scarlet chest babies are doing well.  Red and Scarlet's babies look a bit plucked.  Last season it was Coral and Blush who did this.  I'm still not sure exactly what promotes this behavior but am definitely backing off on the mealworms as another breeder suggested live food may be too stimulating for the parents.  The parents are definitely waiting for me twice a day to refresh their food though.

 Here are Coral and Blush's brood of 4.

 Here is Scarlet, guarding the entrance to her nest.

 Here are Red and Scarlet's 4 babies - they are obviously older than Coral and Blush's 4.  Notice the bald spots on top of the head and back - these areas should grow back without any problems, but I would much prefer this not happen in the first place.

 Here's the first clutch of 5 gouldians who are all surviving.  These are the babies I was trying to guess at the colors of.  I think I need more feathers to tell for sure...but I think 2 or 3 yellows, 1 or 2 silvers, and the 1 I thought was a pastel is maybe a dilute???  Oh well, I'll be more certain in a few more days.

Random pictures - birds and babies...

Here are the 2 gouldian babies from the second clutch of the pair who didn't sit well for the 1st clutch then tossed the 1st baby from their 2nd clutch.  These guys are so stuffed by their society fosters, they can't even roll over anymore.  Looks to be 1 yellow and 1 normal/?dilute.

 Here is one of the foster mothers - a pied fawn society.

 Here are their older siblings from the 1st clutch.  Doing well and growing feathers already.  Very well fed by their foster parents from the looks of their full crops.  They are definitely both yellow.

 Here's another society foster - a pied fawn male.

 This is 1 of my handicapped societies - a crested pied fawn male.  It's hard to tell, but he lost his right foot shortly after weaning by catching it between cage bars.  The foot broke off essentially.  I feared for his life.  All I was able to do was to put some triple antibiotic cream and try to stablize the fracture with a bandaid.  The foot eventually dried up and fell off.  He has done amazingly well.  Most of the time I can't even tell he lacks a foot.  He too helps with feeding babies - societies or fostered gouldians.

 One of my creasted pied fawn society males brooding some babies - actually society babies instead of fostered gouldians in this nest.  Not sure if the last eggs will hatch or not.  There looks to be at least 3 hatched babies so far.

 Here he is trying to reposition one of the unhatched eggs.

 These are my 2 young male chocolate self split to creamino societies. 

 Here's the creamino society hen - I love how the creaminos look.  I have her with the 2 chocolate self split to creamino males - so far no fertile eggs yet.  Hopefully the young boys will start to be more productive soon.

 I finally took some pictures of my red factor canaries.  They were not color-fed by their previous owner, so are gaining color as they molt.  I'm using a more dilute solution of Cathaxantine and Bogena Intensief trying to avoid any liver toxicity, so they are turning out a little more orange than intense red.  Of course, they may not be the intensive lipochrome types to begin with.  This is the younger bird, who, the previous owner thought may be a hen - I'm thinking it's a male, but he hasn't sang yet; not sure if it's because he is still molting or he's more subordinate to the other male or he is a she.

 Here is the older male.  I have heard him sing beautifully; hopefully more once he finishes molting.

 This is Mao, my sweet boy - being good after I told him not to go into my aviary even though the door is open.

Yellow headed purple breasted green split to blue backed male gouldian

YH PB GB/BB on left, RH PB BB male gouldian on right

RH WB GB/BB hen gouldian

BH PB GB hen gouldian

BH PB YB hen, BH WB YB hen, RH PB BB male gouldians

 Gouldians can have very strong pair bonds.  It can be almost impossible to break the pair bond during the same breeding season as long as the 2 individuals can see/hear each other.  I have found that even if I separate my males from the females during non-breeding periods, the well bonded pairs will still pair with their previous partners once I pair up my breeders again.  The black headed white breasted yellow split to blue backed male in the top picture and the black headed white breasted green backed hen in the bottom picture fell in love last year.  I paired them up because the male is a redline (see the redline between the breast and the belly) and the hen is born from a redline male as well; hoping to produce more redlines.  Unfortunally, all 3 clutches from last year were infertile.  This year, I tried to put them with other partners, but they still insisted in pairing up.  Hoping they will have better luck this year, I let them have 1 clutch; unfortunately, all 6 eggs were infertile.  Determined to separate them, I placed them in separate breeding cages stacked one on top of the other so they at least won't be able to see each other.  It took several partner changes and several weeks, but I finally found new partners they will accept.  The male has shown a lot of interest in a frisky black headed white breasted blue hen, who has so far shown equal interest back; this is a good pairing given he is split to blue.  Hopefully, he is not impotent.  The green backed hen certainly looks ready to breed with her black beak, but had spurned all the new males I've shown her until today.  When the red headed purple breasted green backed male sang to her from across another cage, she responded and started chasing the other male I placed in her cage away.  Fortunately, I was there to observe this, so changed the males out; they quickly performed their mating ritual and are checking out their nest box.  This is also an excellent pairing if successful, since the red head boy is a redline as well.  I am very glad I managed to separate them successfully so as to not waste another breeding year for them.

 Yellow headed white breasted yellow backed gouldian hen with a red head behind her.  My young yellow turquoisine hen is also in the background.

From left lower to right top, RH PB YB hen, RH LB YB/BB male, RH PB BB hen gouldians.

 This is Sunshine, another young yellow turquoisine hen that I acquired to be the mate for Turkey, the male normal split to yellow turquoisine.  She appears to be red bellied.

Sunshine from the back.