Feeding green seeding grass heads to finches should be considered a must by serious finch breeders.  Dried, mature heads of millet sold at the pet store as a treat have no additional food value and are costly but do offer a form of environmental enrichment that is often lacking for cage and cabinet housed birds.  While some species apparently live on a dry seed diet alone they are unlikely to thrive and seemingly unrelated aspects of biology such as the hatchling sex ratio may be affected if nutritional stress is not corrected.  One of the best online articles discussing feeding seeding grass is by Doug Hill & Marcus Pollard from the South Australian Finch Society but most sites do mention the benefits of feeding green seed.  Another good technical resource is ariticle “Waxbill Dietary Requirements” by Ian Hinze on the finch world site.

 Benefits

All birds have a high requirement for protein during early growth and need access to a source of high quality protein like that found in egg-food, insects and green seed.  Allen and Humes’s (2001) research shows that while the zebra finch has an unusually low maintenance requirement for protein, access to high quality protein during the neonate period limits its reproduction.  The smaller fledglings that result when birds receive inadequate diets not only results in higher mortality but the birds themselves never fully recover and compared to a matching well fed cohort – they remain stunted, are less sexually attractive and have lower reproductive potential (Arnold et al 2006). 

Research on the dietary requirements of granivorous birds and mammals has shown that access to supplies of green seeds are a necessary component of a successful breeding diet and according to Mike Fidler, one of the world’s leading finch aviculturists, it is the production and access to copious supplies of green seed that actually triggers the reproductive phase in all member of the Estrilididae.  The explosive population growth seen during mouse plagues and birds like wild zebra finches and budgies at the beginning of 2009 (see Perth Now) are directly related to favorable rainfall resulting in abundant supplies of ripening seed.  Ripening seed as opposed to mature grain results in much higher growth rates and increased reproductive potential for both mice and zebra finches (Allen & Hume 1997, Arnold et al 2006, Blount et al 2006, Mutze 2007, White 2002).  Using the zebra finch as a model it appears that ripening seed is the limiting factor for successful reproduction in finches so that no matter how complete a dry seed mix is, it can not replace the need for green seed.  Even if the nutritional value were the same, dry seed has to be consumed with water and grit and may swell to such an extent that it could be potentially lethal as has been reported in stock fed on dry grain.  For a hatchling accessing the nutrients in the seed itself is easier and less risky since green seeds have a softer texture and contain higher levels of soluble proteins and amino acids. 

Allen & Hume’s (1997) work showed that essential amino acids present in ripening seed are absent from mature seed.  Using wheat as a model grass, Howarth et al (2008) found that the amino acid glutamine accumulates in the developing grain within the first 7 days after fertilization that and after this point is converted to other amino acids.  The early stage of grain filling is characterized by liquid as opposed to the later stage of cellular and solid endosperm (hence the common term “milk” or “milky” stage seed) and it is especially nutritious because each developing grain contains it’s entire compliment of protein and amino acids but with little of the carbohydrate to dilute it so on a dry weight basis it’s no wonder that Allen & Hume’s (1997) found it clustered with egg in their analysis.

The health benefits of green seed are not only limited to the early growth phase.  In provisioning for an egg hens need access to a good protein source or they will take it from their own tissues (Cottom et al 2001, Houston et al 1995).  This loss of condition is what actually “exhausts” a hen and why breeders recommend only allowing a hen to only lay 2-3 clutches per year and then to rest and recover for the remaining part of the year.  If this is not done then the bird may be lost. David Pace believes that by feeding green seed that this prevents egg binding which makes sense in the light of the tissue loss that can occur in birds if they are not given an adequate diet.

Lastly it must be acknowledged that giving green seed heads to birds is a form of environmental enrichment and stimulation which is lacking for cage and cabinet-bred birds.  While finches do not appear to suffer the same psychological disorders or degree of distress that some captive parrots exhibit, giving them access to seed heads gives tehn the opportunity to exhibit natural behaviors and to explore.  The Toronto Zoo maintains an on-line list of the literature in this area if you care to read more on this subject. 

 I can’t leave this topic without saying how much I actually enjoy foraging for my birds and seeing what is available at various times of the year too.  Watching wild and captive birds picking through the seed heads is reward in itself when you know how good it is for them.  In Northern Europe access to seeding grasses is very limited compared to America, SE Asia, Australia or South Africa which is why they have developed complex supplements and pelletized complete diets to simulate the breeding diet of wild birds.  For this service aviculture must be grateful but such artificial fare should not be seen as a replacement for the real thing if you can provide it.

Sorting grasses in the morning prior to feeding

I can’t leave this topic without saying how much I actually enjoy foraging for my birds and seeing what is available at various times of the year too.  Watching wild and captive birds picking through the seed heads is reward in itself when you know how good it is for them.  In Northern Europe access to seeding grasses is very limited compared to America, SE Asia, Australia or South Africa which is why they have developed complex supplements and pelletized complete diets to simulate the breeding diet of wild birds.  For this service aviculture must be grateful but such artificial fare should not be seen as a replacement for the real thing if you can provide it.

Hazards

After reading all the good news about green seed it’s hard to imagine that feeding green seed has its disadvantage but they certainly exist and can be serious.  When you bring materials into your aviary you are potentially introducing hazards to you must ensure that these hazards are minimized.  Ensure that the grasses you select are of the highest quality and that it is correctly stored and fed or you may find that your birds will die.  The tools of evolution are harsh so you must be aware of the hazards unless you are prepared for heavy losses via introduction of: i, Pest & pathogens; ii, Toxemia & mycoses; iii, Reproductive exhaustion & Loss of life cycle synchronization.

Pests & Pathogens.Wild birds will have discovered your green seed supply long before you do and through subsequent fecal or other contamination you may be taking in a range of pests and pathogens like mites, coccidia or mega bacteria.  Keep a close look out for these diseases in your birds and treat them immediately.  Alternatively you can dip your collected heads into a suitable disinfecting agent like Virkon S (Bayer) and allow the heads to dry off in a cool dry place before storing them.  Vikon S will not affect your birds but equally it will not treat endophytic fungi.

Toxemia and mycoses.Fungal hyphe permeate the intra cellular spaces of even healthy looking plants and many produce alkaloids or other toxins which can if ingested in large enough quantities can alter a bird’s metabolism, behavior, reproduction or kill it out right.  For this reason you should avoid obviously smutted heads on any grass (particularly common in Panicum spp late in the season), sclerotia-like ergots or any other obvious fungal bodies. 

Poor storage, particularly from seed kept too long without refrigeration or from fallen seed in the aviary can promote fungal growth and some of these produce toxins.  Aftatoxins are a particularly nasty group of chemicals produced by Aspergillus spp and these will kill birds or even cause cancers.  Other Aspergillus species can actually grow in the birds’ tissue particularly in the lungs and air sacs.  For more about systemic mycoses look on the Multiscope site.

Some aviculturist may think that drying off green seed heads might prove to be a suitable way in which to provide birds with their essential nutrients at times when fresh supplies are unavailable however this is not a long term solution.  The very reason that green seeds are fed is to provide the vitamins and amino acids that are necessary for successful reproduction however they have very limited self-life at room temperature in air.  The affinity that anti-oxidant vitamins like vitamin A have for oxygen means that they can not be stored for long periods under ambient conditions without losing their potency.  Dr Fitzgerald of the Grain Quality, Nutrition and Post Harvest unit of the International Rice Research Institute (pers com 2009) believes that there is strong evidence that the breakdown products of oxidative degradation of β-carotene are actually toxic so long-term storage of green seed could actually be harmful.  According to Summerburg et al (2003) the cleavage products produced by degradation of β-Carotene are highly reactive and so are potentially toxic.  So to be conservative don’t store green seed unless you’re prepared to freeze it or dry it down and then hermetically seal it away from oxygen. 

While unlikely to be more than a supplement the vitamins available in green seeding grasses may add an additional toxic load to a birds system particularly if you are feeding artificial vitamin supplements.  The condition, known as hypervitaminosis varies according to the excess vitamin ingested with side effects ranging from minor to mortal!.  Hyperviatminosis is well characterized for humans and it probably manifests similarly in birds – refer to Hypervitaminosis A;  Hypervitaminosis D; Hypervitaminosis E .

Reproductive exhaustion and loss of life-cycle synchronization.  According to Mike Fidler and others like Ian Hinze, Estrilid finches are opportunistic breeders, with food and not daylight triggering breeding and other aspects of their lifecycle.  In captivity of course the natural cycles of food availability which signal changes are absent unless the aviculturists reproduces them.  With little effort any food/nutrient can be available at any time of the year and it is probably a mistake to think that your birds need only a breeding diet.  If birds are allowed to continually breed the hens in particular are likely to become run-down and may die because they deplete their bodies of essential amino acids, proteins, calcium and essential fatty acids while laying eggs.

Figure 1 a Mike Fidler’s Gouldian Life Cycle (After Mike Fidler).  By rotating the inner core of management practices aviculturists can manipulate their birds lifecycle to suit their individual needs as shown in the next figure.

Mike Fidler has proposed seven management periods in which husbandry practices, particularly diet and pairing are used to control the birds breeding, body condition and molting.  By imposing this regime all birds synchronize their life cycles and this makes management easier.  In theory this should work for all the Estrilid finches (Australian grass finches, parrot finches, African waxbills, strawberry finches and munias) but it may not apply to other finches – in canaries for example day length is critical for triggering reproduction.  In the wild or for aviculturists within the Gouldian’s former range their lifecycle should follow that shown in Figure 1a, however since the lifecycle can be manipulated to suit the needs of the aviculturist, I am proposing to use the one illustrated in Figure 1b for Luzon in the Philippines.  In temperate Australia a cycle 6 month out of phase with the wild cycle (Fig 1) would be better suited to the cold winters.

The key to adapting the Estrilid cycle to aviculture is to introduce an “austerity period” in which all nutritional supplements with the exception of grits and minerals are withdrawn for a period of two weeks just after breeding to trigger a moult. Following the austerity moult, supplements are slowly reintroduced so that the birds can build condition ready for reproduction.  In this respect providing green and/or sprouted seed should be considered a supplement and withdrawn during the austerity and only give twice per week during the maintenance period.  For most breeders in temperate climates this break is most convenient to coincide with winter but in the wet tropics it comes down to individual preference since there may be green seed and suitable temperatures available all year but perhaps other factors like storms and high humidity which can stress the birds.  For my own needs my timing will be determined by my annual home leave back to Australia from the Philippines.

Fidler’s recommended managements diet are as follows:

Selection, Collection & Storage

Since the objective of feeding seeding grasses is to use the green seed as a nutritional supplement to dry seeds, care has to be taken to select grass at the right stage.  To do this you need to become familiar with grass “flowers” (also called florets or spiklets) and a good place to start is Wikipedia.  If you look carefully, each grass floret while it is flowering (i.e. open & receptive to pollination) you will see it is surrounded by two bracts (the lemma and palea), these separate for a few hours while the 6 stamens elongate and shed their pollen onto the fluffy stigmas (often purple or white).  After shedding pollen, the floret’s bracts close leaving the dried stamens and often the stigmas exposed for a few days before they too are shed. 

If heads are taken before flowering there is no seed (but an excellent source of nesting material) and if taken too late the vitamin & proteins/amino acids are less available.  Since most grass heads will take at least a week for all florets to have completed flowering, the best time for the most nutritious green seeds is going to be around a week after the last flowers on the head have finished flowering.  At this stage the panicle should be well above the flag (last) leaf.  Grain that is already falling is mature even if not fully ripened and will not be as beneficial to the birds as the younger grains which adhere tightly to the plants. 

Grass should be collected early in the morning as soon as the dew has dried off. The heads should be kept in closed polythene bag in the refrigerator and used within four days, after which time the immature grains senesce and are less nutritious and there is an increased risk of fungal spoilage.

Threshing panic grass-heads into a seive-box. Lower bunch has been stripped of grain

If you want to make the most of the green seed supplies the heads can be threshed or beaten to release the seed which can then be fed to the birds in a dish or as part of their wet soft-food rations.  For threshing I use a simple sieve however modifications could increase grain recovery rates.  Once threshed, it may be worth putting the grain through a finer sieve to remove extraneous or harmful inclusions like stalks and smutted florets.  Threshed seed can also be conveniently frozen and fed at times when fresh seed is unavailable.

One important point in selecting your grass – make sure it hasn’t been sprayed with herbicide or pesticides.  This is a constant worry for me collecting rice and barn-yard grass heads from the paddies.  In Australia herbicides are frequently used on the road-side verges where good supplies are often found.

Feeding

I used to feed heads by just throwing them on the floor but after reading Doug Hill and Marcus Pollard’s article warning against the dangers of disease transmission and fungal toxicity I decided to place them in feeders up near the perches and I find this much better for a number of reasons: i), there is a lessened disease risk; ii), the seed is presented in a more natural feeding position; iii), the feeding birds are on display; iv) the heads dry down during the day and can be reused as nesting material and dried material won’t support fungal growth.

When feeding grass heads place them upright, in some type of holder, against the wire or near a perch.  Suitable holders I have used include specimen vases, small plastic bottles and rat traps.  Don’t crowd the stems as the birds have to be able to access all parts and it is a waste of your time to have many heads uneaten and discarded each day.

As was previously mentioned threshed green seed can be fed either directly or included in the soft-food mix, however I have not personally done the latter.  When feeding any grain in a dish, green or mature, place it in a wide, shallow bowl to allow the birds to pick through it as finches won’t dig deep and again you don’t want your efforts wasted.  Discard any unused seed/husk every day and replace with fresh seed.

How much seed to give will depend on how many birds you have and how many nests with chicks there are your enclosure.  Watch your birds and examine the waste and you will soon work out amounts.  As a rough guide for threshed Panicum I would give around teaspoon per bird per day.  This may appear excessive but many of the florets are sterile and contain no seed.

Suitable Species

Where you are will determine what and when is available to you.  Having read Doug Hill & Marcus Pollard’s article  I was surprised that most of the grasses they mentioned were also here in the Philippines and if not the same species then there were closely related species.

One important point in selecting your grass – make sure it hasn’t been sprayed with herbicide or pesticides.  This is a constant worry for me collecting rice and barn-yard grass heads from the paddies.  In Australia herbicides are frequently used on the road-side verges where good supplies are often found. 

 Sources of Seed

Fnch keepers keep a close eye on the grasses growing on road-side verges, fields, abandoned lots and drainage ditches as they drive around.  In the Philippines herbicides are rarely used but in Australia you have to be certain that the local council hasn’t sprayed before you collect.  These wild sources of seed give rural dwellers an advantage over their urban counterparts who will have to grow a limited supply or substitute sprouted seed and supplements.  Of course good grain supplies will support rodent and they in turn support snakes so wear appropriate protective footwear and long pants when collecting seed from the wild.Green seed is natural, cheap and readily available high protein food for finch breeders.  Research has shown that green seed is essential for successful finch reproduction in the wild.  It can be tedious at times to collect green seed if you aren’t in a rural area but it can also be grown and at times of abundant supply it can be threshed and frozen.  Alternatives like sprouted grain seed and manufactured supplements can also be used but even if these are just as nutritious they don’t provide the environmental enrichment and challenge of alighting on a stem, choosing & removing a grain and then removing the husk.  This is what finches are adapted to do and to deny them the opportunity to express these behaviors will affect not only the birds but your pockets.

 Growing your own is a possibility if you have the right climate.  I’ve tried to grow French millet here in the Philippines but because of the short day length it seeds as about 5cm without tillering.  Certainly I have such an abundant supply that I don’t need to grow any but the perennial Setaria species can easily be maintained and are quite ornamental.  Panicum and Johnson’s grass could also be easily cultivated and of course forage grasses like signal grass and Phalaris (canary) grass or commercial crops like rice can be sourced cheaply from a rural seed supply business but make sure the seed is not dressed!  Doug Hill and Marcus Pollard’s article mentions that they grow out their own finch mixes so this is a possibility for anyone with a spare garden bed.  For some general information about types of millets and other bird seeds to grow  the Queensland Department of Primary Industries has some good on-line resources.

Conclusion

Green seed is natural, cheap and readily available high protein food for finch breeders.  Research has shown that green seed is essential for successful finch reproduction in the wild.  It can be tedious at times to collect green seed if you aren’t in a rural area but it can also be grown and at times of abundant supply it can be threshed and frozen.  Alternatives like sprouted grain seed and manufactured supplements can also be used but even if these are just as nutritious they don’t provide the environmental enrichment and challenge of alighting on a stem, choosing & removing a grain and then removing the husk.  This is what finches are adapted to do and to deny them the opportunity to express these behaviors will affect not only the birds but your pockets.

 References

The Gouldians, Stars and Cut-throats stayed on their nests and I assumed the snake had exited the aviary. Today however, some 8 days later, I know better. The breeding hen cut-throat is missing and the eggs are cold. There is one spot in the aviary I could’t look very well and that was a fern next to the raphis palm in which the Stars nested so I’ve now taken that out. While I found no snake I found the remains of a male Star that had been missing for the last few days.  My guess is that the Star nest will be lost and I still haven’t located the snake.

My next move will be to put a mouse in a cage in the aviary and hope that the snake will go into the mouse’s cage and eat the mouse and get trapped inside.  In almost every case the culpret has been a red-tailed rat-snake  as shown in the accompaning photo taken last year.  If anyone has better idea for trapping this animal I’ll be glad to hear as it is too an expensive a pest to entertain.

I’ll update this post as I discover more but if anyone knows a good way to trap a snake PLEASE tell me.  I think this weekend everything has to come out of the aviary and the whole cage remeshed.

Here is the up date:

March 18 – I found a dead cut-troat in the aviary – was it scared in the night by the reptile and few into something and died? The mouse is fine

March 19 – The hen Owl finch is missing presumed eaten.  The mouse is fine

Fostering is also used to save abandoned  babies or nests with excessive babies with too wider age spread.  The latter is quite common if birds start incubating before they have completed laying thier clutch.  It must also be stated that egg smugglers also typically use this method of introducing new species or bloodlines but new DNA based identification proceedures have made this a risky proposition in more developed countries. Of course you can hand-rear birds but that is an extremely time consuming and the mixes and impliments aren’t easy to come by in the Philippines.  If you want to read up on hand-rearing then a good place to start is the Queensland Environmental Protection Authority site but there are others if you search the web.

 

While I’m against interspecific fostering as a way of life in aviculture I have used intra-specific fostering to save chicks from poor parents.  Earlier this year I found it necessary to move cut-throat chicks between nests as I have one very productive pair and a new pair that, which after three consecutive nests, I know barely manages get their chicks through the first week before the hatchlings starve to death.  Luckily last time, both nested synchonously and each started off with 6 chicks, however because they started incubating after the third egg the developmental difference in their chicks ages doomed the youngest hatchlings from both nests from the outset.  Although I gradually transferred all the chicks to the good parents when it was apparent that the pair in my second aviary couldn’t cope they eventually fledged 4 young.  For the ”good pair” I’m pleased with the result as that equals the maximum they have ever raised but since this was one more than survived from the original hatching it’s a very good result.  For the “bad-pair” you might just see them at Cartimar after Christmas as I would rather breed from birds that can look after themselves.

Interspecic fostering

As you may have gathered from part 1 you can use star finches to foster gouldian’s however in my experience Gouldians are much better parents than stars.  The most common choice of foster parents for Estrillid finches however are either zebra or society finches and there are pluses and minuses for both species.  A big plus for both species is that they are prolific breeders and so their price is relatively cheap.  According to Zann (1996) the zebra finch is a much more attentive parent than the society finch, however they aren’t as easily induced to accept a eggs or young.  According to a study by Care (1982) the stronger interactions that young suggests that imprinting is likely to be stronger when using zebras. 

Society finches are basically a GMO, selected for breeding insticts so strong that that some birds, regardless of sex or previous conditioning will accept eggs or young. I had an interesting case of inter-familial fostering occurred in my aviary when I was a kid between a pair of female diamond doves and a young red-browed finch that I acquired (from the wild).  The young finch’s incessent begging to any birds willing to come close eventually paid off with the doves coughing up.  With the right birds any fostering combination appears possible.  According to the Finch Information Center (and thanks for the sociey photo), societies will also hyridise with other Lonchura species as will as genera (Amandina, Erythrura, Poephila, Uraeginthus) so they are best not kept in mixed collections.  

Societies, like any other foster species are best at their job when their reproduction is synchonised to that of the dononors and according to Garrie Landry you need 4 pairs of fosters for every donor pair in order to ensure synchronisation.  Another good site with specific fostering instructions is Kathy Landry’s (- I don’t know if these two Landry’s are related).  A very detailed account of how to foster Gouldians has been posed on Gouldian Finch Info if you want really detailed information for that species. 

So where does this leave my view on fostering?  I’m still against interspecific fostering but even nature conspires to create such things so I can’t afford to be too critical of those that practice it.  For those that have the time and inclination to manage banks of society finch cages this is certainly a way to increase productivity. Now that I’ve got foundation birds capable to raising their own young  I will endeavour to keep those lines alive and doing what they are supposed to do – sustaining themselves.

This year I purchased another pair of stars, waited for them to mature and in October they too started to make their own nest in a fern against the side of the aviary.  Not wanting to risk losing the nest in a storm I protected it by hanging a piece of perspex (plexi-glass) against the wire.  I then sat back and waited and noticed that at various times one or other of the pair was missing so I presumed they were incubating. I usually can’t help myself looking in nests but because of the way this nest was constructed I couldn’t see what was inside but I could listen and by mid-November I could hear chicks begging for food. I resisted the urge to take a closer look for ten days and then I noticed the parents leaving the nest, not from the front but a side entrance they had pushed through the wall. This gave me the opportunity look in and what a surprise it was as I looked into a familiar luminescent gape – my stars had been cuckolded by Gouldians!

A year waiting and I still hadn’t got it right or at least the birds hadn’t, or so I thought. I pulled all the chicks out and was rewarded by the sight of two young stars in addition to the Gouldian. As you can see from the photo the Gouldian was perhaps 2 days older than it’s nest mates and very greedy. I happened to have a nest of three Gouldian chicks which were a few days older than the star-fostered bird, as shown in the accompanying photo comparing two very differently reared Gouldian chicks. Hoping to increase the chance of fledging the stars but not wanting to lose the fostered Gouldian and I placed it with the other Gouldians. It sort of worked and I managed to fledge only a single star but the 4 gouldians were fine. After rearranging the babies, the star’s parents refused to re-enter the nest for 24h and the weaker of the chicks died. The parents even started looking at other nest sites until they eventually rediscoverd their baby.  One thing I did learn was never look in a star finch nest as they are just too ready to desert.

Cuckolding is a topic I haven’t read about before – usually aviculturists talk about interspecific pairing and hybrid chicks. Mixed collections are visually stunning but their management can be problematic. In my aviary I have another odd pair consisting of a male shaft-tail finch and a female zebra finch but they have only ever produced zebra babies so she really has cuckolded him. From an biological point of view the cuckoldry going on in aviaries does give some insight into the evolution of nest parasitism. There are many nest parasites from quite diverse bird groups (and as a father myself I can see the advantages – just kidding). The most famous of the parasites are the cuckoos (hence cuckoldry) but it is also common amongst the finches of Africa. Indigo birds and whydahs typically parasitise the nests of wax-bills and unlike cuckoos the young don’t deliberately kill their hosts young and mixed broods are common. Being able to discriminate between your own and other’s young has obvious advantages for the host and this is one of the reasons that the characteristic mouth-markings of chicks is thought to have evolved. The method isn’t fool-proof however and if I can tell the difference it amazes me that the birds can’t but it may not matter because imprinting on many fostered birds means that they have a reproductive preference for their host species. In the instance of my Gouldians and stars, I suspect interspecific progeny would be sterile but if such foster reared birds continued to prefer their own kind and also continued to parasitise the nests of other finches they should be able to increase their reproductive potential by continuing to lay without all the effort invested into rearing chicks.

Parasitism brings to the fore another topic; that of fostering – the deliberate introduction, by the keeper, of eggs or young to another birds nest.  This will be the topic of part two of this post.

For many birds song is a strong sexual attractant and is often it’s elaboration is inversely proportional to the plumage – in finch terms think about the song of the sparrow-like wild canary compared to that of the Gouldian.  Perhaps the most famous songster is the dull looking Nightingale.  Unlike most finches these birds sing at night, with the males competing with each other for females through song (read more at Science Live).  In finches too, song is likely to be a statement of territoriality but there are many vocalisations which serve to identify species and keep flocks together or as alarm calls or juveniles attracting attention while begging for food but it can serve to attract and bond a pair.

Charles Darwin, one of the first people to promote the theory of evolution, saw that bird song and even human music were probably subjected to and elaborated by strong sexual selection and that line of research continues today.  Research published by  Huang and Hessler in October 2008 shows that male zebra finches are not just mindlessly programmed to sing to attract their mate but are rewarded in the same manner as if they were on addictive drugs!  When people take drugs like cocaine it triggers the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in an area of the brain called the ventral tegmental region which increases our feeling of euphoria which we experience as happiness.  This same neural pathway is triggered when a male zebra finch sings to his mate, however as Hessler explained to New Scientist magazine we can’t know if it actually makes the bird happy but it’s a good bet that it does. 

As mentioned earlier birds have a range of vocalisation which are generally species specific, so how does a bird know what to sing?  Certainly some birds do learn song or modify song by reproducing the sounds of their own environment or even stealing them from other species.  There are many examples of mimics from many bird families around the world such as the hill mynah here in Asia, the Australian lyre bird, the north American mockingbird, the African gray parrot and the European hooded crow.  In birds with fairly fixed songs, some degree of modification is desirable since birds carrying the learning trait are able to modify their song to become even more attractive or to denote kinship which serves to make these lines more successful.  In aviculture this process can go awry.  Birds fostered to another species  often become imprinted with the song of their foster parents and this has the effect of decreasing their reproductive success because of the visual and auditory confusion this causes to both species.  Preference for the wrong species will often be accompanied by a decrease in fitness or sterility in of hybrid young.  For this reason it is important to remove interspecific fostered birds from their parents as soon as possible and leave them with their own kind.

In zebra finches again it has been discovered that they have a genetically programmed and hard-wired version of their own song in their brains which they compare to the sounds they produce and then alter the song to match the model song they carry (read more at BBC.1C ). This learning process even occurs when they are asleep (details BBC.2C). How the brain responds and learns in birds is very different to our own.  When learning news songs each spring canaries actually grow new brain cells (listen to or read the BBC.3C transcript) whereas in adult mammals brain cells do not grow although they do forge new connections via dendrite growth.   In zebra finches breeding is opportunistic and so they don’t experience the annual growth and decline of brain tissue that is seen in canaries but instead new neurons  continuously differentiate from the brains own stem cells and this is of course of great interest to doctors seeking to repair degenerative brain diseases in humans (read more at BBC.4).

Birds usually produce sound with a voice-box but the structure and location of the avian syrinx is different to that of the mammalian larynx (read more at Hear Birds).  Just producing song is a miracle in itself requiring the use of some of the fastest contracting muscles known to exist (see NBC story). A zebra finch’s syrinx (vice box) muscles are capable of contracting and relaxing in just 3-4 milliseconds or about 100 times faster than we can blink. 

If anyone wants to read more about bird-song then there’s a comprehensive atricle on Wikipedia that’s worth reading. For those that do have an appreciation of bird-song that goes beyond my utilitarian view then you may want to try listening to the collection on Tony Phillip’s site.

I was very privileged to visit Northern Australia during this past July. This beautiful and vast region, particularly the Kimberley of Western Australia is home to 11 species of finch commonly held in aviaries in Australia and overseas.  Here in the Philippines the most commonly held finches: zebras, Gouldians, owls, shaft-tailed, mask and stars all call this region home along with the crimson, painted firetail and three species of munias namely the chestnut breasted, yellow rumped and pictorella. Figure 1 shows a map of the Kimberley region from the Shire of Derby and since the insert includes the Philippines it illustrates just how vast this region is and reading the fine print shows how unpopulated it is – in spite of the army of retired Australians pulling their caravans (trailer homes) in gleaming 4WD vehicles (SUVs) which overrun the region during the during the dry season.

Figure 1. Location of the Kimberly region of Western Australia home to the worlds favorite finches. Map from Shire of Derby.

During July, 2008 my family joined the throng and went camping in what was until recently considered a remote and inaccessible region.  The beauty of the region is expressed in it landscape and the flora and fauna and I can not recommend the place highly enough. For finches the best place I’ve ever been to is around Wyndham which is located at 15.4872°S, 128.1247°E at 11m elevation AMSL (Figure 1).  Manila on the other hand is Latitude: 14.58, 120.98 and 16m AMSL.  A detailed map of the Kimberly can be found on the site of the West Coast 4X4 Club ’s site.

Landscape

Figure 2 (L). Looking down on a plain of spinifex (Triodia spp) hummocks from the rim of Wolfe Creek Crater. Figure 3 (R). Boab (Adisonia gregorii) trees amongst the spear grass along Parry Creek near Wyndham

The Kimberley landscape is hewn from some of the oldest sedimentary rocks the world. Brilliant red sandstone and grey limestone deposits have been worn away over millennia by the regions torrential rains to form beautiful gorges and permanent water holes. Bizarre formations like the domes of the Purnululu or Bungle Bungles ranges and the Wolfe Creek Meteorite Impact Crater (Figure 2) are worthy of World Heritage status.

The vegetation where the majority of the finches occur is tropical monsoonal savannah and arid grasslands.  There are other types of vegetation near the coast, along streams and sheltering in the spectacular rock chasms but these don’t really support finch population in the same way.  That said no finches are more than 1-2km from water as they must drink every day even those species found in the desert such as the zebra and painted firetail.  The quintessential Kimberley landscape is dotted with corpulent boab trees (Adansonia gregorii) above an understorey of spear grass (Heteropogon triticeus) (Figure 3).  On the drier hill-sides and in the arid interior, spiny mounds of spinifex grass (Triodia spp.) abound and softens the harsh land (Figure 2).  Both these grasses provide essential seed sources for many finches.

Climate

The most overwhelming thing is that the Kimberly is that it so dry and then you also realize the seasons are six months out of synchronization with the Philippines. A comparison of the average climate figure for Wyndham and Manila (tables 1a,b) show that Wyndham’s annual average rainfall is only half of that of Manila and while 1086 mm is not trivial, it is highly seasonal with no rain at all falling in August. In almost all months Wyndham’s evaporation far exceeds precipitation but is just about even in Manila, which certainly explains why my house here is so mouldy and why I read that finches are susceptible to aspergillosis or other fungal diseases in their respiratory systems.  Since Wyndham and Manila are within one absolute degree of latitude, day-lengths are similar but the intensity of light is much higher in Australia. The daily average in Manila is 19 MJ/m² and goes as low as 14.2 MJ/m² in November but in Wyndham the average is 22 MJ/m² but doesn’t often fall below18.7 MJ/m². In the Philippines heat stress can be problem nearly all year due to a combination of heat and high humidity – anything over 27^oC and 65% RH is considered to be uncomfortable for people. Birds are more efficient at losing heat due to their small size and efficient respiratory system but they are not immune to its effects and most birds will become inactive and seek shelter humidity over 80% RH or 36^oC.

Month	Manila
	RH @ 15:00 (%)	Temp (oC)		Rainfall (mm)	Monthly Evaporation (mm)	Daily Solar Radiation MJ/m2
		Low	High
Jan	63	14	35	23	102	17.5
Feb	63	14	35	23	103	18.4
Mar	59	16	36	13	141	20.5
Apr	55	16	37	18	156	23.8
May	55	17	38	33	169	22.1
Jun	61	20	38	130	159	21.9
Jul	68	22	38	254	157	15.6
Aug	74	21	36	432	151	18.1
Sep	73	21	35	422	141	18.0
Oct	73	21	35	356	138	19.2
Nov	71	19	35	193	114	14.2
Dec	69	17	34	145	106	15.2

Table 1a. Average climate statistics for Manila taken from the BBC and the estimate of the incident solar radiation from research published by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).Temperatures represent extreme values.

Month	Wyndham
	RH @ 15:00(%)	Temp (oC)		Rainfall (mm)	Monthly Evaporation (mm)	Daily Solar Radiation MJ/m2
		Low	High
Jan	49	20	45	135	234	22.7
Feb	53	21	44	096	201	22.1
Mar	47	19	44	252	200	23.0
Apr	34	17	42	074	226	22.0
May	29	11	39	048	223	20.1
Jun	26	09	37	023	200	18.7
Jul	24	09	38	049	224	19.8
Aug	24	10	40	000	264	22.4
Sep	27	14	42	078	309	24.2
Oct	31	18	45	085	333	25.6
Nov	36	19	46	093	314	25.5
Dec	42	19	45	155	321	23.2

Table 1b. Average climate statistics for Wyndham from Weatherzone and represents 40 years of data. Temperatures represent extreme values.

 What do I make of this? The Kimberly finches held in the Philippines should be housed completely undercover to keep them dry and the roofing material should be transparent to let in as much light as possible in the flight part of any aviary. If your birds are inside in cage or cabinet they may need supplementary vitamin D. Thermal stress can be relieved by providing birds with adequate shelter, water baths and in aviaries misting jets are recommended by the Northern Territory Avicultural Society.  Of course if you keep your birds indoors some keepers give their birds five star treatment outfitting their bird-rooms with computerised climate control systems.  In the wet tropics, humidity should be kept to a minimum by keeping plants away from aviaries and perhaps even paving around them and widening the roof eaves is a good idea.  Except in the relatively wet “dry season” here in the Philippines, dried brushwood in the shelter of my aviary becomes damp and mouldy so it is necessary to replace it 2-3 times a year.  The dirt floor on my aviary isn’t looking such a great idea now but it only rarely gets wet and I still like a few plants in the aviary for aesthetic reasons.

Surprisingly against most things I’ve read about the temperature preferences of tropical Australian finches, they must be adapted to temperatures at least down to 9^oC as this is what is encountered by them in the wild.   Having camped away from the coast, in prime Gouldian country, I can guarantee that they aren’t as temperature sensative as many northern hemisphere aviculturists think.

Finding Finches

Nowhere have seen so many species in a relatively small area as is found around Wyndham. A cheap place to stay and good place to find finches is the Parry Creek Farm where you are assured of seeing owls, masked and shaft-tails and at various times crimson, stars and the munias (yellow- rumped, chestnut breasted and pictorella).  If you’re into water-birds then the nearby Marlgu Billabong and the rest of the Parry Creek wetlands are spectacular but watch out for crocodiles if you go near any water in the Kimberley. Another good spot is the pond behind the Dreamtime statues in Wyndham’s Warriu park where you can might see all the Kimberly finches except for the painted firetail which is more at home in the arid interior.  I saw my painted firetails entering the Purnululu National Park  where you can view the spectacular Bungle Bungle ranges. Within Purnululu National Park I also saw owls, masked and shaft-tailed finches.

Owl Finches

Figure 4. Black rumped owl finch in the feed hopper at bird feeding station of Parry Creek Farm camp.  The chicken wire is to keep out the zebra (peaceful) doves that would otherwise take all the food

You are unlikely to miss the black-rumped owl (called double bars in Australia) finch anywhere in northern Australia.  These birds aren’t particularly common in Australian aviculture but they are common even in suburban Darwin.  In southern Australia, where both white-rumped race and myself hail from, these birds love nesting in prickly vegetation (Bursaria spinosa, Rosa spp, Rubis spp.) and often site their nest next to a paper-nest wasp colony for protection.  The young love congregating with their old nest mates after fledging each night which made them easy to catch at dusk but you had to be careful that their nest wasn’t guarded by wasps!  Their gregarious nature makes them more suited to colony breeding than kept as pairs.  These birds were the most common finch at the feeding station at Parry Creek Farm.

Zebra Finches

Zebras are the most widespread species in Australia and so I wasn’t surprised to find a pair visiting the waterhole in the Warriu park in Wyndham one evening.  At the end of the dry season they can form huge flocks so like the owl is seems a shame to keep them as separate pairs but their productivity is such that they aren’t alone for long.

Shaft-tailed Finches

Figure 5. Shaft tailed finch resting in the picnic hut at Parry Creek Farm camp. Notice that the bird here carries a band even though it is free.

These are another common finch up north where they typically are the yellow-billed form commonly called the long-tail in Australian aviculture. These birds were seen gathering white feathers and so were assumed to be nesting. I have often seen references to the importance of providing white down feathers for finches and it is true that they favor them in the wild.  In my aviary they gladly accept a vegetarian alternative (kapok or seed heads from Imperata or other grasses).  There is a recent article on keeping these finches in the 2008 Aug-Sept Issue of Australian Bird Keeper magazine.

Masked Finches

Figure 6 Masked finch drinking at the bird feeding station of the Parry Creek Farm camp.

Masked finches and their close relative the Shaft-tail are commonly seen in mixed flocks around the Kimberley.  A peculiar habit of this bird is that collects charcoal which it places in it’s nest to improve hygiene.  Every morning at the Parry Creek Farm camp I noticed masked finches foraging in the ashes of our camp-fire collecting charcoal.  Most commercial grits in Australia include charcoal as it also has medicinal properties (absorbing plant toxins) so I have always included it in my mix here not that I presently keep masks.  Given how quickly nests become fowled here in the Philippines due to the humidity encouraging birds to do this should be considered.  I’m amazed that the ammonia smell coming from a full nest of cut-throats doesn’t kill them.

Gouldian Finches

Figure 7. A male Gouldian shares a drink with some crested pigeons from the pond in Warriu park behind the Dreamtime statues in Wyndham.

When I was a child Gouldians inhabited the northern part of Australia in huge numbers and wild birds were legally harvested in their thousands. Today is a different matter and it appears on the UNCN Red List and I had to celebrate the fact that I saw a single male visiting the waterhole in the Warriu park in Wyndham one evening.  There I met another aviculturist from Maitland in the Hunter Valley (NSW) who told me that had I been there at midday I would have seen a flock of about 40.  This flock was composed of 12 adults and the remainder were juveniles.  Unfortunately now for wild Gouldians, individuals seldom survive their second year so the remaining flock are mainly uncoloured juveniles.  Another interesting point was that there were only 2 red-faced individuals amongst the adults.  Research by Dr Sarah Pryke and the Save the Gouldian Fund has shown the only stable flock composition is to have 10% red and 1% yellow-headed amongst the black-headed morphs.  This later information is not likely to affect cage breeders but those hoping to colony breed in aviaries need to be mindful of this number as the aggression of the red-headed morph will lower breeding success. If you want to read more try Dr Pryke’s papers from the Save The Gouldian Fund ’s record.    

There have been a number of studies into the diet of wild Gouldians in the NT since the late 1980s. From this work it is clear that Gouldians feed almost exclusively on spear grass seeds (also known as sorghum) in the dry season and then switch to a small number of wet season grasses once spear grass seed becomes unavailable early in the wet season. The favoured wet season grasses in the Yinberrie Hills are cockatoo grass (Alloteropsis semialata), golden beard grass (also known as ribbon grass: Chrysopogon fallax) and curly spinifex (Triodia bitextura). Gouldians rarely supplement this diet with insects – even in times when seed reserves are low. Their restricted diet makes them vulnerable to seed shortages through the wet season, and it may be that population fluctuations relate to the availability of seed in this critical period. You can read more about this from the Gouldian finch recovery team.

Painted Fire-Tail Finches

Figure 8 Painted firetail (Emblema picta) from Queensland taken from Birdway.

I saw small flocks (families?) of this birds in the rocky areas amongst the spinifex driving into Purnululu National Park. The painted fire-tailed finch is a relative of the diamond fire-tail but is much easier to keep and breed – so if anyone is importing then make life easier for the keepers here and ask for this bird. A peculiarity of this bird is that it often nests in the spiny spinifex close to the ground and where it constructs a platform of small stones, charcoal and sticks as a base for it’s nest. There is a good article about painted in the Jul-Aug 2008 issue of Australian Aviay Life magazine.

Crimson Finches

Figure 9. Black bellied race of the crimson finch and its young in the main street of Wyndham.

 The crimson or blood finch is seldom far from water but even so I was surprised to find it in the main street of Wyndham.  A relative of the peaceful star finch it has a totally different temperament in the aviary where it will commonly harass and kill other finches particularly those with any red in their plumage.  Crimsons also occur along the eastern n coast of far north Queensland and into New Guinea but those birds have white bellies.  Not many people keep these birds in Australia because of their aggressive habits but they may not be as bad as some keepers say (Issue#5, Just Finches and Softbills magazine).  Typically crimsons are seen in reedy swamps or in pandanus or the edges of sugarcane plantations.

Star Finches

I got only the briefest glimpse of stars as we drove from Parry Creek Farm on the old Kununurra road. I did see the birds kept by the Northern Territory Wildlife Park. Their birds were housed in large aviaries and utilized 1″ welded mesh cylinders as nesting structures filling them with fine grasses.  I haven’t tried this yet but I do encourage them to make their own nests but as yet I haven’t got them to raise young because generations of foster imprinting has robbed my stars of this most natural of behaviors.

Conclusion

Figure 10. A roadside flock of short-billed corellas along to the road to Wyndham near the Gibb River Rd (El Questro) turnoff.

Finches aren’t the only birds in the Kimberley so other keepers and bird watchers would enjoy it too. I saw various flocks of cockatoos (red-tailed black, yellow-tailed black, suphur-crested, corellas, galahs and cockateils) rainbow lorikeets, red-winged parrots, and budgies to name a few.  Observing the wild birds of the Kimberley gave me some valuble unsights into the birds I keep and I’d well recommend the trip for any finch aviculturist that can get there.   For those that can’t I hope that this article will encourage you to think about wher your birds come from and that it encourages everyone try to enrich the lives of your birds by giving you some knowledge of how to improve your birds environment and by encourageing natural behaviours.

It is a shame that here in the Philippines we can no longer see great flocks of native cockatoos like the corellas of the Kimberleys (Figure 10).  If you keep birds like this, it is imperative that you breed from them and not just collect trophy specimens and this will be my topic for my next Finchme story if the site remains up and the hopefully spammed viagra and porn posts will be removed.

I returned to find that despite the best efforts of my helpers, that my aviaries were looking dishevelled and in need of  a “spring clean”.  Day one (July 30) I had to remove one fat vine-snake from the main aviary – I captured it and it vomited up an almost fully fledged cut-throat.  Also missing are a pair of shaft-tailed finches, and a hen Gouldian.  This is the second snake that I know of, so I obviously have a hole.  I’m not surprised given the quality of the work done to construct this aviary.  In the Philippines gaps and holes should be less than 6mm in order to exclude all rodents and snakes and achieving that is not easy.

Checking the nests I found plenty of abandoned eggs (including the missing shaft-tails) and that two boxes are co-inhabited by black ants and cut-throats.  These birds must be particularly tolerant – much more so than me.  I’ve exterminated one lot but the other will have to wait until the young are gone – if they survive.  If they were the much smaller light brown fire ants the birds would be eaten by now

 I found that the cut brush branches of Callistemon viminalis that I line my aviaries with for shelter and nesting sites had lost their leaves now that the wet-season has started in earnest and need to be renewed.  This year will know to hang it upside down and dry it before I place it in the aviary as it droops if it’s put in fresh and allowed to dry in situ. 

 Another thing I noticed is I got quite itchy entering the aviary due to the build-up of dander.  Dander is a collection of dead skin and feathers which by itself isn’t too objectionable but it provides food for dust mites. Proteins (largely digestive enzymes) in their excreta are a powerful human allergen and it’s probably not too good for the birds either. In Australian we commonly use a residual pyrethroid (250g/kg Permethrin wettable Powder called Coopex by Bayer) to wash down the shelter areas of aviaries, nest boxes and breeding cabinets to reduce the incidence of ants, bedbugs, carpet beetles, clothes moths, cockroaches, fleas, spiders, silverfish, houseflies, mosquitoes, biting flies, hide beetles and seed harvesting ants.  I hope that it or something similar is available here.

 It is important to not let these jobs build up and if you have a number of cages this can be easily done by rotating cages/aviaries while you clean and refurbish.  I only have two aviaries and so I will have to compromise.  Hopefully the Java sparrows in the smaller aviary won’t kill my expensive finches while I do this work in my main aviary.  I know I theoretically condemn collecting but I couldn’t help purchasing the Javas to “complete my collection” and now I may pay the price but if I don’t my main aviary will become unsable.  So as you can see I have some major repair, cleaning and refurbishment ahead of me and hopefully I can enjoy another 12 months of Philippine bird keeping.

Figure 1.  Juvenile Gouldians entering their first adult moult. Photo from Birdcare.

Gouldians are not hard to breed but are none-the-less expensive birds to buy no matter where you live and the question has to be asked why?  Obviously their beautiful colour is only gained at maturity and interestingly this moult is said to be simultaneous for all cohorts so that juveniles (Figure 1) assume adult plumage at this time too regardless of when they fledged whereas in other Australian finches this occurs at around 6-10 weeks of age.  I have however seen juveniles in the Philippines go through the adult moult from May to September so the issue is more complex than some believe.

Unfortunately for both captive and wild Gouldians it appears that moulting is a very stressful event and keeping a bird for up almost a year only to lose it before sale helps keep the price up and adds to their mystique.  Something has gone wrong with Gouldian reproduction in the wild since the late 1970s with a dramatic decline numbers that is almost certainly due to human intervention.  It is likely that changes in the frequency of fires and foraging by introduced animals which has somehow affected the availability and quality of feed available to these birds (1,3) and this is the focus of the Save The Gouldian Fund’s research (4).

 Unlike other native finches of the northern Australian grasslands, Gouldian finches appear not to undergo a seasonal conditioning prior to moulting which coincides with the start of the wet season – before any of the perennial grasses, which they depend on, for food have produced seed (1).  According to Sarah Pryke (pers. comm.. 2008), a prominent researcher of wild Gouldians, the seasonal lack of seed is overcome by other finches by switching to an insect rich diet.  As occurs in the Philippines just before the start of the wet season, alate termites (the winged breeding caste) swam in the face of stormy weather.  Dr Pryke has noted that in mixed Gouldian and shaft-tail finch flocks the later species feasts on the fat and protein rich insects while the Gouldians remain disinterested.  As a consequence the populations of shaft-tails are presently increasing and the Gouldians declining in the wild. 

Figure 2.  Seasonal calendar for northern Australia.  Illustration and further reading from the Department of Environment (8).

Figure 3 Gouldian Management (After  Mike Fidler) superimposed on the natural cycle on the Kimberley Region.

The climate of the northern Australian topical savannah, illustrated in Figure 2 is counter-seasonal to the Philippines.  Mike Fidler has proposed that a management system based on the natural cycles occurring in the Kimberley, this is presented in Figure 3.  In the Philippines  my Gouldians molt in April-May whereas in their home territory this actually occurs in October-November.  In the wild, nesting can occur from February to October while they are in the hilly country and after the start of wet-season, they fly down to the low-land drainage areas to eat the seeds of perennial grasses.  The Eucalypt woodlands in the hills are also where they nest.  Historically these savannah woodlands have provided a plentiful supply of spear grass (a native sorghum) and the birds are able to drink at small rocky waterholes in the dry watercourses until the rains come.  The transition period from dry to wet seasons has, at least in the last ten years, proved is a lean time with little food and that coincides with theri annual moult so the birds become extremely stressed.  From about mid-December, once the wet season started, the Gouldians move from the hills into lowland drainages where they feed on the seeds of perennial grasses . 

Unfortunately no base-line data was collected before the Gouldian decline to prove that this the present seasonal decline in food and body condition was always the case.  Moulting is obviously is an extremely stressful time for the birds and as might be expected populations have ceased to breed but this occurs at a time when there is little seed and so, at least in modern times, many birds perish.  While this probably reduces completion prior to the plentiful months from February through to October when breeding occurs (3) it does seem unusual given the large flocks that used to occur right up until the 1970s.  Another unusual observation mentioned by Dr Pryke is that in the wild Gouldian’s seldom live beyond 2 years of age.  Just what combination of factors has tipped the Gouldian towards extinction in the wild is unknown but there are other co-occurring factors that further weaken the birds. Mites appear to prefer Gouldians over other wild birds (1, 6) but that may be because they are already weakened.

 Getting back to moulting, some authors recommend strong intervention with expensive propriety blends of vitamins and minerals (2) while others don’t even bother to mention that there is a problem (7).  Certainly my birds have just about recovered but in the wild I’m sure that they would not have survived.  In retrospect I can see that I probably shouldn’t allowed nesting from March to mid-May but I believe that the answer is more complex than that.  There was certainly no lean period in my aviary and maybe I could worm them more often but no other species suffered like the adult gouldians – not even their own young.  If anyone has some thoughts on this matter I’d really like to hear.  In the mantime I eagerly await the outcomes of research sponsored by the Save the Gouldian Fund and others.  Avicultural populations are the last stronghold of the Gouldian which has an estimated remaining wild population of only about 2500 (3, 4) birds and is still in decline.  The research facility funded by the Save the Gouldian Fund in NSW alone holds around 1500 captive bred individuals, so if anyone ever tells you that keeping and breeding birds is wrong you might try to educate them and dispel their ignorant anthropomorphic views.

 References

1 http://www.nt.gov.au/nreta/wildlife/programs/gouldian/theory.html

2 www.ladygouldianfinch.com

3 http://mygouldianaviary.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/gouldianrecovery.pdf

4 http://users.skynet.be/fa398872/ensave02.htm 

5 http://www.savethegouldian.org/plea.htm

6 http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/WR9960675.htm

7 http://www.efinch.com/species/gould.htm

8 http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/kakadu/nature-science/seasons.html 

I’ve just read an article about a research done regarding zebra finches and their songs. (You can find the article here.) It says that recorded artificial sounds made by a colony of zebra finches can affect the health and breeding capabilities of your own zebras. The research claims that:

zebra females become fertile earlier and produce a larger number of clutch

zebra males sing more

a zebra finch pair has a greater success rate in rearing a family

WHEN they are exposed to the recorded sounds of (other) zebra finch colonies. I have already noticed before that my zebra finch pair responds to recorded sounds. After playing a recorded audio/video of them on my laptop (like the ones I posted here 1 and 2), they started hopping and chirping louder. And to think that they are just hearing themselves, what more if they are actually listening to an entire colony?

I just hope I can find a recording of entire zebra aviaries in the Internet. Or better yet, I hope to see and record a live one myself. For those of you who are reading this, I need a little help here. Thanks.

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