Three New Additions! :-)

Above: Two Pin-Tailed Whydah finches. The male has a very long tail, and the female has gorgeous stripes. Aren't they lovely? :-)



Above: Pin-tailed Whydah finches again. They're difficult to breed, due to their parasitic nature (they lay their eggs in other birds' nests and have the other birds raise their young), plus the males can be very aggressive, so I doubt I'll even attempt to breed them. :-)



Above: Pacific Parrotlet given to us by a friend. He's a male, and is green with blue on his head and on his sides. He loves his swing, and to hang upside down from the top of the cage. Thanks again, Gene! :-)

Christmas Babies! :-)

Above: Frostie and Streak were sitting on 3 eggs, and 2 of them hatched yesterday, on Christmas. I'm not sure if the third egg is fertile or not, but we'll find out soon! :-)



Above: Sprinkles as of 12/26/11. He's almost completely molted into his adult colors, but is still a bit scraggly-looking. :-)



Above: Sprinkles again, showing his other side.

New Names! :-)

I've finally decided on names for the new youngsters and the new Petsmart birds.

Petsmart:
Male: Patches
Female: Flower
Female: Sugar

Get it? ... flower/flour and sugar ... they're both white in color! he he

Frostie and Streak's Five Youngsters:
Male: Dash
Male: Sonic
Female: Breeze
Female: Flutter
Female: Gale

All named because Streak is fast like the wind!

Whisper and Creamsicle's Youngster: Sprinkles

A Few New Pics

Above: Whisper and Creamsicle's baby. I was kind of hoping for a girl, but I'm seeing some hints of orange cheek patches. There are no indications of a male's black-striped breast bars or speckled flanks, though, and its beak is orange like a female's beak. A male's beak is more red. The baby is still getting its adult coloring, so it's too soon to tell for sure! Edited 12/18/11 to add: He's a boy! His brown flank feathers are starting to peep out, and I'm seeing a few black stripes on his chest. Quite a handsome little fella'! :-)



Above: Whisper and Creamsicle's baby again.



Above: Baby dove, settling in for bed, with Daddy dove in the background. :-) (Excuse the cage wires. I couldn't get any closer without startling them.)

Dove Fledgling!

The baby dove left the nest this morning. It's a cutie patootie! I'll get some new photos soon. :-)

Whisper's Baby Graduated! :-)

I'm pleased to announce that Whisper's baby has graduated to its own cage! :-) I don't know yet if it's male or female. I'm hoping it's female, because once it's old enough, it'll be a great match to the new male we got this weekend. In the meantime, the cage divider has been removed, and Whisper and Creamsicle are tickled pink to be back together. :-)

Now I just need to think of names for their baby, for Frostie and Streak's 5 babies, and for the 3 new zebras we bought this weekend. All are doing great! :-)

Three New Zebras!

We found these little jewels at Petsmart yesterday. It's rare to find anything but normal grays at a typical pet store, so we brought all 3 of them home. Aren't they lovely? :-) The two white ones are females, and the white/gray one is male. He's so unusual! I believe he's a normal gray that's heavily pied, but am going to ask some of my finch-keeper friends to be sure. :-)



Above: Rocketgirl! LOL! :-)



Above: Handsome new male!



Above: New male in flight. Wow!



Above: All three new birds together.

Baby Diamond Dove Being Fed

I got REALLY lucky this morning and was able to get a video of the mother diamond dove feeding her baby! :-)

Our Silly Cockatiel - A Video :-)

New Video of Finches :-)

A Couple of Pics! :-)

Here are Frostie and Streak's 5 youngsters. :-)



Above: The girls



Above: The boys

They're all molting into their adult colors, so they look a little scraggly. Once their molts are complete, they'll be sleek and smooth. All are doing fine on their own. A little skittish, but that's to be expected. :-)

Frostie and Streak's Babies Graduated To Their Own Cage! :-)

I moved Frostie and Streak's babies to their own cage this morning ... boys on one side of the divider; girls on the other. Then I moved Frostie and Streak to a new clean cage. Whew! That cage will need a serious scrubbing. It was pretty yucky after having 7 birds in it. Hard to believe the babies are old enough to be on their own now. I'm sure Mom and Dad will enjoy having some peace and quiet. :-)

I'll get some updated photos in a day or two, once everybody's settled back in from the "chaos" caused by the Big Bad Bird Net. ;-)

New Pictures! :-)

Above: Whisper and Creamsicle's beautiful baby, just fledged yesterday! :-) Looks like it'll be a pied fawn. (Won't be up for adoption; sorry.)



Above: Sylvester and Tweety, the two boys of Tangerine and Echo. Their adult coloring is coming in. :-)



Above: Frostie and Streak's family, 5 babies total. Couldn't get them all in the same photo. :-)



Above: Frostie and Streak's family again, minus one that didn't make it into the photo. :-)



Above: Dove youngster. I believe it's a male. :-)

Another Fledgling! :-)

Whisper and Creamsicle's baby fledged today! It is absolutely beautiful ... one of the prettiest babies we've had. I'll get a photo soon. :-)

Graduation Day! :-)

Whisper and Echo's two youngsters just graduated to their own cage. Both are definitely males, and I've named them Sylvester and Tweety. :-) The dove youngster also graduated to its own cage this morning.

Update on Frostie and Streak's Babies

All five of Frostie and Streak's babies have fledged now, and I've removed their nest box so they won't be as tempted to start a new family until mom and dad get a well-earned vacation! ;-) Here are several photos. :-) The dad is the one with the orange cheeks, and the mom is the white one. I'm estimating that the three larger chicks will be weaned in 2 to 3 weeks, and the two smaller chicks about 1-1/2 to 2 weeks after that, just to be sure. Once weaned, some of them will be up for adoption. It's too soon to tell their genders at this point. :-)

Tangerine and Echo's Babies, And The Baby Dove

Above: Tangerine and Echo's babies on the swing (that's where they like to sleep). One is definitely male! The other is most likely male, too, but I'm not 100% positive yet.



Above: Tangerine and Echo's babies again, with Echo (dad) on the far right. The babies' beaks are starting to change from black to orange. I'm estimating that they'll be fully weaned within 7 days. :-)



Above: Baby dove, now old enough to be adopted. I'm not 100% sure of its gender yet, but if I had to guess, I'd say male. :-)



Above: Baby dove again.

I'm unable to get a photo of Whisper and Creamsicle's babies at this time. They're in the pre-fledging stage, and I can't disturb their nest box without taking a big risk of frightening them into fledging too soon. These two are particularly skittish. (Startled babies sometimes hurl themselves out of the nest box in an out-of-control panic, potentially injuring themselves.) I'll get updated photos as soon as I can. They're both doing fine. :-) Edited 11/22/11 to add: Lost one of the babies due to premature fledging, as I feared. :-( Stormy (cockatiel) accidentally startled it, and it panicked, injuring itself on the cage bars. We tried our best, but there was nothing we could do to save it. Sigh. :-(

Canary Eggs

I candled the four canary eggs yesterday, and believe they're all infertile. There's one I'm not 100% positive about, so I've left them in the nest just in case, but in 10 days or so, I'll discard them so the hen won't keep wasting her time incubating them.

Whisper's two babies were banded yesterday ... one white and one turquoise. The larger chick was easy to band, but the smaller one was QUITE the little wiggleworm! While I was holding it, it was too busy begging for food to be still long enough for me to band it. LOL! I finally got it, though. Both chicks both have their eyes open now; one fully open and one just barely peeking. :-) The larger one looks like it'll be cream/fawn in color. Not sure about the little one yet, but I see some white pinfeathers starting to poke out.

Frostie and Streak's babies and Tangerine and Echo's babies should be up for adoption around the end of this month (give or take) or the beginning of December ... whenever they're fully weaned. There are 7 of them, total. The baby dove is almost weaned now. It'll be up for adoption soon as well. If you're interested in bringing one or more of these sweet and fascinating babies home with you, just let me know. :-)

Baby Pics! :-)

Above: Frostie and Streak and two of their five babies. :-) Left to right is a baby, Streak (dad), Frostie (mom), and a baby.



Above: Frostie and Streak's baby #3. The other two haven't fledged yet, but will very soon. :-)



Above: Tangerine and Echo's youngsters. Left to right is a baby, Echo (dad), a baby, and Tangerine (mom).



Above: Whisper's babies. :-)

Fledgling! :-)

One of Frostie and Streak's babies fledged today! It's normal gray pied with a white polka dot right in the middle of its forehead. Too cute! :-) I'll get a photo as soon as I can. It's very skittish right now.

Smudge and Onyx

Well, phooey. Smudge and Onyx stopped feeding the babies, and when I found them, all but one had passed away. :-( This is fairly common for first-time parents, so it's not unexpected, but usually by the second time they've got things figured out. I was able to hand-feed the surviving baby once, but then it started refusing food from me. Once they've got their eyes open, they realize it's not another bird who's feeding them, and sometimes they won't accept food from a "stranger".

I've moved the surviving baby to Whisper's nest. Whisper has two babies of her own. They're a little younger/smaller, but it's the only other nest that's available with similar-sized babies. She had two dud eggs in the nest, so I removed one of them. She most likely thinks it hatched. She practically had a smile on her face when she saw "her" new child! :-) Although this is Whisper's first time being a foster parent, she took the baby right in and filled its little crop full. Yay! :-) The only small concern I still have is that the baby is a different color at this point than Whisper's biological children. It's still possible that she might reject it because it's different ... which is sad on several levels ... but so far, so good. :-) Edited 11/6/11 to add: It passed away. Apparently she stopped feeding it, or perhaps it began refusing food from her as well. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. :-(

The yellow canaries are still on eggs. I haven't candled them, but if they're viable, they should start hatching very soon.

Frostie and Streak's 5 babies are all doing well. So far they've done a great job in making sure even the littlest ones get fed. I wish I could've put Smudge and Onxy's abandoned baby in with them since Frostie is a wonderful foster mom, but I was afraid 6 babies would be too many, especially since the little survivor is smaller than the other nestlings.

I candled Shelly and Sunset's eggs yesterday. One is a definite dud, and the others either haven't been incubated long enough, or are infertile. Most likely they haven't been incubated long enough, based on the small size of the eggs' air pockets. (The older an egg is, the larger the air pocket gets as the egg gradually dries up.)

Never a dull moment, huh? :-)

New Baby Pics! :-)

Above: Whisper's babies. Another one finally hatched! :-)



Above: Smudge and Onyx's babies.



Above: Frostie and Streak's babies ... all 5 of them!



Above: Canary eggs.



Above: Baby dove, perching all by him/herself. :-)

Fledlings! :-)

One of Tangerine and Echo's babies fledged today. Cute l'il booger! :-) The other should be out of the nest literally "any minute" now.

Frostie and Streak's five babies are doing well, and so are Smudge and Onyx's three babies. The baby dove is growing like a weed, and the parents have started weaning him/her.

We went to move the two cages of canaries to the bird room earlier, since some space has opened up, but when we went to move the cage with the yellow canaries, I was surprised to find that they're on eggs! I knew she'd been sitting on the nest a lot, but when I'd looked before, I didn't see any eggs. The reason they were "invisible" is that they're virtually the same color as the nesting materials, and even have little speckles on them, so they blended right in! I saw four eggs for sure. Wish I knew how long ago she laid them. Hopefully we'll have some baby canaries soon. If so, this will be the first time we've had canary babies. :-)

Baby Pics :-)

Whisper and Creamsicle's baby. Still waiting on the other eggs to hatch. :-)



Tangerine and Echo's two babies, almost fully feathered now. They should fledge in 7-10 days or so. :-)



Smudge and Onyx's babies. Sadly, the baby in the bottom/center of the photo didn't make it, but it's not unexpected, especially since the parents are first-timers. It may have had something wrong, or perhaps it was accidentally overlooked at mealtime. I didn't notice before I snapped the photo. I've left it in the nest for the time being. I feel like it's better for the parents to remove any non-survivers themselves if they will, rather than do it myself. That way they (possibly?) understand what happened to the baby, instead of it mysteriously disappearing and (possibly?) causing them to think a predator is nearby. If they haven't removed it in a few hours, I'll take care of it. The others are doing fine, and are begging loudly enough to hear now. :-) (Edited to add: The parents removed the non-surviving baby from the nest. It's abdomen was misshapen, so it apparently had something wrong with it. :-( )



Frostie and Streak's babies. There are 5 of them. :-)



The baby dove, which fledged yesterday. :-)

Update On The Babies

Tangerine and Echo's two youngsters have their eyes open and are almost fully feathered. :-)

I was able to get a better count of Smudge and Onyx's babies. There are four of them. All are doing well.

Frostie and Streak have either four or five babies ... it's hard to get an exact count with them all snuggled together, and I don't want to disturb them too much. :-)

The baby dove fledged today! It's a cute little thing! :-)

Whisper and Creamsicle have a new hatchling, with more expected. I had to put the divider in their cage. Creamsicle went into "mating overdrive" and started plucking her, wanting her feathers to line the already-soft nest. Whisper is taking good care of the hatchling and the eggs by herself, and her feathers have started re-growing. :-)

Shelly and Sunset are on eggs. I'm anxious to see if the eggs are good. This will be Sunset's first clutch. He's fawn-cheek, black-breasted.

I'll have to remember to take my camera with me in the morning, so I can get some updated photos. :-D

Lots of Young-Uns! :-)

Above: Tangerine and Echo's babies. They're growing fast! :-) Looks like they'll be normal gray pied, best as I can tell so far. The other two eggs were duds.



Above: Smudge and Onyx's babies (BC-CFW). They're about 4-5 days old. I can't tell if there are three or four of them. Not sure yet if the other eggs are good. This is their first clutch, so I'm holding my breath that they'll make good first-time parents. :-)



Hootie and Mrs. Hootie's single hatchling ... well, it's head, anyway (see arrow). Mrs. Hootie is GLUED to that nest. :-)



Frostie and Streak's babies, hatched 2-3 days ago. All but one of the eggs were good last time I candled them, so there should hopefully be more hatchlings very soon. :-) The dud egg is in the bottom center ... the one that's half-yellowish with the big air pocket.

Tangerine and Echo Have Babies! :-)

Since I've rehomed all of my extra zebra finches (the youngsters), and am having multiple requests for more (thanks!), I've set a few of my well-rested pairs up to breed again. I'm pleased to announce that Tangerine and Echo have a couple of hatchlings! They're about 2 days old. I don't yet know if the remaining two eggs are good.



A couple of other pairs are on viable eggs, but as the saying goes: "Don't count your chicks before they hatch". We'll see how it goes. :-)

Do note that if any of these turn out to be white, fawn, BC, or CFW, I'll most likely be keeping them, but if they're normal or pied, I'll rehome them. (Not that there's anything wrong with normal or pied; it's just not the color combinations I aim for when breeding them.) :-)

A New Page! :-)

I've added a brand new page titled "Meet My Birds", where you can see photos and descriptions of all the birds I have. :-) Check it out! The link is over on the right, near the top of the page.

Societies & Spice Finches

Just a quick photo of the some of my society & spice finches. :-)

Some New Pics :-)

Above: Whisper and Ghost's babies, Bagel and Biscuit. Both are males. Biscuit has the black band, and Bagel has the orange band. Whisper (mom) has the yellow band.



Above: Frostie's biological babies, Jelly Bean and Peanut. Muffin (Whisper and Ghost's baby that Frostie fostered) has the pink band. Jelly Bean has a purple band, and Peanut has a green band. All are weaned and will be up for adoption shortly (I'll be keeping any black-cheeks, if that's how they turn out).



Above: Frostie (white) and her babies, Jelly Bean and Peanut. Muffin (Whisper and Ghost's baby that Frostie fostered) has the pink band. Jelly Bean has a purple band, and Peanut has a green band. All are weaned and will be up for adoption shortly (I'll be keeping any black-cheeks, if that's how they turn out).



Above: Smoky, Tangerine and Echo's baby. He's fully weaned now and is up for adoption. :-) Unfortunately their single hatchling from a few weeks ago didn't make it. She fed it, but it just didn't seem to thrive.



Above: Bambi's eyes are looking MUCH better! :-)



Above: Baby dove, pretty much weaned at this point. :-) It'll be up for adoption in about 2 weeks. Momma and daddy dove are on eggs again. I see a cage divider happening after this clutch! :-/