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.) :-)