My mother has a pair of Gouldian Finches she's wanted to breed, and we've finally had success! They laid a clutch of 5 in January, none of which hatched--I think all of them were infertile, comparing to other breeders' photos of eggs.

They laid another clutch of 5 in March, and the first hatched April 1st and the second the day after. The other 3 eggs appear to be infertile, or at least have no development. We've been following nutrition guides pretty religiously, so I hope the infertility is just a sign of young parents who haven't quite mastered doing the dirty yet, and not genetic incompatibility or something.

Gouldians have a reputation for being lousy parents, but both parents are sitting tightly and the chicks are obviously being fed well--10 days after hatching, their heads are now as big as the eggs they hatched out off!




They're in a hanging wicker nest, so it's pretty hard to see in (I had hoped they'd choose the box nest with handy door on the top, but no such luck). Mama bird's there looking grumpy, and both chicks are begging. You can see the iridescent little nodules near the corner of their mouth; those are to guide the parent when feeding the chick, but do make the babies look like little alien monsters.

We have bands and were supposed to band them when they were 8 days old, but I have no idea how we were supposed to get the chicks out to band them. Every guide says "Check on the chicks once or twice a day, but under no circumstances disturb the nest!"

Congratulations on the babies! OMG they have the weirdest looking mouth markings that I've ever seen, that is just bizarre.

Does mama bird ever leave the nest? I did some googling and found some info on how to band the babies, but not on how to get them out of the nest without causing a disturbance.

The smallest bird I've ever seen in the real world was a two day old gouldian finch. It was the size of a honeybee.

Until 2 days ago, both parents were in the nest almost constantly. I don't know if it's typical for Gouldians, but both parents were in the nest for the entire incubation period and until the chicks were a week old (Dad went in and out for food but stayed in otherwise). Dad's now hanging out around the entrance; I guess there's not enough space with the bigger chicks or something. I've only caught Mama bird out once, and Dad flew in the nest immediately when I got close. They're being very good parents . Good because the chances of us successfully handraising newborn finches is around 0%, bad because it makes it difficult for us to monitor the nest and make sure everything's going well!

We'd had them for a year and despite the pair being very close, they weren't nesting. We initially offered them a nest box, the kind with a door on top that attaches to the outside of the cage. They apparently didn't like that, because they took to the wicker nest immediately when we put it in. I still really wish they'd chosen the nest box though--much easier to monitor!

Their eggs and newly hatched chicks are sooooooo tiny. I mean, I knew a little bird would lay little eggs but it still seemed incredible how small they were. They grow wickedly fast too.

Congratulations!!!

I have a question: what happens to the iridescent nodules when the chicks grow older? Do they fall off?

Apparently they just kind of shrivel up around the time the babies fledge.

That is so bizarre. I like that they are born with their own accessories. Gouldian finches are my favorite finch, especially the cocks.

The president of my local bird club has a handfed gouldian finch named Mikey who is tame, adorable, and gorgeous!

A handtamed finch? Impressive! The woman who organizes the local bird club hand-feeds all her chicks, and she raises society finches. There's no way she's making any money with all the work she does, but it is cute seeing four little finches perched on someone's finger.

I'd researched handling the babies once they fledged, and maybe possibly attempting to co-parent, but from what I can tell it's hard to keep finches tame unless they're a single bird and they've been handfed.

I don't know much about finches, and Mikey is the only tame finch I've ever seen. But he gets lots of playtime - there's a child in the house plus a couple of adults.

What pretty babies.