Who's Who of Exotic Finches

I have been keeping birds for around three years now.  I started with a wacky pair of Gloster Canaries, the ones with the crest which my mum immediately christened Ringo due to his hairstyle.  I progressed to a little colony of finches, zebras and Bengalese and the bug caught hold.  I persuaded the family to part with a third of the back garden and a shed was purchased.  The flight was built on by myself and my dad, an accomplishment having never done anything remotely similar before!

Ringo, my first Gloster Canary

I keep a variety of birds, canaries, parakeets, finches, some British birds, doves, quail and a couple of rabbits have run of the floor of the flight, causing their own particular brand of chaos now and again.  I love all of the types of birds but, having recently had some bad luck with the parakeets, decided to start focusing more on the little exotic finches.

So research commenced and I quickly found there is an amazing variety of finches from all over the world available to enjoy.  Every colour and from every continent, they appear with their exotic names and very little else.  Hence my deciding to start compiling a who’s who of the finches, who can live with others or don’t play well and who can cross-breed with others.

I know a lot of people like hybrids or mules and each to their own.  Personally, I’m a ‘as nature designed’ breeder; owl finch to owl finch, zebra finch to zebra finch.  I do have three goldfinch-canary mules given to me kindly by a breeder who was giving up the hobby.  They are amazing singers and lovely birds to look at but it is heart-breaking to hear the cock singing to the hens come breeding season and watch her build her nest, only for there to be little or no chance of anything coming of it.  So therefore, my aim is to house together birds who won’t cross-breed with anyone other than their perfect other half.

Family Connections

Most of the ‘exotic’ finches we keep are from the family known as Estrildid finches.  There are a multitude of these little guys all divided neatly into smaller families by their Latin names.  Inside these smaller families are the higher chance of cross-breeding.

Normal Zebra Finch cock

Starting with the most common aviary finch, the Zebra Finch.  Adorable little Australian finch, full of character and able to produce a fantastic array of colours and variations with very little work needed.  Feed them, water them, give them nesting material and suitable sites (or not so suitable) and they will regularly produce broods of chicks.  They are a finch processing line, incubating for around two weeks and the young fledging around three weeks old.  They continue to be parent fed for a few weeks after this, though a sure sign of being nearly weaned is the noise.  The more independent they are, the more they shout at the parents for food and the less the parents feed them.  Now the Zebra is in the family Taeniopygia and the only other member of the family is the Owl or Bicheno Finch (Double Barred Finch).  These guys can cross breed so should be kept apart if you want to avoid this.

Family Resemblance

Pair of Hecks Grassfinch preening

In family Poephilia are three finches, two of which are pretty frequent aviary members and are similar enough in appearance to realise they are cousins.  The Long Tailed finch, also known as the Hecks Grassfinch or Shaft tailed finch, is the one with the scarlet red beak while the Black Throated or Parsons Finch has a black beak.  The third member, the Masked Grassfinch, has a different look about him but all three of these birds can cross with each other.

Similarly are the Cut-throat family, Amadina, consisting of the Cut-throat Finch with his unmistaken red throat slash and his cousin, the Red Headed Finch, whose name tells much about him.  These two birds are direct cousins and can hybridize.

Opposites Attract

Red headed Parrotfinches

Another very popular finch is the Gouldian Finch, who comes in a spectacular array of colour variations and a reputation for being a problematic breeder.  Many people foster these chicks to Bengalese or Society Finches but the problem with this is that these fostered birds will never learn to rear their own young, so sometimes perseverance can be the trick.  I have a young pair at the moment who have just made their first attempt at breeding.  Eggs were laid, and incubated through the day but at night they sat on their perches.  I am sticking with them though, as an experienced breeder recommended to do, in the hope that they will learn the full process with time.

Gouldians are in the same family as the Parrotfinches, so again cross-breeding can take place.  The main Parrotfinch species seemingly encountered in aviaries are the Red-Headed, Blue Faced and Tricolour or Forbes Parrotfinches.  Also colourful little birds, these guys are more reliable at the breeding side of things than their Gouldian cousins and do not have the requirement for maintaining temperature that Gouldians have often become associated with.

So…

This is just a glimpse at the potential cross-breeding issues with keeping Estrildid finches without touching on Mannikins/Munias, the wild cousins of Bengalese and Waxbills.  And if hybridisation is your aim, then this might act as a start.  Otherwise, this gives you a who’s who for living accommodations to enjoy these amazing birds.