Bird Profile: Diamond Firetail

The Diamond Firetail (Stagonopleura guttata) is a member of a family of three species of firetails and is the most commonly found in aviculture.  It is a native of Australia that is found from the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia to southeast Queensland.  It lives in eucalyptus forests as well as mallee country, farmland and grassland.

Source: Wikipedia

In the wild, the Diamond Firetail is currently rated as Near Threatened.  This is due to loss of habitat caused by the alteration of the landscape due to over grazing by livestock as well as in the invasion of weeds.  This also causes a loss of food sources and means there are more predators around to attack the little finches.

Description

Diamonds can’t really be sexed by the eye, only by the song, as the males are the singers.  These are startling looking little birds with a bright red beak and eyes as well as a large splash of red feathers on the rump.  There is a black band under the throat that connects up with the tops of both wings and a white spotted black band on either side of the chest parallel to the wings.  The wings and back are grey with the top of the head being a slate grey and the tail feathers are black.

There are also some really attractive mutations easily available in these birds.  The most common are the Isabel, fawn or brown and pastel.  In the brown bird, all the grey areas are brown and all the black areas are dark brown while on the Isabel bird, these shadings are lighter again.  The pastel is the lightest with all the grey areas being creamy and the black areas a light silvery grey.  However all mutations still have the startling red beak and rump.  There is also an orange beaked mutation that changes the red to orange but other colours remain as normal.

Pastel pair

The call of the diamond firetail can best be described as weird.  If they had been named in more recent times I would say their name comes from their imitation of a fire alarm but since this isn’t the case, it’s a real coincidence.  The hens have little to say but the cocks will sing to her as well as bouncing up and down on the branch while holding a piece of nesting material as a mating ritual.

In the Aviary

Diamonds have the reputation of being a bit troublesome to house with other birds around breeding season because they fiercely defend their nest.  However, in my opinion, this depends on how they have been bred.  If they haven’t come into contact with other birds, then this is their natural reaction but if they have been raised in a mixed environment, this may be less so. 

Firetail being sociable

Also, it depends on the personality of the individual birds – I have two pairs at the moment.  The pastel pair are quite laid back and have lived in the mixed flight with no problems, apart from occasionally chasing others from the doorstep of their nest.  The older pair in the breeding cage are a little edgier and I am not sure if I would trust them in with smaller finches.

Some of these birds manage better as a single pair while others prefer the safety of a colony.  I am currently trying my two pairs in a breeder together as neither are producing to see if they might like to swap mates or simply feel safer as a four than a two.

Keeping Diamonds

Apart from temperament, Diamond Firetails are very much a normal Australian finch.  They will be happy with a good quality foreign finch mix, will often take treat seeds such as hemp, Niger, sunflower and paddy rice.  They don’t seem to be big egg food eaters but it is best to offer any bird and the same with grit or bird sand. 

I have recently been offering my finches in the flight mini mealworms for the protein benefit and also because some of the species use this as a breeding trigger.  I have noticed that the Diamonds will take up the offer of live food as keenly as species more renowned for their live food diet, though whether this is simply copying behaviour or not is uncertain.

Two other typical finch behaviours are exhibited by Diamond Firetails: they love to bathe and they sleep in a nest even when not breeding.  So fresh water and a roosting spot should always be provided to them.

Breeding

As mentioned, around breeding season some pairs can become aggressive, especially in defence of their nest.  A fellow birds keeper once witnessed a firetail cock knock and cockatiel out of the air and leave it stunned on the ground because it had come to close to their nest.  Yet the same bird never bothered any of the other finches in the enclosure.  Clearly, they were a threat but the cockatiel was.

If you buy an established breeding pair, then skip the next part.  These birds like to pick their mates so if you are buying young birds, pick at least two of each sex then they can make their own pairings.  It is for this reason I have put my four in together, in case they are not breeding pairs as I was told and to see if they want to swap mates.

Once a pair are established, they will use a half-open nesting box or occasionally build a freestanding nest if a suitable space is available.  They can be quite the architect in this case, building a large nest complete with a tunnel entrance.  Both the birds take part in the incubation of the 4-7 eggs that are laid and they hatch at around 12-14 days. 

While feeding their young, they will often appreciate live food being offered, but this can depend on their own upbringing.  The young fledge at 3-4 weeks and are fed by the male outside the nest for a week or so longer.  By 5-6 weeks old, they are weaned and have their full adult plumage at around 12 weeks of age.  A good breeding pair can produce several clutches per season.

Bird Profile: Star Finch

The Star finch (Neochmia ruficauda) is one of the Estrildid species of finch that is found across the dry grassland and savannah in Australia.  It is sometimes known as the Red-faced Finch but mostly as the Star Finch in aviculture.

In the wild, these little finches are Near Threatened due to loss of habitat.  This is because of the removal of the grassland they need to survive, overgrazing by castle and their food and water sources disappearing.  Burning of grasslands during the dry season is another major problem as this reduces the amount of seeds that can germinate in the wet season and leaves the birds with less supply food.  However, despite their struggle in the wild, they are relatively common in captivity, a fact that may prove crucial if their decline continues.

Eye catchers

Male bird (left) and two females

In my opinion, Star Finches in all their mutations are real eye catchers.  The wild form is a bright red face and beak, green breast with white spots, green across the back and wings and a yellow belly.  The top of the tail features light red feathers then green along the length.  This means that they stand out even in a well-planted aviary.

Since being bred in captivity, the Star Finch has also developed some beautiful mutations to the original wild colour.  One of the most common of these is the Yellow mutation.  This is where the red face is replaced by dark yellow and the tale is golden yellow while the back is an olive green with an almost golden tint.  It is a recessive inheritance (see Finch Genetics) but still seems to come out strongly amongst mixed nests.

Other mutations include the Fawn and Cinnamon, which are similar enough to cause confusion.  In both cases, the body colour become lighter while the head colour retains its brightness.  The cinnamon variation tends to have a yellowish hue to the back and wing feathers and the upper tail colour is a distinctive pink, rather than normal red.

With all mutations of the birds, they can generally be sexed visually as the male’s face colour will stretch further back than that of the hen – see above picture where the bird on the left is the cock bird and the other two are hens.

Breeding Star Finches

Star Finches have a reputation as being difficult to breed but a lot of this comes from what they have been raised with themselves.  As a general rule, they don’t tolerate nest inspections and will abandon the nest or even chicks if they are interfered with.  However, this isn’t an absolute as I know a breeder who checks the nests at least daily or whenever else he feels like it and produces any amount of young successfully.  It is worth noting though, he always has Bengalese finches running the same breeding schedule as the Stars just in case.

Enthusiastic male's nesting building efforts

For the actually breeding process, Star Finches are relatively average finches.  The male will build a nest, which can be quite elaborate and use a lot of material to what is actually needed and then will display to the hen with a piece of nesting material.  This involved singing and bouncing up and down on a perch in front of her, his head lowered a bit, offering her the nesting material.  The pair will then finish building the nest together and both birds take turns in incubating the eggs.

The normal clutch is 4-5 eggs that are incubated for 12-13 days.  When the young hatch both parents will feed them and they fledge at around three weeks of age.  They will be parent fed for another two or three weeks but it can take around six months to get their full adult plumage – before that they are a dull beige and white colour and are almost unrecognisable as a Star Finch!

Most experienced breeders recommend waiting to breed the birds until they are around twelve months old, as by this time they are mentally more able to deal with the breeding process and are less likely to abandon the nest.

Options for keeping Stars

Again, this depends a lot on how they have been bred so if they are used to living in a breeding cage, then this won’t be an issue for them.  But if they have been raised in an aviary flight, they may find it frightening to be constricted into a cage.  I have six Stars in my flight with a host of other finches, canaries, British birds and a few parakeets without any problem.  They are proving slow to go to nest but this is due to having not had them together for that long. 

These little birds mix well with others so could be kept in a good-sized indoor aviary cage if you wanted them in the house.  They can be a little susceptible to cold temperatures, due to the delicate feathering, so if living outside, protection is advisable.

Star Finches are generally busy little birds who often hang around in a little group along with Cherry Finches who they are closely related to (watch out for the chance of cross breeding!).  Their song is a typical finch song, vaguely mechanical but very pleasant and the males are enthusiastic little singers.  They will often have singing competitions with each other but there is no aggression involved.

Feeding Star Finches is simple enough – a good Foreign Finch mix will do the job and they enjoy a host of other seeds occasionally.  I have given them sunflower hearts, hemp, paddy rice, Niger seed, blue maw and linseed as treat seeds, all of which have been taken, along with egg food and bird grit.  I have recently been providing mini mealworms for some of the more insectivores finches but have noticed the Stars will have a few as well.

Difficulty level

If you are keeping them for the pleasure and are happy if they breed but not worried if they don’t, they are relatively easy to keep.  If you are planning to breed, a little more care and caution is involved, making them more difficult.  However, their overall personality means that they are uncomplicated to keep with others and feeding them is easy.