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.