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Thought I'd let you all know that one of my younger (1 1/2 years old) pairs of Gouldian Finches are sucessfully sitting on a clutch of 5 eggs. The parents are normal red head birds, no splits that I know of.

All five eggs are fertile and hatching should happen in 12-13 days if all goes well. This is their first clutch, and Gouldians are not known for always getting everything right the first time around. The parents will be feeding. I have handfeeding supplies, but that is only a last resort since it doesn't normally turn out well.

My camera unfortunately is DOA, so I will have to get hubby to use his. Too high tech for me! Photos will not start until 5-6 days old when I pull them to band. At that point, they will weigh all of 4-6 grams!

The daddy is the red head Gould in the background of my avitar.

awww congrats!

that's wonderful! out of curiosity, how big are their eggs?

Congratulations Christie (((x)))

Likewise, maybe you can get hubby to make a picture of their eggs with a quarter or a dime for size comparison. I'll be waiting on your pics of the new kids.

Sam

I have some old eggs that I saved that weren't fertile from another hen. How about we get a photo of those eggs with some old infertile tiel eggs, a chicken egg, and a few other things that will make it easy to tell size?? They are SO tiny, I just put the light in the box, I don't pick up the eggs unless I'm forced to. I'm afraid that I'll crush them. I even purchased a teenie mag light (pen size) for candling. Not as hot and small enough to bring into the box quickly.

Here are the promised photos. I took them with my cell phone, so sorry about the quality. I'll work on better ones later.

Again, these eggs are all infertile ones from years ago (except the chicken egg.)
The money denominations are quarter and nickel above and below, dime on the far right. (all USD)


A quick photo of the first two eggs laid. They are in a nest depression about 3 inches in diameter.


And finally, a gouldian egg with a dime and quarter.

Wow! Those are really some tiny eggs. Finches are considerably larger than a hummingbird. That said, I can only imagine what size hummingbird eggs would be. Probably need a microscope for ME to see them

Sam

LOL I've seen hummingbird eggs. They are the size of a pea!

wow, those would be some tiny babies!!

can't wait to see pics of yours when they hatch

Not a problem! I'll weigh and take photos starting when I band them. I don't handle them for the first 5-6 days because they are just so tiny.

I have some photos from the last clutch in 2006 on this part of my site: http://www.christiessite.com/babyfinches I'll keep the page updated with new photos if and when it is time. I hope all goes well!

All chicks have hatched as of today. First hatched yesterday.

Took one photo yesterday of #1 chick, it is up in the photos section of Chatter. Will put bands on the chicks Sunday. Will check daily from then on until the bands no longer slip around and off.

Second pair of Gouldians is starting to get interested in their box. With luck, we will get yellow chicks from that pair.

I can't wait to see pictures of the babies.

christie,

congratualation!!! i checked out the pic over in Chatter and it is adorable! i've never seen such a tiny baby!

Thank you!!! New photos today. All five are being fed!!!! Gouldians aren't great parents the first time around, so I was worried. Here are the five new additions. I've been using photoshop to lighten the photos. They are taken with my cell, so not the greatest quality. Sorry. My normal camera broke.

Christie, congratulations, really! I have Gouldian Finches too and know how very difficult it is for them to be good parents. I have never been lucky so far. Last time my gouldians abandoned the nest two days before the eggs were supposed to hatch. I left the eggs in the nest for a while after, but in the end had to take them out. At least two of them had small chicks nearly all formed. It was very sad...