Finches

This is a picture of some of our Zebra Finches. I don't remember when we started getting them, but at the heighth of our finch population, we had about 24 (they were hard to count, since they move so fast). I really loved those little guys. They were quiet, pretty, and didn't depend on humans for company. But, on one tragic day, I glanced at their cages they were in, and they were all dead. They had food, water, they were in two separate cages, they were all different ages (some, even chicks!), and somehow they had all died within a few hours between the time my dad went to work and I came home from school. I was devastated. I miss them.

I remember a few in particular. One is Woodstock, on who is on my Homepage. The other two are somewhere in this picture. They were Snowball and Sylvester II. Sylvester was an excellent father and nestmaker. He was probably the father and grandfather of most of the finches that I ever had.

Have you ever seen a finch make a nest out of dried grass and paper? It is an amazing sight; Sylvester II was a pro. He made a nest starting with just a half-sphere. He would weave each individual piece, and he had an end product that was similar to, but smoother than the one in the picture! It even had a perfect sideways "D"-shaped door.