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| introduction
Being small, clean and relatively quiet, zebra finches are popular pets. These little, colourful birds have beautiful black and white markings with a distinct red/orange beak and bright orange cheeks (see gallery). Zebra finches - Taeniopygia guttata - are small (10g) songbirds native to the
semi-arid regions of Australia
and Timor where they form huge flocks.
Australia has had a closed door policy for several decades prohibiting the exportation of
animals. Therefore most species of zebra finches found
outside of the country were not born there. Due to this export ban and
the general ease of breeding, any zebra finch you buy
will have been bred and raised locally. Zebra finches can be considered as domesticated.
They are highly social birds, nesting
colonially in groups of 20 to 1 000, and are opportunistic breeders, beginning
their reproductive cycles when rain falls. They are a common cage bird
throughout the world, probably because they breed so readily and frequently;
young birds reach sexual maturity 90 days after hatching. Zebra finches are social
birds and should ideally be kept in pairs to give each other companionship
and to ensure contentment. Another major attraction of the zebra finch is the soft chirping sound it
makes ('hooping'). Some find the sound to be pleasant and soothing, in stark contrast to many other varieties of loud squawking birds. The male is
the more vocal of the
sexes 'singing' to his prospective mates (a short 10-second song that sounds
like a 'bugle charge'). When cock zebras are very young, they learn their song either from their father (whichever one they were raised by, biological or not), the dominant zebra nearby, or even people. In other words, zebras raised by
Bengalese finches tend to adopt the Bengalese song, zebras raised by zebras tend to pick up the song of the dominant cock bird, and zebras raised by people from hatching tend to attempt mimicking human speech in some
instances! Cocks have a
chestnut cheek patch, a chestnut stripe with white spots along the flank, and fine black and
white striping on the neck above a broad black band across the chest. Females
and immature birds have none of these markings; their beaks are orange while the males'
are red. As noted, zebra finches are extremely social birds; however,
they're only social with other
birds. Kept in small groups, great pleasure can be gained from from watching them preen
and feed each
other. However, the birds are timid so one shouldn't expect them to voluntarily sit on
your hand or for you to be able to stroke them. They should also be kept in pairs to ensure
continued contentment. A pair of zebra finches will often stay in close physical contact
at rest or while grooming or preening one another. In the wild, zebras live in groups
all the year round. They are nest-sleepers and will greatly appreciate roosting in a nest if
provided with one. However, if you do not want them to breed, then do not give them a nest; instead, provide a perch located up high in one of the far corners of their flight, surrounded by either live or silk plants for cover.
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