The Care and Breeding
of the
Painted Finch (Emblema picta)
I first acquired four unrelated pair of painted finches in November of 1997. They arrived healthy and their acclimation was uneventful during their quarantine period. During this time, they were happy, playful and enjoyed the company of a small flock, but obvious pair bonds were forming. After quarantine two pair were each housed alone in their own 2 feet x 2 feet x 2 feet cage. The other two pair were each given a 3 feet x 2 feet x 2 feet cage to share with a already established and long time resident blue-capped cordon blue pair. This was done because of limited cage space, bird room construction and similar disposition.Each pair was offered numerous nesting options; a half-opened box, a large covered wicker basket and artificial Christmas tree branches to construct their own. At this point, it became obvious that the painted finch lacked the grace of most other specie in their nest building capability. After a week of defeat, a pair took over an untouched cordon blue nest. Within a few days, the second pair followed. The third pair although still hard at work were not very successful at building and looked extremely frustrated. I took a unused, clean blue-capped free-standing nest out of one cage and placed it in their cage. They added some finishing touches and jumped in! I did the same for the fourth and final pair.Within the next three weeks, I was thanked for the nest assistance with 3 to 4 eggs from every pair! Both the male and female carried out incubation and hatching was usually on the 14th day. The first time around brought 11 eggs with 8 hatching. Unfortunately, not one pair fed. I knew these birds were young and hoped they would eventually kick in. Fostering failed. After several deaths, I made the decision to intervene and hand-fed the six surviving nestlings. I wanted to be sure that if something went wrong with the original pairs, I had enough diversified blood to keep going.For those of you are used to fostering, every attempt failed. The newly hatched painted finch looks exactly like a society in every way. It was so identical and I couldn't understand why not one of my societies would feed. Upon closer inspection, I realized that although indistinguishable there was one enormous difference. Painted finches do not move or beg in the normal manner. The only thing that moves when begging is their tongue! The head and body remain perfectly still and without any begging sounds for approximately a week or more. Mouth was wide open but only the tongue moved. I deserted any effort of fostering after several futile attempts.The first 8 hatchlings were handfed using Kaytee Exact handfeeding formula and small pipettes at 2-hour intervals throughout the day. Overnight they were allowed 6-7 hours without food. They grew and feathered without incidence. Fledging was another story. I fully understand why Painted Finches are endangered in the wild for they are very enthusiastic with not much forethought or control in their flying abilities. In all honesty, the have to be the most dull-witted birds I have bred as of now in the flying department. They will fly head on into walls, walk off countertops and just about any other spastic antic that would really make you question their ability to survive in the wild.The second breeding attempt happened almost immediately for all four pairs went right back to nest with each pair laying 3-4 eggs. This attempt produced 12 hatchlings with 2 of the pairs feeding their own. I could have taken the hatchlings from the other pairs and put them into the feeding painted nests but I chose not to in order to keep the bloodlines pure. I once again attempted to foster and failed. In the end, I had 5-parent fed and 7 handfed. I felt better about this and figured it would only take another clutch or two until I had them all parent raising. As of now 3 out of 4 pairs consistently feed but the fourth is still hit or miss sometimes they will and sometimes they won't.In the years of 1997-98, I have successfully raised 38 young. 1999 looks even more promising as I have now set up the second generation and eagerly awaiting the hatching of several clutches. When possible the young are closed banded. Unfortunately some of the pairs of painted do not take kindly to nest inspection and will abandon young if bothered at all. Rather than having to resort to handfeeding, I have chose to sacrifice close banding some, however meticulous records are kept.They are pretty easily satisfied with a standard finch diet. I feed ABBA Fortified Seed, ABBA Eggfood mixed with hard boiled eggs, sprouts, my special corn bread mixture, greens, chopped apples, meal worms, white worms and millet. They are partial to millet and soft foods of any kind. Given the opportunity they will choose millet sprays over any other food. They are particularly fond of bathing and love to play with small pieces of nesting materials mainly white cotton string, coconut fiber, bits of paper and paper towels. I think the hardest thing for me to get used to was that the painted finches that aren't nesting love to sleep in a pile on the floor. I still have pains in my chest every morning when I walk into the bird room and see a pile of painted finches in a heap in the corner of the cage on the floor.Another interesting behavior that I noted was that they enjoyed dragging almost anything into their nests. It almost appears as they are stocking up for a famine at times. I have found millet sprays, pieces of dried egg food, corn bread, chunks of dirt from the white worms and just about anything else they can manage to stuff in. I would caution anyone breeding painted to always make sure to remove the old nest and letting them build or find a new one for each clutch. Which is advisable to do for any bird.Out of all the birds I own, the Painted Finches are truly the most delicate. They are clumsy, easily overcome by stress in their environment and are prone to night frights. I have experienced night frights so severe that I have had to turn on all the lights in the middle of the night. The addition of several night-lights helped but did not eliminate the problem. They also take pleasure from basking under heat lamps after bathing and I strongly recommend allowing them to bathe daily. They have a tendency to get quite dirty because of all the time spent sleeping, cuddling and foraging on the floor. Painted Finches are delicate and will fall to disease if not kept meticulously clean.Overall the Painted Finch is a good-natured, easy going, sweet and delightful bird. It best to house them either alone or will other birds of the same temperament. They will not tolerate being bullied by any aggressive bird such as owls or zebras. The male has an elaborate yet comical mating song and ritual that sounds like a squeaky windshield wiper which evokes a happy to be alive feeling in my bird room.
