Lavender Finch
Scientific Name: Lagonosticta caerulescens
Origin: West Africa
This is a lively finch with quick movements, which makes a peaceful yet interesting addition to a mixed aviary. However, it also tends to pluck its feathers and also those of its companions. For this reason, it is recommended that only one pair of this specie should be kept. A lone pair does not pluck each other quite so readily as several kept together. This specie becomes tamed very quickly and has a quiet murmuring song, which is repeated quite frequently as it settles down to roost.
Description:
Size: 13 cm (5 in)
COCK:
Body: Grey. Rump: scarlet. Beak: dark grey. Legs: dark grey. HEN:
Similar, but the gray plumage appears slightly muted and is often more smoky-brown in tone. The hen is slightly smaller.
Diet: (Seed eater)
Mixed millets form the basic diet. Green food, spray millet, and some live food such as fresh ants’ eggs should be provided. Grit and cuttlefish bone must always be available.
This specie needs protection from severe weather in an indoor flight but extra heat is not necessary.
Although it often looks very scruffy when offered for sale because of its habit of feather plucking, this should not deter prospective buyers. It does not indicate poor health. Once installed in an aviary, the bird would soon improve.
Breeding:
A Lavender Finch pair nests happily in the sanest box with a small round entrance hole or in a globular wicker basket. Sometimes the birds build their own nest in a bush. Plenty of nesting material should be provided including soft grasses, moss, wool, and feathers. The hen lays four to five round white eggs and incubation usually lasts about 12 days. The young fledge in 14 days. Soaked seed, egg-rearing food, and soaked bread should be provided for rearing the young. Extra supplies of fresh ants’ eggs should be given.
Occasionally the lavender breeds with the Fire Finch, if housed in the same aviary. This produces a very attractive hybrid.
The Lavender Finch can be allowed free flight outside the aviary during the breeding season, once a nest has been completed, as it returns to feed its young.
Lavender Finch Information
- The lavender finch is the natural inhabitant of West Africa. Their territory covers from West Africa to Senegal and southwest chad to northern Cameroon.
- In the wild, the bird prefers to stay in pairs or small groups.
- The birds can fly very fast in the air.
- Have an instinct of roosting in their nest at night.
- In case they fail to find any proper nest to roost they are often seen to be sleeping on tree branches with their head drooping downwards.
- Generally, in wild, the pairs start breeding and nesting in the later half of the rainy season.
As a pet owner never goes for regular nest checks as the birds have the habit of leaving their nests and abandoning their chicks if they get disturbed.
See more: Lonchura punctulata