I just have to share my little miracle with everyone.

I recently purchased a beautiful Black Cheecked Zebra pair. To my absolute joy, they started building a nest and incubating their eggs almost immediately.

Two days ago the female accidentally got out of my aviary and flew away. I was close to tears, believing that their nest full of chicks would die of starvation. I decided to wait for a day, hoping that dad would be up for the challenge. If not, I was going to have my first attempt at handraising finch babies.

When i got home from work the next afternoon, Fred (my one Bengalese female) was proudly sitting on the Zebra nest and frantically feeding the babies. This morning the babies were begging even more loudly and foster mom was feeding the hungry little mouths.

I have researched the Bengalese extensively and know that they are highly regarded as foster parents, but you are supposed to put the eggs or chicks into their nest. I believe that Fred is a very special little bird, because she actually moved into another pair's nest and adopted the babies as her own.

I had prayed so hard for the female to return and the babies to survive. This may not be exactly what I asked for, but it is even more special to me. Everybody will probably say it was just luck, but to me this is my own personal miracle.

Article © Marlene Vorster 2006