This tale is about a pair of society finches that raised a clutch of zebras. I have several pairs of society finches to use for fostering. One of my zebra finch pairs laid eggs. I noticed that the female wasn't very interested in sitting on her clutch. I was waiting for this particular pair to have young in hopes of obtaining some pieds for my breeding program.

I always have a few pairs of society finches ready on hand to serve as foster parents in cases like this. As soon as I noticed the hen was not sitting, I quickly removed the eggs and gave them to a pair of society finches who have raised many clutches in the past. There were five lovely eggs, excited at the prospects of what were to become of them. The foster parents accepted the eggs immediately and began the 2 week incubation. Then, as if by magic, one by one, little fuzzy heads begin to appear, bobbing clumsily. As the days passed, I begin to hear the little sounds of chicks begging for their feedings. Before I knew it, they all had feathers and were ready to fledge. I anxiously awaited their first flight from the nest.

I was hoping for a nice pied female, I had just the male for her, of course when the time was right. Finally, the day came when they were all out of the nest and before I knew it all eating on their own. There was one particular chick I was interested in keeping. She was white with some gray feathering. I thought for sure it was a hen, the beak was light in color and there were no orange check patches. I decided to keep her and allowed her to stay with her foster parents a little while longer.

Society finches are very family oriented, and rarely become aggressive towards their grown chicks, so I knew she would be safe with them. Soon after, the male foster daddy started to sing and court his mate. They laid their own eggs and started the incubation process. Then one day, I heard what I thought was the male society finch sing. I questioned that because I knew he was busy incubating his clutch. The male usually stops singing and courting after eggs have been laid. He was the only male society finch I had who was a very loud singer. I thought I better check. I couldn't believe that this pair would abandon their eggs. When I approached the cage, just as I would imagine, the male Society finch was in his nest quietly laying on his clutch. I then heard the singing again. To my disbelieve, it was my pied zebra finch. Not only was "he" not a "she", but now he is singing like a society finch!

My little male zebra finch had learned to mimic the song of his foster daddy and do it just as loud!! I have had my society finches raise many different finch species and never had any of the chicks learn the song of their foster parents. I am wondering if this ever happened to anyone else???

Thanks for letting me share my amazing finch tale!

Article © Louann Molnar 2005