Monday, August 29, 2005

Hannah - single Mom






This is Hannah. She's a black head yellow backed female gouldian finch. I realize that her head color actually appears to be more white than black. In the yellow back mutation, the black head color is supressed, causing it to appear beige or gray.
Hannah has spent most of this breeding season laying and sitting faithfully on infertile eggs. She chases away any male that comes near her (thus the infertile eggs).
Well, she has now surprised me with a baby. I have no idea who Daddy is, or for that matter whether she is the biological Mom. She may have just moved into a nest where another pair had laid eggs.
In any case, this single mom is doing a bang up job raising the baby. It's about a week old now and getting larger every day.

2 comments:

Stephanie said...

I'm so glad I found your blog. I've got Gouldian's too. We're going through the big adventure of having chicks right now & have several sets of babies in different stages. I think one of them is going to turn out in the same colors as Helen.

Stephanie said...

Whoops - Hannah I meant!