Finches
An aviary bird rather than a hand tame one: finches are for watching, and they do everything in company. Most of the song belongs to the males.
Overview
Finches are small seed eating birds kept for how they look and sound rather than for interaction. They are watched, not handled, and a well planted flight cage of finches is closer to an aquarium than to a parrot in the room.
The common pet species run 10 to 30 g and four to six inches, and they are active all day. A finch cage is never still, which is the point of it.
Temperament
Busy, social and entirely uninterested in people. Finches do not tame, and handling one is a stressful event for the bird rather than a bonding exercise.
They are flock birds and must be kept in at least a pair, and better in a small group. Species mix with care: some are peaceful together and some harass others off the food, particularly during breeding, and a bird being kept from feeding is not always obvious until it is thin.
Care and grooming
A quality finch seed mix, greens, egg food during moult and breeding, cuttlebone and grit. Live food matters for several species and is essential for some when rearing young.
Seed alone is short on vitamin A and calcium here as it is everywhere else, so greens and a calcium source are the difference between a finch that lives two years and one that lives eight. Their claws grow fast and need checking, because a caught claw on a small bird is a lost toe.
Living and exercise
Length rather than height, at least 30 inches wide, with perches at the ends and clear flight between them. Finches fly, they do not climb, so a tall narrow cage wastes most of its volume.
They are quiet, they are cheap to keep and they do not chew the house. They are also fragile, they hide illness completely, and a finch that looks unwell in the morning is often dead by evening, which is worth knowing before a child chooses one.
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