It all started with my two Diamond Doves. My sweet and spoiled Budgie, Edward, attacked one, so we had to separate the Budgies and Doves. After having the doves live on the bottom half of the aviary for a while, we though it best to just build another aviary. So we did!

Aviary 2 was home to 2 diamond doves, 3 button quail, a Pintail Whyduh, and 17 society finches.

The two doves were named Professor Feathers and Angel. They loved cooing to each other and to me. Professor Feathers was a very funny bird to watch. He, to put it mildly, was a nutcase. Angel was the dove that had the incident with Edward. She, though, has recovered. Angel was a sweetheart; she would preen Professor whenever he was itchy. Here they are together:

the doves

The quail were named King, Princess, and Jessie. They loved taking dust baths, chasing one another, jumping to the top of the aviary and crashing down, and making weird snoring noises. They could also call really loud for their tiny size!

Here are King and Princess together.

the quail

Princess I got with King. She loved to play with the wood chips at the bottom of the cage! Here I am holding Princess, so you can see how small the quail really were.

Caleb holding Princess

King was the only boy button quail. He could get a little aggressive with the other quail, but he never hurt anything. Here's a picture of King after jumping:

King

Jessie was shy, but she enjoyed being with the other quail. The reason she had a bald spot on her head is because the pet store we got her from had her in a small cage where she would jump and bonk her head on the top of the cage. Here you can see what she looked like:

Jessie

My newest bird was a Pintail Whyduh, which is a type of finch. His name was William. He was very laid back and relaxed. He had the most wonderful singing! Everyone loved when he put on little concerts.

William the bird

Here is a cool shot of him flying:

William in flight

I bought 10 society finches from a lady for $10, which I thought was quite a deal! Sadly, one died shortly after we brought them home, but the rest settled right in to their new home. Here are the 9 in their nest:

finches in a basket

We all thought it was so cute how they would all cuddle up in the basket each night, until one day... an egg! Those crazy finches eventually had 6 eggs.We got 3 babies out of the 6 eggs! It was totally amazing watching the babies grow and fledge. Click here to see the slideshow of Hiccup, Fudge, and Cheesecake growing up:

click here to go to the babies page

About a month after those babies fledged, they were at it again! Once again, 6 eggs were laid, and 3 hatched. I named these 3 babies Larry, Curly, and Moe. Here is a shot of them shortly after leaving the nest:

Larry, Curly, and Moe

Everyone thought Moe looked really neat with his white "hair."

Moe

Tragically, shortly after that the foster mommy, Penguin, died. (She is the mostly white bird in many of the finch photos.) She loved sitting in the nest and tending to the babies. I miss her very much.

And lightning struck for the third time! Another 6 eggs laid, and we had three more! They were named Bolt, Patience, and Runt. After they fledged all was quiet for a time.

Then another batch of eggs! First just one baby hatched, and after that was one about a week old a second egg hatched! Here is Calvin:

Calvin

and Hobbes, of course!

Hobbes

And here was our final addition, Autumn Savage. (Named after both the season he was hatched in and the Mythbuster, Adam Savage.) He was the only egg that hatched out of the last round of eggs, so he got spoiled by all the finches! Here he is as a wee baby:

Autumn as a baby

and growing up all too quickly:

Autumn bigger

Watching the babies grow and join in the antics of the others was truly amazing!

This aviary was a lot of fun to watch and listen to. I miss them all so badly! My only comfort is knowing they all went to bird lovers. Here is a slideshow of some of my favorite photos from Aviary 2.

Caption:
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