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All my finch books say the same thing about weavers in general, as do
the articles I checked out in Bird Talk. I haven't had any personal
experiences with weavers, but I do remember that when I toured Al
Decouteau's aviaries that he had his weavers and whydahs separated from
his grass finches and mannikans. He even had one problem whydah that
was savaging the other whydahs. He had moved it into a large flight
that contained conures and other small hookbills, where it was holding
its own! I'd be inclined to believe that the orange weavers could
damage a grass finch...but you might want to give Al or one of the
other finch folks a call to confirm...
I wouldn't be that surprised if your plumheads were both males -
finches in general have such a strong mating drive that I don't think
it would be really unusual for same-sex pairings to occur. I've read
that plumheads breed pretty regularly, so if they lay eggs, you'll know
that one is a female :-) If they just go to nest and don't lay, then
they are probably males. I'd guess that if you can acquire hens for
them, they'll give you plenty of finches. I'm not sure what kind of
parents they make (another question for a finch expert) but if you get
hens and you're unsure of the parenting abilities, you may want to pick
up a pair of societies for fostering.
/Rita
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| Thanks, Rita. I really had my heart set on the weavers, but alas for
now, I guess I should wait. I'll try to corner Dr. D or the finch
judge at the BOAF show and see what they have to say. No luck so
far on finding hens for the plumheads. /Linda
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But Linda, didn't you have to take your plumheads out of your aviary
anyway? Perhaps the weavers would be ok with your Bourke's and the
canary, which are much bigger birds... and you could add other more
aggressive/larger finches - Javas, for example...
/Rita
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