06 August 2005
Hooray! It's bird day!
I told the girl at the shop that I wanted one fawn and one chocolate, if possible, just to be able to easily tell them apart. She came out with two in little carrier boxes and said, 'The light one is female, and the dark one is male, although we can't guarantee that.'
Yeah, right. Society finches are monomorphic, meaning you can't tell a male from a female just by looking at them. I was hoping for a male/female pair, as that might be fun, but I knew it would be down to the luck of the draw. Unless she saw one lay an egg and the other sing, she had no idea what she was talking about.
This was proven true by the fawn, who, about ten minutes after settling in to the new cage, sang us his little song. I had decided that the first to out himself as a male would be named Frankie, so Frankie it is. The chocolate hasn't said much beyond little finch whispers, but I think I'll wait a couple days before assuming it's an Evelyn and not an Ira.* Ira sang his song about an hour later.
They're both sitting on the wicker nest at the moment; Evelyn/Ira is gently preening Frankie's face from time to time, so I think it's safe to say they're buddies for the moment. We'll have to wait to see whether they're ready for a more serious committment.
* I could guess that it's a female, as Frankie has been quite enthusiatically singing, but I'm not sure if that could just be to establish his territory. Societies also sing to other males from time to time, and if that's his thing, I'll just accept it and make sure he knows we still think he's a good bird.
only the male sing
posted by claude at April 7, 2007 04:28 PM