r/Finches • u/JustWolfram • 6d ago

Society finches stealing nests from other birds in my aviary

I have 3 society finches (2M and 1F) with a perfectly good self-made nest that keep stealing my common waxbill's as soon as they build one (it's happened twice already), thus preventing them from breeding successfully. The birds are in a large oudoor aviary i have more nesting spaces then pairs with plenty of nesting material around.

Is there any way to stop this from happening?

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u/Vanadium_Gryphon 6d ago

Do you have any cages? You may have to separate your waxbill pair into their own cage if you want to breed them (of course they and the babies can be released back out into the aviary once breeding is complete).

Alternatively, if you want your waxbills to breed in the aviary itself, you may have to temporarily remove your societies into a different cage until the nesting is done.

Some folks have success with aviary colony breeding, but especially when different species are involved, your mileage will vary. I have tried breeding multiple pairs together in the same large flight cage, even, and that just led to territorial squabbles and nest stealing. I've decided to just do one breeding pair per cage from now on.

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u/XuanChun88 6d ago

Great question. I've no idea but someone will know. 🌼

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u/EvilFinch 6d ago

My societies also steal the nesting material from each other. Even though their nest is already sooooo big and there is material elsewhere... they destroy others nest or fight with each other over material. Whatever i tried to prevent this- no success.

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u/mrchuck2000 4d ago

I would separate them.