Welcome to my Finch Page
Finches are beautiful birds.  There are many different species of finches. I had 4 orange cheeked waxbills, 2 red-eared waxbills and a collection of zebra finches(2 standard zebras, 2 fawn, 3 white and 1 pied).
Orange-cheeked waxbills---(Estrilda melpoda)4 inches (10cm)Male and female are basically brown and ash gray with orange cheeks and whitish to light gray belly, lower end of belly has yellow to light orange ocher, red rump, black tail and an orange to red beak.  Orange cheeked waxbill live in small flocks.  Normally, seed eating bird.  During breeding they require live food such as insects and worms.  They are very shy birds and require plenty of coverage in an avairy and a well protected nesting site for breeding.  Orange cheeks usually deorate the top of there nest with white as a roosting nest.  Try to avoid nest checks during incubation period since they may abandon there clutch.
Red-eared waxbills---(Estrilda troglodytes)4 inches (10cm) Male and female are grayish to fawn colored with a red strip that extends from the bill past the eyes, light gray to brown belly, lower end of belly has light red to pink ocher, red rump, and a black tail.  Basically, the same information for the orange-cheeks goes for the red-eared as well during breeding season.
Zebra finches---(Poephila guttata)4-41/2 inches. Zebra Finches are sexually demorphism (being able to distinguish sex by appearance).  In most color varities the male has a large orange to rust-red oval patch under eye with two vertical lines setting it off, bright red orange beak, zebra marking on chest, black on front of chest, chestnut with white dots on flank and lower body is white.   Female are drab in comparison, they lack the orange to red rust cheeks, the bright beak, the zebra markings on chest and the chestnut with white dots on flank.  Depending on the variety, the finch can be, gray, fawn, white or pied.  Zebra Finches will breed in large flight cages.  They like to build nest in semi-open nest or enclosed nesting boxes.  The eggs hatch after 12-14 days and if given egg food and green seeds they should be fine.  Zebra Finches also sleep in nest outside the breeding season.
I started out with 2 orange cheeks, 1 red-earred, and one indian silverbill in one big cage.   The indian silverbill always stayed to himself.  I had two open nest in the cage which the indian silverbill always slept in one.  Unfortunately, the indian silverbill passed on due to loneliness and no contact with another bird.  I then decided to buy another red-earred since I wanted mine to have contact with his own species. 
To my surprise (not knowing there sex) the orange cheeks tried to build a nest in the existing open nest.  The funny thing is I have no greenery in or around there cage except for an aquairium background with greenery behind the cage.  At that point, I went out and bought two closed nest, nesting material and feathers.  When I placed them in the cage,  they went to work building a nest immediately.  Before I new it, the red-eared started building too.   The orange cheeks layed there first clutch but the clutch never hatched.  The red-earred was having extreme difficulty.  She had egg-binding and deformed eggs.  When she finally would get the egg out it was with a very, very thin shell.  I started given her extra vitamins, calcium and cod liver oil to see if that would help.  At last, she laid, 2 normal eggs (at least that's what I thought.  I'll explain later).  In the meantime, I gave the orange cheeks a new nest and they had there second clutch which was a success after 18 days.  Three out of 4 eggs hatched from Aug. 8 to Aug.10.  I then gave the parents,  waxworms, sprouted seed, nesting food, and millet spray.  They worked real hard feeding there babies but they only used the wax worms and millet spray.  For three weeks the parents went through plenty of waxworms and millet spray.  Finally the first baby came out to see the world.  He was so cute but he got a little more of the world  then he expected.  He managed to get stuck in the bars and I needed to rescue him.  He flew around the room until I finally was able to grab him.   Thank God he was alright but that's when I decided to order new cages.  The second came out the following day with no problems but when the third one came out he also got stuck in the bars of the cage and I was to late in rescuing him.  The parents continued to feed them but to my astonishment the red-eared waxbill was also trying to feed them.  By this point, the red-eared never even bothered with her eggs so I took them away and here she is trying to feed the orange-cheeks instead.   When the new cages came I set the red-eared up in one and the orange cheeks in another and still the red-eared was trying to feed the babies through the bars for a couple of days even though they were eating on there own.   Here's the twist, the new babies finally got there coloring and it winds up one is an orange-cheek and one is a red-eared.  The red-eared must of laid one or two good eggs in the orange-cheeks nest and the orange-cheek raised it.   Unfortunately, I'll never know what the third baby was.  All the red-eared and orange cheeks are doing well at this time.
Now on to the zebra finches that I have acquired.  My sister dropped them off while my mother was in the hospital so needless to say I never really got a chance to set them up the way I wanted them and right now, I don't want to disturb them since there are two new hatchlings in the nest.  I was told by the previous owner that the parents threw all the babies out of the nest so I don't want to take chances.  I really think the hatchlings are going to make it since they are almost two weeks old already.  I will update when they fledge.   For now, I do my normal feeding and cleaning schedule but I won't be moving them for awhile.   
Two hatchlings are in this nest. They are 12 days old
This little guy was sitting on 6 eggs.
The hatchling did extremely well.  I gave them away to a vet for his office.   When I told the previous owner they were shocked but very happy to here they were healthy and strong.
It's now 2005 and I no longer have finches.  I gave some away and unfortunately the rest have passed.  I'll  never forget the joy they gave me watching them raise a family.  It was great.

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