Here's a photo showing society finch eggs on the left and zebra finch eggs on the right. The society finch eggs are larger and slightly orangey in color, compared to the small, white zebra finch eggs. You can see their size next to the sewing gauge.
The society finch eggs came from Fay, who was originally named Ray until eggs appeared. Fay sat on her eggs with great determination to hatch them, but after fourteen days when nothing hatched, Lucille took them away and saw they weren't fertile. Nothing had ever started to develop.
We hadn't SEEN the society finches make love. We thought it might have happened when we weren't looking. Apparently not. We still haven't witnessed any male song and dance out of Ray. It really makes me wonder if he's also a girl. But he hasn't laid an egg either, so we're still in the dark what sex he/she might be. Ray didn't sit on the eggs at all the first week, but then took turns and gave Fay breaks to poop, eat and bathe.
We thought that Ray choosing to sit on the eggs meant the eggs were developing. Not so. The only lovemaking we saw with the society finches was zebra finch Sandy mated with society finch Fay. We weren't sure what might hatch in that case. I read that society and zebra finches CAN make babies, but they're sterile. I don't know what the babies would look like. No one has mated with Ray. Confusing!
