And then there was one...female zebra finch.
Everything has changed with Lucille's flock of zebra finches since the death of Sue. Suddenly there was only one female zebra finch in a flock of males and two society finches.
And life became hell for Fizzy. She's our oldest bird, but you'd never know it looking at her. She's still in perfect shape, lively, sassy and enjoying life. That is, until Sue died. All at once Fizzy couldn't make a move without the males chasing her.
If she tried to stay in a nesting house, someone would come chase her out. If she came out to eat, she was lucky to get a bite before a male was trying to mount her. If she came out to drink, same thing. And you could just forget a bath entirely! No way would the males let her alone long enough for that. They stalked and circled like vultures, jumped her time and again, and competed with each other to win her. Never mind that she HAD a mate.
There was no way Lucille could let this go on. Fizzy would be dead in no time, worn out, starved and dehydrated from being chased pillar to post all the live-long day by males with no mates.
There was only one thing Lucille could do about this. After she turned out the light at bedtime and the birds all selected their favorite spot for sleeping, Lucille snuck in the room and closed the cage doors. No longer would her birds be allowed to fly free. She expected an uproar the next morning when they discovered the closed doors.
Nothing. A couple finches seemed surprised at the closed cage door. They looked at her expecting her to open it. When she didn't, they seemed to check the room, satisfied themselves that no other birds were out--and got busy with breakfast and home time.
Fizzy was delighted. She ate like a someone coming off a too-strict diet--gobble, gobble, munch. She drank her fill. She stood on a perch and preened herself for a good long time. Nobody interfered with her in any way. Sweet.
Lucille was glad for Fizzy and relieved that the boys didn't raise a ruckus about the change. Lucille set about cleaning the bird room stem to stern and moved her bed back into the room that was formerly her bedroom. It took all day, as she discovered there was too much furniture, and there was poop absolutely everywhere, and she had to vacuum twice.
The birds hollered about the vacuuming, same as always. The birds didn't mind a bit when she came to bed that night.
To her surprise, they didn't raise a ruckus the next day or the next. She had to get used to her flock being quiet. She'd been used to them chasing each other and flying everywhere.
After a few days, she transfered most of them to a cage tower. There was more space in each tower cage than there was in the small individual cages. They liked that. After a few days, she got to thinking they couldn't see each other while in the tower, so she moved cages around so some boys had neighbors to talk to.
Big mistake. The boys did nothing but hiss and spit and fly at each other through the bars! They didn't want neighbors. They wanted nothing to do with each other.
Huh.
This after years of flying free. Who'd have thought they'd be so glad to be caged? And apart? It's probably because they're males and there are no females for them. That tends to make the males disfavor other males. At least that's our theory. After all these years, finches keep surprising us.
