However, it is possible to determine gender by behavior since males tend to display to females. Obtaining a female-male pair can present a difficulty because both sexes look similar. They are also quite easy to breed provided they are properly sexed. This sociability is also responsible for their American name of "society finch."īengali finches are quite easy to look after. Thus they breed better if kept as single pairs in individual breeding boxes. In an aviary they lay eggs and crowd into a single nest, interfering with incubation (which is performed by the female and lasts 16 days) or damaging the eggs. These birds like to be close together and tend to all roost in one nest if kept in a group. Two males will usually accept eggs or even partly grown young without any hesitation. While two males may not get along without other company, it has been found the best "pairing" for fostering is to use two males, this works better than either two females or a male and female pairing. They breed well and are good foster parents for other finch-like birds. (video)īengali finches are well adapted to captivity and the company of humans. The birds are members of the estrildid finch family and most authorities consider them a domestic form of the white-rumped munia (known in aviculture as the striated finch) most likely derived from the subspecies Lonchura striata swinhoei although some have suggested a hybrid origin. Extensive research has been done and continues to be done on the different ways Bengali finch songs are produced, how they are processed in the brain, what characteristics of the songs are preferred by females, and how their songs compare to the also commonly studied zebra finch.Īlthough the English language literature on aviculture called these birds as Bengali finch, the German aviculturist Karl Russ called them in 1871 as Japanese mövchen (or mew, an old word for gull, possibly related to Chinese mövchen, a pigeon breed named in France and introduced to Germany around the same time for their resemblance to gulls). Īnother aspect of the Bengali finch that evolved throughout the centuries is song production. Coloration and behavior were modified through centuries of selection in Asia, then later in Europe and North America. There have been many theories of the origin of domestication for the Bengalese finch, and we now know it took place primarily in Japan. It became a popular cage and trade bird after appearing in European zoos in the 1860s where it was imported from Japan. Known as the Society finch in North America and the Bengali finch or Bengalese finch elsewhere, Lonchura striata domestica is a domesticated finch not found in nature.
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