Gouldian Finch
Birds in Focus...

The Gouldian Finch is 13-14 cm long. Its back and wings are grass-green, the tips of the wings are brown. Its rump is cobalt-blue and the tail feathers black. The breast is purple, the belly yellow and the vent white. The upper throat is black and circled by a band of turquoise. The Gouldian Finch has yellow feet and black eyes. The beak is pearly white in colour and tipped with red. The head colouration varies between individuals. Three quarters of the Gouldian Finch population is black-headed, while most of the remaining population is red-headed. There is another rare colour variation; the yellow-headed Gouldian Finch. Despite its name, the head is closer to orange in colour than to yellow. Juvenile Gouldian Finches are olive, grey and brown until their first moult, when they display their adult colouration.

The diet of Gouldian Finches consists of a wide variety of ripe and half-ripe grasses. They become almost solely insectivorous at the beginning of the breeding season, and have even been known to raid spider webs for the insects caught within. They drink water from sources such as rivers, creeks and lakes, and drink in big sips.

A clutch of eggs is laid between January and April. There may be between 4 and 8 eggs in a clutch, and they are white in colour. Both parent share the incubation during the day, but the female incubates on her own at night. Incubation lasts 14-15 days before hatching. The parents eat pieces of the broken and discarded shells. The chicks are fed on food regurgitated from their parents. When they are born, Gouldian Finch chicks have no down and are a light, flesh colour. Their eyes open at between 7 - 10 days, and they have their full set of juvenile feathers at around 21 -22 days. It may take several months for the adult feathers to grow. Fledglings leave the nest at 5 weeks. Sexual maturity follows quickly. The Gouldian Finch can breed when it is as young as 8 weeks, and can reproduce in the same season in which it hatches.