Is It The Scottish Weather ----Or Is It Just My Birds?
The title may give a clue to this 'blog' 
I have no idea why this has been happening this year but my birds have decided to share nests and some have even turned into little 'Lucifers''
The first incident took place a while ago when one of my diamond doves decided it wanted to share one of the zebra finch's nest. The zebra finches had eggs in the nest and were incubating them and whenever one of the finches left the nest to feed in hopped the diamond dove and it cuddled up to the finch that had remained in the nest. Problem was it didn't want to leave the nest when the other finch returned 
I even chased the dove from the nest but whenever my back was turned it was back in the nest again.
Then not long ago I had a canary and another pair of finches wanting the same nest. No they didn't fight they decided to share the nest and the finches laid their eggs beside the canary's eggs. The finches didn't even move when the cock canary came to feed its mate. How things were going, it wouldn't have surprised me if the cock canary decided to feed the female finch as well 
25th April 2015 zebra finch -bottom right-- sharing canary's nest
The male finch still in the nest while the fawn hen waiting to move in
Then I decided I'd put up a lot more nest boxes to find out if that would solve the problem-- 
that didn't make one bit of difference.
A pair of Finches; a pair of Canaries and a pair of Begalese all wanted the same nest while the other nest pans and nest boxes sat there empty--
The first to take over that new nest was the cock pied zebra finch and the fawn hen finch that had shared the previous nest with the canaries. Then when the finches were out gathering nest material along came Mr & Mrs Canary ignoring the fact the nest was taken- but they had a bit more sense and one of them always stayed in the nest while the other did the 'shopping'.
The fact their nest had been taken over by the canaries made no difference to the finches they just hopped into the nest with their nesting material and settled down.
This time the canary went on to lay two eggs and the finch laid 3 eggs in the same nest! but the harmony between those two pairs didn't last when a pair of Bengalese decided it was time for them to intervene. I guess this was a bit too much for the zebra finches and they gave in and left the nest and the Bengalese snuggled up to the canary -
Could the Bengalese have come to an agreement with the canary? that if she let them stay they would help her incubate her eggs - the Bengalese laid no eggs of their own! I have no idea what happened to the finches eggs they just disappeared!
Looks as thought the canary has hatched out a new breed of bird (lol)
I thought things had settled down but I was in for a shock. If I hadn't witnessed this myself I would have found it difficult to believe what happened when the Bengalese were out from the nest and the canary went off the nest for a few seconds - The pied zebra cock finch came back 
hopped into the nest and deliberately, with its beak, pierced one of the canary's eggs and was about to do the same to the 2nd egg but I managed to chase him off and I rescued the remaining egg.
It shouldn't take you long to guess who has taken over the nest now! Yes, the first occupants the pied and the fawn zebra finches - The Canaries and the Bengalese have given up and the zebra finches have won the battle.
Maybe I should have put up notices:
"Variety of free nest homes available, materials for furnishing them also free of charge"
No! that's not the end: in my outside flight I have a diamond dove incubating not only her own egg but somehow a canary has managed to lay 2 eggs in her nest too (and not to waste the other canary egg I rescued I've popped that one in there as well)
Just to finish off, tonight when checking the outside flight I have found that the pair of Bengalese that were sharing the nest with the canary now have built a nest of their own (3 eggs in it) in a box I had made recently and hard to believe but right next to the Bengalese in the same box a pair of canaries have built a nest too and they have 3 eggs as well.
The nest box containing the two nests
Two nests in same nest box Bengalese and Fife canary
]
Bengalese in shared nest box
Canary in shared nest box
27th May 2015
Last night I fixed a large nest basket into a small fir tree in the outside flight -the reason I did this was because a pair of the canaries were desperately trying to build a nest there and she had laid eggs but they just fell on the ground and broke
.
Well surprise, Surprise Lucifer the pied zebra finch (that's his permanent name now ) and his mate have left their nest in the inside flight and YES! they have decided I have put that nest basket there for them and the canaries are not getting a chance to use it!!
I wouldn't have believed birds could behave like this and I know its the same pair because I don't have many pied cock birds and only that one pied cock paired up with a fawn hen.
If Lucifer doesn't change his behaviour soon I think I'll be sending him to a nice warm place beside his namesake 
28th May 2015
Lucifer this morning determined to make this new nest his!
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29th May 2015
I'm now convinced it must be something in the Scottish air (or could it be something about the month of May? ) because it's not only in the aviary that odd things are happening! I have my CPQ's in a different area in a large hutch and I have discovered that two female cpqs have laid their eggs in the same area and both are sharing the 'nest' and are sitting together incubating their eggs
Its not a very good photograph but I may get a better one later didn't want to disturb them too much.
Maybe this is a common thing to happen but I've never come across this before.
and a nice surprise tonight I have my first diamond dove chick! 2 of the canary eggs that were in the nest as well as the Diamond Dove's egg have disappeared but there's still a canary egg in the nest beside the chick but I doubt if it will hatch.
My new Diamond Dove chick
My cockatiels have four (?) eggs in their nest and the first one hatch out today 
30th May 2015
Feel like putting the flags out this morning! My first gouldian chick has left its nest box 
Tonight I'm just back in from the outside flight and I'm devastated. The Diamond dove chick is not in the nest and there is no sign of it anywhere in the outside flight. Is it possible that one of the cockatiels or one of the other birds/ or another cock diamond dove could have killed /eaten it? I'm thinking the only way I'm going to rear diamond doves is to isolate them from the other birds the canary egg was still in the D. dove's nest basket- I've removed it and it's in the incubator until I check to find out if its fertile.
update: canary egg from Diamond Dove's nest - after candling canary's egg seems chick had died early on in incubation.
31st May 2015
I was talking to a breeder today at the bird sale and he confirmed what I had originally suspected - it's more than likely that it has been one of the cockatiels that has taken the diamond dove's chick - he said cockatiels were bad for that. He also said it would have eaten it Yug!! That's probably where some of the fertile eggs have disappeared to as well.
What makes it worse is, it's the 'pet' hand reared cockatiel that's the aggressive one towards other birds - I noticed too it has been trying to get into the other pair of cockatiel's nest box where they have eggs and chicks but they chased it off.
So he, (Cheeky), has had his free flying outside and is coming back inside the house until the breeding season is over.
Now it seems I've got 2 Lucifers (Little & Large)
June 1st 2015
On 29th May I mentioned that 2 female CPQs were sharing incubating a nest which contains LOTS of eggs tonight they have been joined by yet another CPQ but the new foster parent? is a cock bird - just maybe he thinks he's the dad It was raining tonight so I didn't get a chance to get what would have been a lovely photograph of them.
Now Cheeky (the large Lucifer) has scuppered my plans to remove him and his mate from the aviary and bring them back into the house.
They've gone and taken over an empty cockatiel's nest box that was in the inside flight and guess what?? they have an egg. He (Cheeky) usually always comes out and lands on my shoulder but tonight it was a different story when I went to move the nest box - he literally Flew AT me, all guns blazing, that's when I discovered there was an egg in the box.
Now here's a laugh! Two months ago I sold a cock Texan white quail to another member at the bird club I go to, it was an extra cock bird I had. Shortly after I sold that quail I lost the only two other cock quails I had, one died and the other was killed by a hawk, so at last month's sale (April) I explained to the member what had happened and asked if I could buy back the cock bird I sold him. True to his word he sold it back to me at Sunday's sale 31st May. . I thought that was great now I would be able to get some fertile eggs for the incubator. Later when I went to move him in beside the female quails I had another surprise HE had laid an egg!! to add to all the previous happenings --now the birds are even changing sex. 
3rd June 2015
Things seem to be looking up! At least, so far, the cockatiels are sticking to their own nest boxes and the pair with the nest box in the outside flight have hatched out all four eggs, but this is the pair that gives up on feeding their chicks when they are a few days old -so I'm keeping my fingers crossed there will not be a repeat performance 
Not to be outdone, 'Cheeky' (Large Lucifer)and his mate now have two eggs in their nest box in the inside flight!
--and today I've just put 11 Texan White Quail eggs into the incubator (bought 12 fertile eggs on line - one egg was cracked in transit)
I've just had a thought if the cockatiels decide not to feed their young and all those quail eggs hatch out it will be bedlam here! 
Thinking - I really should get my head examined! 
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