Red-Cheeked Cordon Bleu Finches

We first saw a Cordon Bleu at a local exotic petstore named The Pet Connection in the middle of little Havana, and were immediately sold.  It was a lone female that, even in the poor flourescent lighting, had a gorgeous sky blue and earthy tan coloration.  Originally, when we brought her home, her only company in the cage was our original pair of Zebra's and it was obvious she was gonna need a partner.  After a bit of searching we located a huge selection of beautiful red cheeked males at another local store and found what we thought was her perfect match.  Initially, it looked like we were wrong.  She started off as downright mean to him, resulting in a bald male bird in just a few days.  We considered the possibility of separating them for good, when things started to look up.  A few times we noticed them allopreening without any removal of feathers, and then witnessed the beautiful Cordon mating routine.  He would sing to her hourly with a song that to this day reminds me of a high pitched dial up internet connection sound and then start his little dance with a blade of grass in his mouth and some hop in his step.  They tried unsuccessfully the first time, laying eggs that were infertile, but after another attempt in a nest high up in thick vegetation at the top of the cage they successfully hatched their first chicks.  The nest they used is a tube like structure of coconut fiber placed in the cage simply as nest material, but they found it perfect.  They loaded it with cotton balls and dried grass, and blocked off both ends to form little tunnels as the only access.  From that point you would see only one of them at a time as one faithful parent would always be 'home' babysitting the kids.  We made sure to provide plenty of mini-mealworms every morning as I read that Cordon's are famous for tossing their chicks if they don't get bugs.  Soon we could hear the quiet begging of the chicks which has steadily increased over the past few weeks.  As of today they have been hatched for 3 weeks and already appear fully covered in dark feathers.  I have heard how hard Cordon's are to breed, but I must say that we have had no problems at all with our pair.  We follow the Bleu rules religously (give bugs and never peek in the nest) and are expecting the arrival any day of a couple new not so blue colored babies.

I have read that Cordon's are very monogamous and pair bond quite tightly, and from my experience this is very true.  They are rarely apart and allopreen more often than any of my other birds.  They rarely bother or are bothered by any of the other finches except the few times that someone tried to peek inside their nest.  When this happens you hear the famous high pitched Cordon Bleu warning chatter, and if the would be intruder does not vacate the area, they are quickly ushered away with a dive bomb.  Other than this, they simply go about the cage like there is no other bird in sight.  They are very active birds, but seem to suffer no ills from their 36 square feet limitations.  They are also lightning fast fliers that go from the ground to 6 feet up in a blur.

Rating Score: perfect 10/10  (one of only seven finch types to get a perfect 10)
   Mixed with other finches: 5 out of 5
   Thrive/Breed in cage: 5 out of 5

Now to the pictures:

Moe: Named for his tendency to flash a mohawk, however at the beginning he was picked of all his hair and was unable to live up to his name.

Moe and Blue: Fortunately, their relationship quickly improved to the point of being a model for bird faithfulness.  Here they close sit and allopreen, an almost hourly activity for them.

Virtually never apart, feeding, sleeping and bathing together every day.  Gloriously beautiful little bundles of energy.

Moe's reaction to the almost constant song of the Zebra is to do a little dance.

The design of the Cordon Bleu was not just for beauty but quite intelligent if you think about it.  Any predator looking up at one would see their blue underbelly matching the sky background, and any looking down would see the earthy brown that matched the earth beneath.  Sneaky and quite brilliant.

Moe was quite persistent with his grass dance, though it did take a few tries to win Blue over.

When he did perfect it she was his for good.

Rated NC-17: Bleu's are all for privacy when they have chicks, but have no problem mating right out in the open for all to see.

It looks as if Moe is trying to cover a little bit from the peeping tom Black Rumped Waxbill audience.

A good sign that breeding is going good is when the parents start to consume crazy numbers of mealworms and insects.  I would buy cans of mini's that would be used up in two days.  I added the dried insect mixes they sell on good bird websites, but they were never relished like the nice plump and juicy mealies.

The nest initially had two cottonball plugs at the ends with a tunnel on each side and a large center cavity where the chicks were raised.   

One of our first views of the new nestlings and they are quite far along.  The private nature of the Cordon Bleu nest made it virtually impossible to see anything prior to this point, and I was certainly not going to break one of the Bleu rules (no peeking!)

20 days after hatching and starting to appear more curious about that mysterious outside world.  The parents recently removed the cotton plugs on either side of the nest to expand room I presume.  I am glad they did as we now can see what has been going on for the past few weeks.

But beware the Bleu!  Get too close and you are likely to get an earfull from a protective mama.  

Or the ever watchful dad.  All in all, a fantastic finch to own and not too shabby looking either ;-)