Zebra finches are one of my favourite little finches. Their cheerful chirping & hopping back and forth in their cage or flitting around the flight can’t help but make a person smile.

I remember answering an ad in the newspaper for finches a few years ago. I didn’t know what Zebra finches were, but I rode my bicycle (maybe this was a bit more than a FEW years ago) over to this man’s house to take a look.

Don’t get me wrong – I wasn’t new to birdkeeping since I had kept finches before, as well as budgies, canaries and a cockatiel, but I just didn’t know what Zebra Finches were. I would never buy any new pet on the spur of the moment without knowledge of the species.

I left his place with a pair of young Zebra Finches in a box and brought them home to a cage that was already set up & waiting for them. It wasn’t too long before this pair decided that there was plenty of room in their spacious cage for more & they began nesting.

Two clutches later, and I decided that these birds multiplied just a bit too fast for me. No wonder that man had dozens of cages & several flights in his basement. I separated the males from the females and decided to build a large flight to house the males in and to find other homes for the females. I then began my quest for males of several different types of finches to stock my new aviary, but thats another story.

The Zebra Finch originates in Australia. They have done so well in captivity that many different colour mutations have been formed. As with many of the different types of birds though I find that I love the original colours the best.



Thanks to Roy Beckham at Finch.com for the use of this photo of a normal grey pair of Zebra Finches.

One Zebra Finch would be a lonely bird all by himself. In the wild they group in large flocks and in captivity, they would be happy with at least one other & even better – several other Zebra Finches.

To see and hear a couple of Zebra Finch interacting and singing, please take a look at this short video I have put up at YouTube.

If you are interested in owning these terrific little birds, a good book to purchase would be Guide to Owning a Zebra Finch.


Take the Canary & Finch Quiz to see how much you know about these birds.

Here is an e-book I’ve written that is devoted to Zebra and Society Finches

Click on the picture or here for more information or to order.