Zebra Finch

1 Zebra Finch Breed Overview

The Zebra Finch, also known as the Pearl bird, is small and exquisite with a charming appearance and a soft, gentle call; like its name, it is very attractive, and its plumage is much like the color of pearls. China introduced it from Australia around the 1970s and 1980s and has since bred many varieties including camel, white, and pied.

Chinese Name: Zebra Finch (Pearl Finch)

Latin Name: Poephila guttata

English Name: Zebra Finch

Other Names: Ribgrass finch, brocade bird, small pearl, etc.

Binomial Name: Zebra Finch

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Subphylum: Vertebrata

Class: Aves

Subclass: Neornithes

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Estrildidae

Tribe: Estrildini

Genus: Poephila

Distribution: Tropical forests of eastern Australia and eastern Indonesia

2 Physical Characteristics of the Zebra Finch

Although the Zebra Finch lacks multicolored plumage, we must admit that a plainer color scheme is not without beauty, especially feathers interlaced with pearly and blue-gray tones, which are simply exquisite.

The Zebra Finch is about 10 cm long. Males and females differ clearly in color and are easy to tell apart. The head is blue-gray; both sides of the beak base and below the eyes have black feather streaks, the lores are white, and between the beak base and the black below the eye is a tear-mark-like pattern. The throat and chest are light gray-blue; the back, shoulders, and wings are blue, gray, and brown. The flight feathers are dark gray-brown, the tail feathers are short and mostly black, often covered by long uppertail coverts, and the tail has fairly regular white bars, hence the name Zebra Finch. The beak is mostly deep red, and the tarsi and feet are deep flesh-red.

The male has chestnut-red patches on the lower sides of the chest and flanks, dotted with small white round spots like pearls, hence the names Pearl bird, Pearl finch, or Pearl finch of Jinshan. The female has duller plumage and lacks the chestnut-red patches and white spots on the lower chest and flanks. The male’s throat to upper chest also has several wavy black stripes, black and white alternating, adding ornamental value. The female has no wavy black stripes from throat to upper chest. Under captive breeding and artificial selection, white and camel varieties have emerged, still with red beaks and feet; in these varieties sexes are told by beak color, males are bright deep red and glossy, females paler with less gloss. The white variety is called ‘White Pearl,’ and the camel variety ‘Camel Pearl.’

3 Zebra Finch Living Environment

If you want a small, beautiful, lively, and active bird, the Zebra Finch is definitely the top choice. It has many merits, and importantly it is easy to keep and not demanding about conditions.

Zebra Finches can be kept in various canary cages, tit cages, siskin cages, white-eye cages, or metal cages. Because the bird is small, cage bars should be about 1 to 2 mm in diameter with 10 to 12 mm spacing, and one perch about 10 to 11 mm in diameter should be provided inside, made of dried wolfberry root, wisteria, boxwood, jujube branch, wolfberry branch, or wild mulberry. Keepers in Yangzhou like to use dried wolfberry root or branches, said to improve the bird’s health and reduce disease, something to verify through future practice.

Zebra Finches love water baths, with the water kept around 30 degrees C. Except during the chick-rearing period, provide a bath dish with suitable water. Pearl finches fear the cold greatly; in winter raise the temperature and keep the room around 15 degrees C.

4 Zebra Finch Feeding Guidelines

Zebra Finches can be kept singly, in pairs, or in flocks as long as space allows. Keeping them serves both ornament and breeding. Pearl finches are hardy, seldom fall ill, tolerate rough feeding, and breed readily, succeeding under ordinary conditions.

Daily feeding is hulled millet, or a mix of 63 percent barnyard grass, 27 percent millet, and 10 percent broom corn millet. During the chick and breeding stages, feed egg-white millet, and increase fresh greens such as rape, plus fruit. Mineral feeds such as cuttlebone, shell powder, and grit should also be supplied in moderation. For chicks, soaked millet dried and then fed works well.