zebra finch irritating my canary!

[delsolarie]

finch - irritating little brat to canary?

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Hi all, we have a large indoor aviary (15x12' & 10' high). Before we built the aviary I had my female zebra finch (Tikay) and my female canary (Shiloh) together in a cage. They were great buddies. However - now in the aviary among other birds I have added another female canary, a male canary, a male zebra finch who can't fly and another zebra finch (I don't know if it's a male or female because it's a pied with a red beak but no cheek patches??)

My problem: The male canary (Pharoh) is very interested in Shiloh. Shiloh has been trying to build a nest and flirt with Pharoh. However, Tikay isn't having any of that. Tikay will follow Shiloh around and sit in between her and Pharoh. If Shiloh puts some material somewhere in attempts to build a nest, Tikay will just grab that material and throw it off!!! Is there anything I can do aside from removing Tikay from the picture (which I do not want to do)?

Please help!!

[FeatherLover]

Hmm...

It sounds like Tikay has bonded to Shiloh, so it makes sense that she doesn't want Pharoh coming in between them.

I would NOT remove Tikay. I think she'd probably get depressed without her "mate." Perhaps, if you do want your canaries to breed, you could attempt with another female for Pharoh. Of course, there is not guarantee that would work.

(Also, I think that a red beak is an indication that the pied zebra is male. If I'm remembering correctly, females have orange to dark orange beaks and males have red.)

Keep us updated on things (and post some pictures, if you can).

[delsolarie]

thanks for the reply.
Definitely wouldn't want the li'l one to get depressed. Just realized I mixed them up. Toki is the irritating li'l one. Tikkay is the one that looks like it might be a male because of the red beak.

I do have another female canary (not named yet) that I got a couple weeks after I got Pharoh. He showed some interest in the beginning but he really prefers Shiloh and they are trying to build a nest together while Toki is trying to ruin their efforts. Toki was actually hatched here a couple years ago and her parents have since passed on. Shiloh has been with Toki since Toki was a wee li'l hatchling so I could see why Toki may be a bit attached. But is there no possibility of trying to bond Toki to another bird?