Experience of breeding goldfinches

DIET
In the wild, the goldfinch’s diet consists of 80 per cent composite seeds (mainly thistle seeds).
In captivity, the keeper must provide their birds with a diet that is both rich and varied to ensure they remain in peak condition throughout the season.
I provide a seed mix which you can find on this website under the ‘Care’ section. Oat groats are completely excluded from goldfinches’ diets, as they cause enteritis that is extremely difficult to cure, even after intensive care from the breeder. As with all my finches undergoing colour changes, I provide daily rations to ensure the birds do not consume just one type of seed (mainly niger seed) and do not put on weight too quickly. Cluster millet is always available in the aviaries. Throughout the year, depending on the harvest season, the following grasses are provided:
White chickweed – to be fed when half-ripe and ripe.
Coltsfoot – ripe
Annual bluegrass – half-ripe and ripe
Common ragwort – half-ripe and ripe
Shepherd’s purse – half-ripe and ripe
Dandelion – half-ripe and ripe
Meadow salsify – ripe
Broad-leaved plantain – half-ripe and ripe.
Lanceolate plantain – half-ripe and ripe
Garden sow thistle – half-ripe and ripe
Rooted pigweed – ripe
Thistles and thistle-like plants, ripe
Corn cockle, ripe
Cornflower, ripe
Wild lettuce, half-ripe and ripe
Lettuce seeds, half-ripe and ripe
Chickweed, ripe
Persicaria, ripe
Mature lesser burdock
Mature common mugwort
Mature common tansy
Berries:
Mature bird cherry to be fed to birds
Mature red firethorn to be fed to birds
You can view some photos of grasses in the ‘Care’ section.

During the preparation period for breeding (February, March) as well as throughout the breeding season, a mixture of sprouted seeds is provided regularly (niger, black salad, white salad, turnip) along with fresh egg mash prepared on the same day. I supplement their diet by providing insects from the moment the young hatch (defrosted pinckies, buffalos, moths, green aphids, black aphids, etc.). Every month, a multivitamin complex is added to their drinking water. From January to May, a combination of trace elements is also added to the drinking water.
Medication (antibiotics, sulphonamides) is administered only in exceptional cases and for curative purposes, but never as a preventative measure. It is mainly in winter, particularly when the weather is very damp, that this type of treatment may be required.
Wild and cultivated berries may be provided according to the birds’ preferences (bird cherry, red firethorn, orange firethorn, black elderberry, strawberries, wild strawberries, blackberries).
BREEDING
As with most of my birds, I prefer separate aviaries (1.60 m x 2.50 m x 0.80 m for a pair). You can try breeding them in a large communal aviary, but monitoring the breeding pairs is more difficult and the breeding process is more unpredictable (nests destroyed, eggs pecked or eaten by other aviary inhabitants), which is not an ideal solution given the difficulties involved in rearing these birds! It is better to maximise your chances of success, prioritise individual monitoring and not rely solely on chance.
During the winter, the male sings but does not seem to pay much attention to his mate (even in pairs that have already bred together).
As the weeks go by, the two birds grow closer, and from February onwards it is not uncommon to see the male goldfinch feeding the female and beginning to display (swaying from side to side, wings drooping, punctuated by calls).
From the end of March, fresh thuja branches are hung in the aviaries, along with metal nests. As the distribution of coltsfoot had begun nearly a month earlier, dandelions and white chickweed take over as a supplementary food source.
The breeding birds are becoming increasingly restless and are displaying together. Their repeated swaying from left to right, punctuated by calls and songs, suggests that nesting is likely and imminent.
The black line on the upper mandible disappears when goldfinches are in full breeding condition and their beaks turn pink. Birds with colour variations (pastel, agate, brown, etc.) also distinctly display a lighter line on the upper mandible of the beak.
Around mid-April, the nest is built at a height of two metres, sometimes 1.50 metres,
usually in full sunlight (unlike the bullfinch, which prefers partial shade), with great care and finesse using the softest and whitest materials.
I provide the following nesting materials: coconut fibre, horsehair, small roots (turf), green moss, plant-based wadding, cotton wool (100 per cent cotton), white rabbit hair, and thistle fibres.
You can also provide a fork wrapped in spiderwebs, as some female goldfinches use this material as a kind of glue to finish off their nest.
Egg-laying takes place between 8.00 am and 8.30 am, and consists of an average of 5 white eggs speckled with dark brown and grey-brown.
Incubation lasts 13 to 14 days depending on the prevailing weather conditions (in hot, dry weather, chicks may hatch after 12 days).
Only the female incubates the eggs, whilst the male remains near the nest, singing all day long. Some females begin to incubate as soon as the first egg is laid, whilst others start with the third.
It should be noted that some male goldfinches, prone to excessive excitement and unable to tolerate the females at the nest, have the dreadful habit of destroying nests or pecking at the eggs.
In such cases, on the day before egg-laying, the male must be caught and placed in a show cage inside the aviary where the female is kept. After the egg has been laid, it is replaced with a dummy egg and the male is released. Once all the eggs have been laid, they are placed under the female to incubate and the male is moved to another aviary.
The female will then raise her offspring on her own. In the event of breeding without any particular problems (this does happen sometimes!), the male feeds the female at the nest but does not take over the brooding.
The eggs can be checked from the sixth day onwards without any adverse effect on the rest of the brooding period. A goldfinch that has been bred in captivity for many generations accepts this procedure, as well as nest checks (for insecticide, etc.), and returns to the nest as soon as one leaves the aviary. Some females even have to be removed from the nest by the breeder to examine the eggs, which is proof of their domestication.
After hatching, the female looks after her young alone; the male feeds his mate but does not yet feed the young. It is only after about the tenth day that he begins to feed his offspring directly.
Ringing takes place at 7 days using rings with a diameter of 2.7 mm if the species being reared is a common one.
At twenty days, the young leave the nest but are fed by their parents until the thirtieth day, sometimes even until the fortieth.
Unlike young siskins and bramblings, which are independent by 22 days, one must be very patient and particularly careful with immature goldfinches.
The male generally manages the feeding of the young well whilst the female lays a new clutch of eggs.
The average number of broods is two per season, though some females may breed three times or more (in exceptional cases). It is best to discourage the female and prevent her from breeding more than twice, so as not to over-exhaust her.
The young moult towards the end of their second month. In early August, the first flight feathers and tail feathers of the adults fall out one by one; the moult begins and ends in mid-September. It is advisable to give the birds a multivitamin supplement during this period.
MAIN DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED IN THIS TYPE OF BREEDING -

Aggression in some males; egg pecking by the male,
Egg pecking by the female (for which there is no solution!),
Embryo mortality during incubation around the 7th day,
In-egg mortality on the eve of hatching,
Mortality of young mutants at birth (fragility of chicks undergoing colour mutation),
Difficult weaning (the male does not feed the chicks whilst the female is brooding),
Fragility of the young during their first winter if it is particularly wet.

Text and photos: JME/RD.