Oiseau Wednesday

Canaries are sweet and wonderful little creatures, who sing, shout, squawk, hop, fly and generally entertain their humans, delightful in their yellow silliness.
I've had canaries for years now, always boys (save for one exception!¹), each to his own cage (cause boys don't get along together).

Sadly, canaries don't live forever, and the boys I've added to my wee flock over the years have gone through their bright-beaked youth, mellow-middle-age and some have even reached the heights of canary geriatrics.
I still have my adorable Hilts and Butters, both nearing their sixth or seventh year.

While I love their little hearts dearly, I've had the wish to hear a few more tweeting voices greet me every morning.

Enter the two new sweethearts, Henry and Anne.

Henry and Anne are Zebra finches. I've never owned finches before, and they are certainly proving themselves to be entirely different creatures than their yellow, ornithological cousins.
As their names imply, Henry is a male and Anne is a female. Zebra finches, unlike canaries, enjoy company of their own kind. I decided that, since I was getting two finches, it would be wonderful if they had the possibility of breeding.

Named after the (in)famous English monarchs, Henry and Anne are already displaying their own unique little personalities. Anne is the brave one; she was the first to hop on over and eat out of my hand. Henry likes to cuddle up to Anne; I'll often find them side-by-side on the perch, or crammed into one of their seed dishes, in a seemingly uncomfortable position.

And so Henry and Anne have found a new home with me, Butters and Hilts. I'm still getting used to their tiny little squeak of a tweet. They sounds very much like squeeze toys.

Come back on Wednesday, when I'll be updating from Canary(and Finch!) Land :)
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¹ I've always purchased my canaries as males, but canaries are notoriously difficult to sex. One particular male, Valencia, decided he was going to defy logic and lay eggs! Since I wasn't going to breed canaries at that point, I decided to give Valencia a much better home, where she could indulge her maternal instincts and have canary chicks.