my finches

23 9:57:48

Question

two finches Hello,
A couple of months ago I baught two finches from the pet store. The pet store didn't say which ones were male or female. I didn't even know the species i was buying, just picked out two. Later i figured out I had two orange cheeked waxbills and not sure of their sex. Later on, one of them ended up dying :(
I didn't want the one to be lonely, so I went out to get another one. This time i didn't come across any orange cheeked waxbills, so I baught a spice finch instead. I wasn't sure if the different species should be in the same cage, but my waxbill needed a friend. I figured I could just watch them and see if they get along. They were curious of eachother, and now they sit side by side touching all the time. I have read about "plucking" and i thought they were doing that to eachother, but to mean it looked like grooming. The waxbill would kind of lightly pick at the spice finch, and the spice finch looked like it was enjoying it. From what I have read the waxbills who have a more darker orange butt (lol.. im not sure but is that called their vent?) are the male waxbills. Also read that the male waxbill sings. In that case by waxbill does have orange butt and is always singing soft and loud. On the other hand, the spice i have no idea. They say its the hardest finch to tell the sex?? The waxbill likes to jump up and down on the perch infront of the spice finch. When i orignally baught the birds i also baught a nest. I later learned that they dont need the nest, unless you are planning to breed them. anyways,recently I put some nest materials ontop of the nest. The waxbill immediately went to check it out (the male i think). He took it into his mouth, flew down to the perch below, and then flew straight into the nest. Any piecies that he may have dropped, he goes to the bottom of the cage to reterieve them and brings back to the nest. Does this mean that they have mated and the spice finch is going to lay eggs? (if its even a female! lol) or could the waxbill just be confused and "want to nest"
The spice finch makes some noises like a "peep peep" noise. But there is another sound it makes all the time.. so hard to explain. not even a song but a low kind of gremlin like noise. The waxbill sings high and low all the time. He makes a certain kind of noise when he goes into the nest too. That one I dont usually hear.
Any corrections or commments about their behaviour, sex or anything would be great!
Sorry for such long message, just wanted to be clear.
I can send seperate pics of them if you liked.
Thanks
Lindsay

Answer
It does sound like the waxbill is a male and is trying to court the spice finch. The best way to tell the sex of a bird (without a DNA test) is to blow on the vent. Males will have long "feeler feathers" and females won't.
It's strange that the waxbill would be courting the spice finch, they aren't even from the same family of birds. It doesn't sound like anything is going wrong so I would leave them be for now. Both species are passive birds that enjoy the company of other birds

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