In celebration of National Bird Day 2015, Barry Kent MacKay, Senior Program Associate for Born Free USA and lifelong bird enthusiast, is writing a special eight-part blog series in December and January where he will describe some interesting avian species. Below is the third installment.
The Gouldian finch is also known as the Lady Gould’s (or Lady Gouldian’s) finch, Gould’s finch, or the rainbow finch. It is a small bird that is so colorful that it almost seems to be unreal. I think if a happy child could color a bird, it might look something like the Gouldian finch. [teaserbreak]
In the male, the upper back and wings are bright lime-green, the lower back is blue, and the breast is a bright purple, sharply demarcated from a bright yellow belly. But, what is rather peculiar is the face, which is usually jet black (but can be bright red in some birds, or a bright golden-amber color in others). The conical beak is pink with a dark tip. Tails are short, and the central feathers come to a point.
The young are a lovely soft tan color. But, as babies in the nest—usually cavities in limbs and hollow branches, often of burnt, dead trees and bushes—they have a bold pattern of brightly whitish-blue nodules at the mouth corners, and black spots inside. This helps the parent bird with a beak-full of food deliver the goodies to the target in the dark interior of the nest. Nesting is in the austral winter, and coincides with food availability.
The bird is found only in a small part of northern, tropical Australia. In a continent known for colorful birds, apart from the parrots, this is one of the most brightly colored of all. Females are similar but less bright in their coloring.
The Gouldian finch was named after Elizabeth Gould (1804 – 1841), who was married to famed artist-naturalist John Gould (1804 – 1881). Elizabeth died young after giving birth to six children, four of whom survived, and after adopting a seventh following a long journey accompanying her husband from England to Australia in 1838 (and after contributing much of the art for a monumental series of paintings of Australian birds, for which her husband received most of the credit). However sad the lack of recognition for the achievements of women in the 19th (if not the 21st) century, at least her memory lives on in its association with this colorful and charming little bird.
The black-faced version is the most common in the wild, but “common” does not describe the bird’s overall status. There was a precipitous decline in the birds for many years, and it is now thought that, depending on the season, the number of adult birds ranges from about 1,000 to about 2,400 individual birds (although there are more optimistic guesses). In the last few years, the number appears to have stabilized—but Australia is experiencing the dramatic effects of climate change with an ongoing series of massive droughts and raging wildfires of record size and duration that could cause further threats in the delicate balance between when the bird nests, and the availability of food and water. Habitat loss from grazing sheep, cattle, and other domestic animals destroys native grass species important to Gouldian finch survival. Essential waterholes are degraded by wallowing cattle and domestic water buffalo.
In the past, populations were reduced by trapping for the exotic bird trade. As you can imagine, such a colorful, charming species that is relatively easy to maintain in a cage was, and still is, irresistable to the industry. Fortunately, it is fully protected in Australia. There is a large, self-sustaining captive population, and one frequently sees these gorgeous birds sold in pet shops or displayed at bird fairs and zoos.
As I discussed with regard to another colorful Australian bird, the budgerigar, there is something in human nature that seems to be unable to avoid wanting to change what is already beautiful. Thus, a whole range of color mutations has been developed. They go by such names as the white-breasted (the breast is white, not purple); the yellow (the green is replaced by yellow); the blue (the green is replaced by blue, the yellow by dull white); the silver (face very pale, the other colors bleached to near or quite whitish); the dilute (overall paler colored males); and the pastel (green replaced by light blue, red, and yellow washed out). Why? It certainly puts the lie to the often heard contention that captive breeding saves species. Not, surely, when bird keepers deliberately seek to change them.
The fate of this wonderful little bird is in the wild, and probably depends—on more than any one factor—on our ability to reduce and eventually eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. How ironic, then, that the current Australian Prime Minister is among the most fervent of that dwindling group of people who doesn’t think climate change is caused by humans. He will be gone soon enough, in the natural order of things; let us hope that the Gouldian finch survives in the meantime.