INTRODUCTION

John Gould (1804-1881), born in the U.K., first admired the black-headed bird in 1844 and gave his name to the species.  In his work “The Birds of Australia” Volume III, published in 1848, he pictured these birds in a 54.5 x 35cm lithograph. 
Usually he depicted a male and a female, but here he made a mistake and showed two males together with a young one.  This lithograph may be seen on the cover of the book, “Erythrura Gouldiae”, by Daniël Wildemeersch.  

CLASSIFICATION
Over the years various Latin names have been given to the Gouldian Finch.  John Gould called the bird “Amadina Gouldiae”.  
In 1862 Reichenbach considered them to be a separate species and re-classified them in the genus Chloebia.  Due to their resemblance to other grass-finches, they were classified in the genus Peophila by Jean Delacour in 1943.  Later, through their resemblance to the parrot finches, they arrived in the genus Erythrura, (Wolters & Mitchell, 1958).  
In 1982 they were classified again as Chloebia, the original genus.

Nowadays the name Erythrura is generally accepted. Through chromosome research in 1986 by L. Christidis of the Australian National University, Canberra, it was established that the Gouldian Finches are most closely related to the Blue-faced Parrot-finches.


NATIVE HABITAT
Australia is a separate continent and has an area of approximately 7,700,000 km2. By comparison, Belgium has 30,000 km2 and Holland 41,000 km2.  Gouldian finches live in forest territories in the north west of Queensland, where a wide variety of grasses can be found. They are also found in the Northern Territory and the Kimberly district of north Western Australia.  The summers in these areas are rainy with winters which are hot and dry.


The highest concentration of Gouldians occurs during the breeding season in the Kimberley district, an area of 350,000 km2.  It is a mountainous and inhospitable region consisting of savannas, prairies and scattered groups of trees.  Because the region is uninhabited, very little is known of the Gouldian finch in its natural habitat.  Tropical temperatures, sometimes as high as 40° Celsius, are no exception.


DESCRIPTION
Gouldian finches occur naturally in three different head colours, the black-headed, red-headed and yellow-headed.  

There are obvious visible differences between male and female.  
The colours of the male are brighter than the female.  
Young Gouldians have a brown sheen on their plumage, which disappears after the adult moult.


AVICULTURAL NOTES
Today there are no longer major problems with the breeding of Gouldians. They can be kept in cages or aviaries.  Parent-rearing and colony breeding are no exception and can be achieved with great success.


If you are interested in these beautiful birds, the mutations, or just want to know more about the keeping and the breeding of these Australian finches, become a member of the Belgian National Exoticbird Club (B.N.E.C.)  

WILD COLOURS