| About an Endangered Bird |
| 07.26.09 | |
Gouldian Finches are nearly 130″140 mm long. Both sexes are brightly colored with black, green, yellow, red and other colors. The female Gouldian Finch tends to be less brightly colored. One major difference between the sexes is that the male’s chest is purple, while the female’s is a lighter mauve color.
Gouldian Finches heads may be red, black, or yellow. People used to think they were three different kinds of finches, but now it is acknowledged that they are color variants that exist in the wild. Selective breeding has also developed mutations (blue, yellow and silver instead of green back) in body color and breast color.
The Gouldian Finch can be found from Austrailia’s Northern Territory to the Kimberly region and also on the Cape York Peninsula. The Gouldian Finches habitat is tropical savanna timberlands. The Birds are nomadic within a comparatively small region approx 40 sq kilometers and only move when water or food grows scarce.
Their declining in numbers rapid through the last 100 years with no mare than twenty five hundred adult birds found in the wild landing them on the endangered species list. Current efforts are underway to help bring back natural wild populations in remote parts of Australia. However, efforts to re-introduce the Gouldian Finch in the wild have been unsucessfull to this point.
