Spice finches are social birds that organize small groups in the wild. Adult birds measure a bare 4-3/4 inches from beak to tail. Because they have no distinguishing gender markings it is not easy to identify male and female birds.
The Spice finch's head and throat are a reddish brown while the sides of the neck can be described almost as a chocolate brown coloration. Their back and wings display white shaft lines. The Spice finch belly is white while the breast is edged in brown and their feathers form a scallop pattern. Determining gender is difficult but not impossible. Males make the most noise, singing constantly. It goes without saying that the females produce the eggs. Careful observation should reveal gender.
In the wild they live in areas of wild growth. Grasses and weeds are great for them. They also tend to choose the edges of villages near rice paddies in Ceylon, India, Indochina, southern China, Formosa, Luzon, Malaysia, Sumatra, Bali and other islands in the Pacific.
Spice finches live in small groupings, sometimes mixing with other related variety. Their diet consists mainly of grass seeds they forage from the ground. They are also known to pick maturing rice kernels right off the plants. Small, dense bushes are the perfect place to build their apartment style nests. The use dried grass straw and bamboo leaves to build the nest. Spice finches raise four to seven nestlings while feeding them a diet of green seeds and insect protein.
Requirements in Captivity
Along with Zebra finches and Society finches, Spice finches make the perfect birds for the beginner. They adjust quite well to cage life or aviary life. They make few demands outside of food and water, cleaning their cage and a bit of attention and they are wonderfully peaceful. If you intend on breeding Spice finches, however, consider a larger aviary as they tend not to breed in a flight cage. In either case, you should provide some leafy branches or a thick bush for nesting purposes and some tall grass for them to climb. You should also know that you will have to trim the birds' claws from time to time as they tend to grow long especially when housed in a cage.
Basic seed diets that are supplemented with vitamins and minerals are ideal. I would give them a choice between small seeds for finches and somewhat larger seeds sold as parakeet seed. It seems that some Spice finches like the larger seeds that come in the parakeet mixture. See which seed mix disappears first and stick with it. Like most finches, they are omnivores; supplement their seed diet with green, leafy vegetables, chopped up boiled eggs and mealworms or ant pupae.
If you are breeding spice finches then provide them with coconut fibers, broad leaved grass and even some straw to build their nests. It is also good to have more than two or three pairs of males and females so they can choose their own partner. Provide plenty of insect protein until the hatchlings reach independence as well as a standard seed diet.
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