The last thing I did for birds this morning was give Frank his last dose of antibiotics, and put him in the Finsterium. He flew up to a perch, and looked around for a few minutes. Sally flew over to him, said "Why are you so pink?" and started to preen him. He preened himself, looked around, and preened some more. After about ten minutes of that, he flew down to the ground for some tasty seeds. Altogether, it was close to 20 minutes from the time I put him in the Big House, to the start of a bath.

The bath/water dish in the Finsterium is a 10-inch diameter plastic saucer made for plants. Three or four bathing Finsters will fit into it at one time. Most of the Finsters take at least two baths a day. While I have had a Finster who never took a bath, ever, I have also never known a finch to enjoy baths as much as Frank and Sally. Sally particularly likes baths, and will perch on the side of the saucer before and after jumping in to get splashed by other bathing birds. She also takes the longest baths I've ever noticed, a good two minutes at a stretch. This morning, though, Frank outdid her by a long shot: he was splashing in the water for 4 1/2 minutes, and then perched on the edge for another minute or so, getting splashed by other birds. He then flew up to a perch, and preened for a solid half hour.

I actually expected him to take more baths this morning, and stayed nearby to watch for most of the morning to see, but that was the only bathing he did for a few hours. After that I had to do other things; I saw the evidence of two other bath sessions, but never saw an actual bath. Truth is, Frank cleaned all the pink stuff off during that first bath. He's such a handsome bird!