Reproduction is very important to most living creatures. The first step toward that for a Finster is to sing a Hunka Hunka Burning Love song, and dance a Hunka Hunka Burning Love dance (if they're so inclined). The Finsters do this all the time. The next step is to build a nest. Or at least try to. I make it very frustrating for the Finsters: I give them nest boxes, but no nesting material. They do their best, though. Bits of lettuce, dried poop, molted feathers, molted feathers stuck to poop, stems of denuded millet spray, lima beans (really), bits of paper torn from the cage liner, and things like that.

The Spice finches have learned how to rip the leaves off the plastic vines that I hot glue to the top of the boxes (pops). The thing is, those leaves aren't very comfortable. Oh, you'd think they'd be more comfortable than big lumps of dried poop — and maybe they are. But you can soak a plastic leaf in drinking water for hours in the hope that it will get softer. If you do that to a big lump of dried poop...well. Let's not go there.

Nest building is a glorious thing to watch, but it can lead to fighting, and — of course — overpopulation. Which is why I don't encourage it, but Bruce has threatened to put some small bits of raffia in the Finsterium when I'm not looking. (Don't tell him, but it'd be pretty fun.) Like big lumps of dried poop, raffia isn't the softest of nesting material options, but I've had Finsters get their toes caught in some of the other materials sold for nest making (anything like string can be pretty tricky). Raffia is a safe choice, plus the birds can put molted feathers on top, and stick it all together with poop.