The reproduction and its associated behaviour in a
non-seasonal species are considered totally independent
of seasons. To assess this, we examined seasonal differences in the nest building and reproductive performance in diurnal zebra finches that were hatched and
raised in outdoor aviaries. Adult male and female
birds were separately housed in cages equipped with
two perches stacked in a large aviary, receiving the
natural day length (NDL) and temperature conditions.
Cages housing male birds were also fixed with a nest box.
After two weeks of acclimation, the males and females
were paired randomly, and the parameters of nest
building and reproductive performance, such as the
onset of egg laying, clutch size and hatchlings and
fledglings per pair, were recorded in the winter (second
week of November 2022 to the first week of February
2023), and subsequently similarly in the summer (third
week of April 2023 to the first week of July 2023) seasons. The pairs took more time to initiate (mean ± SE –
winter: 2.92 ± 0.58; summer: 2.33 ± 0.45) and complete
(mean ± SE – winter: 6.75 ± 0.52; summer: 4.50 ± 0.27)
the nest in winter, as compared to that in summer. Per
pair, the clutch size was significantly smaller in winter
(mean ± SE: 2.2 ± 0.36) than in summer (mean ± SE:
3.6 ± 0.34), but the hatchlings (P = 0.2123) and fledglings (P = 0.5302) were not significantly different
between the two seasons, perhaps due to higher temperature and dryness in summer. These results indicated an underlying seasonality in zebra finches, which
could be economically useful to those engaged in
breeding and raising of pet species.