Some Morphological Traits of Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia guttata)

Abstract

Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia guttata) are a seed-fed species that are naturally endemic in Australia and Lesser Sunda Islands. It has spread all over the world from the continent of Australia, where it was domesticated, and it has been reared as a cage bird. In this study, it was aimed to determine some morphological traits such as live weight (LW), shank length (SL), shank width (SW), middle toe length (MTL), beak length (BL), beak width (BW), head length (HL) and head width (HW) in Zebra Finches. For this purpose, a total of 52 Zebra Finches, 26 females and 26 males, aged 6-8 month, raised under the same environmental conditions were used. LW weighing 0.01 precision scale and other traits were measured with a 0.01 mm precision digital caliper. One-Way Anova test was used to compare the averages by gender. In this study, in terms of LW, SL, SW, MTL, BL, BW, HL and HW traits in Zebra Finches, the mean values in females and males were as 13.59 and 13.16 g, 11.61 and 12.02 mm, 1.36 and 1.43 mm, 10.30 and 10.87 mm, 10.20 and 10.55 mm, 5.58 and 5.82 mm, 23.00 and 23.57 mm, and 11.15 and 11.27 mm, respectively. Between these traits, females were 0.43 g heavier than males in terms of LW, and males were 0.41, 0.57, 0.35, 0.24, and 0.57 mm longer than females with regard to SL, MTL, BL, BW and HL, respectively. There was no difference between genders in terms of SW and HW. In conclusion, although males were lighter than females, it has been determined that they are superior in terms of other morphological measurements in Zebra Finches. As a result of this study, which will be a reference for future studies, it is important to conduct more comprehensive studies on this species.