Thank you everybody for the good advice. I have another question and would like to get your feedback. Our female finch has been picking the feathers around the boys "behind" as well as on the back of one leg. She's also now starting to pick at the babies. We are thinking of putting her in her own cage for awhile because I think she is getting a little stressed out at all the babies in the cage. Also, I think she is the dominate bird in the cage and maybe that's why she is doing this. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

I've heard of parrots doing that to their babies, but never finches. For parrots, it's usually recommended to take the plucking bird out. Might have to do the same.

Internet suggests that they do it when there's no more nesting material, but that usually applies to male birds. If you do put new nesting material in there though, they'll most likely build a new nest on top the current one, which wouldn't be good for the chicks, if they're still at nestling stage.

How old are the chicks now? Have they fledged yet? One guide suggests putting canary tassel-like toys or clean jute string in there to distract the plucking finch, since it looks like nesting material, but doesn't detach from the cage bars. If it continues, then you should remove the finch for a little while, until the babies fledge (if they haven't already).

When a cage is too small, a pecking order emerges, and you will end up with a dominant finch, which could be the case. According to this guide, the dominance depends on the bird's age, health, and other factors, and usually it's the younger birds that get picked on. Do you by any chance know the dimensions of your cage?

Our cage is 14x26x20 inches. They started hatching at the beginning of this month and have been out of the nest for about a week.

Yes, that might be it. The guide I just linked suggested at least 2 square feet for every two birds, though I would find that a bit of an exaggeration. Since they've been out of their nest for about a week now, they should be eating on their own and everything by now, if I'm not mistaken.

How many chicks grew up successfully? Three? I can't quite remember. you can try giving the tassel toys, and see if that'll help the situation, and if that doesn't help the situation. Then try taking the female out for a while, if nothing changes. If she goes back to doing it after putting her back in, then you can try giving them a bigger cage.

thank you. We may try taking her out if she continues to pick the other birds. We have four babies, one that is all white at this point (named Snowball), and the three others are mostly grey. We're going to try taking out the nest tomorrow and just let them sleep on the perches. We've made their cage very natural looking so they have lots of things to keep them interested.

Ah ok. so that means they've gone through their juvenile molt, yes? Their feathers look different as fledglings, before they go through their first molt. I'd love to see some pictures of them now, if you don't mind.

I'll try to get my wife to take some pictures and post them. To me, the parents and the babies all pretty much look the same. But I'm new at this and don't know much about birds. I just see different behaviors from the mother bird. Probably just natural from having babies.....

Understandable. Welcome to the world of birds! It'll be hard to tell them apart at first, but over time, you will learn that each of them have their own personality, and you'll be able to identify each one as a unique individual. Though if you want to turn this into a hobby, leg bands are an easier way of doing it

Though one thing you can do easily though, is that if they're natural coloring, you can tell which one's a male and which is a female.

The male is the one with the cheeks and stripes.

Even though some color mutations may make it hard, you'll be able to spot some differences over time as well, as the makes will usually have the same general markings that will allow you to distinguish your gender

While these two both have cheeks, the male is the one with the darker chest.