As you may already know Bengalese Mannikins (well, in Australia anyway) commonly are a Pied finch or are marked with white feathers quite heavily and when I went to this particular Bird Store I was quite attracted to the Bengos that had very little white on them and showed off more of the natural markings of the finch. Little did I know that this was the beginning of a new interest in my known world of the Bengalese Mannikin.
It did not take long for me to realise that although the Bengalese were by no means the most colourful of the finches that I was keeping I found myself quite drawn to them, more so than any of my other finches. I found the shape, lines and form of the Bengalese quite attractive and the gentle nature of these finches was proving a real asset in my small enclosure where on the other end of the scale my Zebra Finch pair were nesting and dominating the group.
After some time had passed I was becoming more and more interested in the idea of keeping a Bengalese finch that had no white markings on them and over a period of months of searching and inquiring with various stores and breeders, I was becoming painfully aware that a non-pied or Self Bengalese (as they are called) are extremely rare to the point of non existent in some opinions. This was disappointing to me because I had started looking around on the net and had discovered the beautifully marked Self Bengalese that is in Europe called the Euro Self and I was becoming more and more interested in the various mutations that are available around the world. Things were not looking good in finding the finch I was looking for..........
Blackbrown Euro Self
