Happy Holidays Give Way to Sad News

For Christmas, the zebra finch family received a new bag of choice seeds, and a special cage-mounted, transparent feed station. The station gives them a clear view of their surroundings, and I can see them much better. More importantly, however, the feed station is designed to reduce (ads claim 'eliminate' but no) seed hull scatter from their messy crunch-extract-flick eating habits.

All four birds at the buffet (two kept moving during the photo shoot)

Andre II, Corky & Brut bellied up to the seed bar

And then there were three...

Just two days after these pictures were taken, I found one of the male finches deceased. He had found a resting place on top of the basket of growing grass I keep in the cage, and looked to have gone peacefully. There was slight damage on one of his wings, but we decided it was probably from the other birds "checking into" why he wasn't moving, not from a fight, because against all odds (3 males, one female...) there have been no observed incidents.
I'm still not sure who to mourn, though. They look so much alike in maturity; I can only tell them apart by their songs, and there hasn't been much for them to sing about the last few days. I'm fairly certain Corky is still with us, because I think I heard his awful "toby, toby, toby" call yesterday. Brut has always been timid and quiet, so I will wait to hear either his gentle peeps or Deuce's nifty, complex composition.