"John - do you keep your Gouldians inside during winter? Your climate is pretty cold.
The guy I sit next to at work recently came back from the Northern Territory where he saw some wild Gouldian Finches. There are not a lot of them left unfortunately."
David....yes, when I had Finches in the past, as now, they are inside birds. Temps here are too cold for Gouldians 10 months a year and even in those other 2 months, it's not impossible to have an unusual cold snap. While our summers are hot, it's not unheard of for the jet stream to drop below the Great Lakes, allowing arctic air to temporarily dip further South than normal, bringing cold enough temps that we've had frost warnings in the middle of the summer.
Yes, I've read about and seen documentaries about the extreme situation facing the wild Gouldians. However, I've never really understood why they're having so much trouble in the wild. As long as they're warm enough they seem to be quite a hardy bird. Northern Australia is their natural range; so, what's going on? I heard long ago that it might be air sac mites that have arrived from abroad, which is causing the wild birds to struggle. Whatever the issue (mites, habitat destruction, exotic predators, etc.), I hope the issue gets resolved and the populations are able to bounce back.