As a matter of interest ...do you Aussies see any of your finches in the wild? Or are they located elsewhere in that huge country of yours???
What restrictions if any are there to obtaining them from the wild.(In the UK it's illegal and all British finches kept have to be captive bred and close rung as chicks)

Hey Paul

I moved house and couple of months ago And in my new house in the backyard we got like 20 or more owl finches that come down everyday they come down to eat or the seed that is on the ground from my birds we also put a birdbath out there for them to bath in and they bath in it

I will take some photos and videos for you to see

Hey Paul we also get some Mannikins in the yard to

Within a short drive from my house, I have seen red brows, double bars (owls), zebras, chestnuts, diamonds and plumheads. All our native finches are protected from trapping. Most species require a permit to keep them.

We occaisionally see red brow finches - but we mainly get rainbow lorikeets around here with corellas and galahs. Rosellas visit every now and then but most small birds / finches are kept away by the territorial honey eaters and wattle birds that dominate our garden. I also have some four legged pets that tend to chase little birds unfortunately ( that is the chasing is unfortunate not the pets!)

I see loads of zebras, owls, crimson, masked, parson's, fire finches. In my state you can keep zebs and owls with out a permit. the rest need it and you can get a permit to trap wild birds for captivity. basically you need three licenses one for trapping, one for keeping and one for selling.

only finches in the wild around here are zebras. have my doubts about them being a naturally formed wild flock though (would guess that someone has opened their aviary door at some point and let a heap out). the conditions around whyalla aren't very bird friendly, a bit of mallee scrub and lots of bloody salt bush.