The roller sings with its bill virtually closed and emits a soft tone deep from within its throat. The most renowned song canary is the roller or Hartz roller canary, named after the Hartz mountain region of Germany. You might say that canaries are nature’s “original recording artists,” because they learn their songs either by imitating the songs of other birds, incorporating parts into their own song, and/or by listening to stimulating music. Male canaries are the true troubadours (always trying to impress the female canaries), so if song quality is what you’re looking for, a male canary kept singly is your best bet. Song CanariesĪll canaries sing, but just as with people, some are better singers than others. Consult an experienced canary breeder or your avian veterinarian before starting a color-feeding regimen. Color feeding and/or the use of chemicals to enhance color can be harmful to the bird’s health if not done properly. Thus, the orange coloring of the red canary, can be made redder by feeding it red peppers or the synthetic canthaxanthin. the bird’s natural basic color) must be compatible with the color enhancement. However, you can’t turn yellow a canary red just by feeding it red peppers. (Think of it as adding lemon juice to bring out the blonde highlights in your hair, only the canary is fed the food instead of wearing it.)Ĭayenne pepper was one of the first substances fed to achieve a more distinct color in red factor canaries. The process is called color-feeding and must begin before the canary starts to molt, at about 6 to 8 weeks of age. Some canaries are fed certain foods and/or substances to enhance the color qualities of the canary’s plumage. Colored canaries include the green (bronze or blue), brown (cinnamon), ino (canaries with red eyes), pastel, red factor, dominant white, recessive white, ivory, as well as agate (also referred to as dilute green), Isabel factor and lizard canaries, which have feather markings similar to the scales of a reptile. When superimposed upon each other, the lipochrome and melanin colors combine to produce colors such as green, blue, bronze, cinnamon, fawn and brown.įor example, take a canary with a yellow-based color (lipochrome color) and breed it with a bird that has black melanin in its genetic makeup, and you might produce a green-looking canary. The melanin color includes the dark hues of black and brown of the wild canary. The lipochrome color is the ground color, which is yellow in the wild canary and also includes dominant white, recessive white and red. Genetically speaking, a canary’s color is derived from two basic elements: lipochrome color and melanin color. Then in the early 1900s, a male, black-hooded red siskin (Spinus cucullatus) was mated to a female, yellow German roller canary, and red was added to the canary’s colorful palette. White, blue and fawn canary colors soon followed. Later, the appearance of the agate canary, a green-and-cinnamon-colored bird, marked the beginning of color canary breeding as a hobby. Nelson, 1989, countless selective pairings of wild canaries produced the typical clear yellow bird (one without melanin pigmentation as opposed to the fully-pigmented, grayish-green wild canary). The Color CanaryĪccording to the “Introduction to the Color Canary” by J.M. These birds delight young and old and make great pets. All of these varieties evolved from a single ancestor, the wild canary (Serinus serinus) of the Canary Islands. Then, there are the numerous varieties in each breed and there are many mixed breeds of canaries to choose from. First, there are the three main breeds: color canaries, type canaries and song canaries. Although all canaries belong to the same genus (Serinus), there are many varieties to choose from nonetheless. If variety is the spice of life, canaries must be the spice of the bird world.
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