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CANARY :

The quintessential pet bird, the canary has enjoyed steady popularity for more than a century. Its beautiful song and color and its charming nature have endeared it to many bird enthusiasts. All canaries originate from the same species, but there are three types, or breeds, popular in the United States: color-bred canaries, type canaries and song canaries. “Their behavior is active, jaunty, alert, happy, The health concerns are where do you place their cage, it should NOT be in front of a window, at least 3 feet away with indirect sun light, due to drafts which is the biggest killer of our little friends. Also Teflon, cooking in small quarters with no ventilation using frying pans made with Teflon can be fatal to canaries, for caution there should be enough ventilation.” - David Benites, President of the San Diego County Canary Club and the President of the American Association of Spanish Timbrado Breeders.

Canary Species : ( Please click on the Name to Read More .. )

1-American Singer Canary

6-German Roller Canary

7-Gloster Canary

8-Lizard Canary

9-Norwich Canary

10-Parisian-Frilled Canary

11-Spanish Timbrado Canary

12-Stafford Canary

13-Waterslager Canary

14-Yorkshire Canary

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Domestic canary

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the pet variety of the bird. For the wild bird that inhabits islands off western Europe, seeAtlantic canary.

The domestic canary, often simply known as the canary (Serinus canariaforma domestica[2]), is a domesticated form of the wild canary, a smallsongbird in the finch family originating from the Macaronesian Islands(Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands).

Canaries were first bred in captivity in the 17th century. They were brought over by Spanish sailors to Europe. This bird became expensive and fashionable to breeding in courts of Spanish and English kings.[3][4] Monks started breeding them and only sold the males (which sing). This kept the birds in short supply and drove the price up. Eventually Italians obtained hens and were able to breed the birds themselves. This made them very popular and resulted in many breeds arising and the birds being bred all over Europe.

The same occurred in England. First the birds were only owned by the rich but eventually the local citizens started to breed them and, again, they became very popular. Many breeds arose through selective breeding, and they are still very popular today for their voices.

Typically, the domestic canary is kept as a popular cage and aviary bird. Given proper housing and care, a canary's lifespan ranges from 10 to 15 years..[5]

A red factor canary

Conservation status :Domesticated

Scientific classification :

Kingdom:Animalia

Phylum:Chordata

Class:Aves

Order:Passeriformes

Family:Fringillidae

Genus:Serinus

Species:S. canaria

Subspecies:S. c. domestica

Trinomial name

Serinus canaria domestica[1]
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Etymology :

The birds are named after Spain's Canary Islands, which derive their name from the Latin Insula Canaria (after one of the larger islands, Gran Canaria), meaning "island of dogs", due to its "vast multitudes of dogs of very large size".[6][7]

Varieties:

Canaries are generally divided into three main groups:

-Colour bred canaries (bred for their many colour mutations - ino, eumo, satinette, bronze, ivory, onyx, mosaic, brown and red factor etc.)

-Type canaries (bred for their shape and conformation - Australian Plainhead, Berner, Border, Fife, Gibber Italicus, Gloster, Lancashire, Raza Española, Yorkshire, etc.)

-Song canaries (bred for their unique and specific song patterns - Spanish Timbrado, German Roller (also known asHarz Roller), Waterslager (also known as "Malinois"), American Singer, Russian Singer, Persian Singer).

While wild canaries are a yellowish-green colour, domestic canaries have been selectively bred for a wide variety of colours, such as yellow, orange, brown, black, white, and red. (The colour red was introduced to the domesticated canary through hybridisation with the red siskin, a type of South American finch.[8])

A white canary nesting

A yellow canary perched in a tree

Competitions :

Canaries are judged in competitions following the annual molt in the summer.[9] This means that in the Northern Hemisphere the show season generally begins in October or November and runs through December or January. Birds can only be shown by the person who raised them. A show bird must have a unique band on its leg indicating the year of birth, the band number, and the club to which the breeder belongs.

There are many canary shows all over the world. The world show (C.O.M.) is held in Europe each year and attracts thousands of breeders. As many as 20,000 birds are brought together for this competition.

Miner's canary :

Canaries were once regularly used in coal mining as an early warning system.[10] Toxic gases such as carbon monoxide, methane[citation needed] or carbon dioxide in the mine would kill the bird before affecting the miners. Signs of distress from the bird indicated to the miners that conditions were unsafe. The use of miners' canaries in British mines was phased out in 1987.[11]

The phrase "canary in a coal mine" is frequently used to refer to a person or thing which serves as an early warning of a coming crisis. By analogy, the term climate canary is used to refer to a species that is affected by an environmental danger prior to other species, thus serving as an early warning system for the other species with regard to the danger.[12] (See indicator species.)

Use in research

Canaries have been extensively used in research to study neurogenesis, or the birth of new neurons in the adult brain, and also for basic research in order to understand how songbirds encode and produce song. Thus, canaries have served as model species for discovering how the vertebrate brain learns, consolidates memories, and recalls coordinated motor movements.

Fernando Nottebohm, a professor at the Rockefeller University in New York City, New York, detailed the brain structures and pathways that are involved in the production of bird song.[13][14] Canaries were used by SINGARENI coal company of Telangana STATE of India for detection of CO( Carbon Monoxide) under coal mines.

Trivia:

-Canaries have been depicted in cartoons from the mid-20th century as being harassed by domestic cats; the most famous cartoon canary is Warner Brothers' "Tweety Bird".

-Norwich City, an English football team, is nicknamed "The Canaries" due to the city once being a famous centre for breeding and export of the birds. The club adopted the colours of yellow and green in homage. Jacob Mackley, of Norwich, won many prizes with birds of the local variety and shipped about 10,000 Norwich to New York every year. In the early 1900s, he opened his aviaries to the public for three days and 10,000 people turned up.

-Koper, a Slovenian football team are nicknamed "The Canaries" (Kanarčki).

-FC Novi Sad, a Serbian football team from Novi Sad are also nicknamed after the birds, due to their home kits being completely yellow.

-Fenerbahçe, a Turkish football team, is nicknamed Sarı Kanaryalar (Turkish for "Yellow Canaries").