Domestic canary

Domestic canary
The Domestic canary, often simply known as the canary, (Serinus canaria forma domestica) is a domesticated form of the wild canary, a small songbird 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. 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 voice.
 
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".
 
Varieties
Canaries are generally divided into three main groups:

• Colorbred 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 as Harz 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.)
 
Competitions
Canaries are judged in competitions following the annual molt in the summer. 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. Toxic gases such as carbon monoxide, methane 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.

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. 
 
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.

Types of Canaries

Types of Canaries
Canaries, birds known for both beauty and song, have been popular pets for many centuries. Hundreds of different canary breeds exist throughout the world, all of which can be classified into three distinct types; song canaries, type canaries and color canaries. Some canaries have been bred to be great singers, while others have been bred to have certain markings and shapes or certain colors.

Canary History
All the varieties of canaries originate from the wild canary, Serinus serinus, of the Canary Islands. These beautiful, singing birds were known to the Romans and then rediscovered by the French in 1334, after which captured birds began appearing in other countries. Original canaries were green with hints of grey and yellow, very different from the yellows and oranges popular today. Current shades and color arrangements vary exceedingly.
 
Song Canaries
The most famous of canaries is the song canary. They are bred specifically for their song. Rollers, waterslagers, American singers and timbrados are the best known song canary breeds. Usually, male canaries sing the best, always trying to impress the females. Song canaries can imitate other birds and music, thus incorporating the sounds into their own song. The most renowned song canary is the Hartz roller canary, emitting a soft tone from the throat with a nearly closed beak.

Type Canaries
Type canary breeders concentrate on shape, stance and other physical characteristics. Well-known type canary breeds include the Fife, border and Gloster canaries. Nearly no attention is paid to the quality of song produced from these birds. Type canaries can be tall or short, fat or skinny and may have smooth or frilled feathers. For example, the Scotch fancy canary sits in an unnaturally bent posture, while the northern Dutch frill has long swooped feathers.
 
Color Canaries
Color canaries are bred into all colors, except true blues or black. Breeding canaries for color is derived from two color elements: melanin and lipochrome. Melanin color includes dark hues of black and brown, while lipochrome color includes yellow, white and red. The typical yellow bird has been selectively bred without melanin pigmentation. Combined during breeding, melanin and lipochrome create colors of green, blue, bronze, cinnamon, fawn and brown. Additionally, colors may be enhanced by feeding colored foods.

Mules
A female canary bred to a male finch results in a mule canary. Often, these offspring will be infertile. Examples of these breedings are called the goldfinch mule, siskin mule or greenfinch mule. A male canary bred with a female finch is known as a bull. Mules have singing ability and can be exhibited at shows.
 
Housing
Canaries love to fly in open spaces, and need a cage at least 24 inches wide and 18 inches tall, with bars no more than a half inch apart. Canaries fly across, not up and down, so fix at least two softwood perches, three-eighths to three-quarters of an inch wide, at either end of the cage. Lining the bottom of the cage with newspaper makes it easier to clean. Canaries' cages should be placed in a light, airy position at least 3 feet from direct sunlight and drafts, about 6 feet off the floor. Placing the cage close to a wall helps canaries feel secure.
 
Diet
Canaries' health benefits from a wide-ranging diet and continuous access to water. Canaries can't survive more than 24 hours without water, so fix a water bottle to the side of their cage and change the water daily. Commercial canary seed and pellets are available, and are vitamin-coated to supply essential nutrients, but canaries also benefit from additional healthy foods such as dandelions, spinach, celery, apples, oranges and grapes, cut into small pieces. Canaries eat about a half a tablespoon of seed a day. Spreading it out thinly in a wide dish helps prevent seed being covered by seed shells. A cuttlebone is essential for calcium and a strong beak and bones.
 
Care
Canaries' care needs are simple. Keep their cages clean by changing the cage paper and cleaning their food bowl daily. Once a week, wash the cage throughout, including bars and perches, with warm soapy water or bird cage disinfectant. Dry with a clean cloth. Canaries should have their cages covered at night to maintain their natural sleeping patterns and protect them from drafts. Fumes, such as smoke from cigarettes or scented candles, are bad for bird health. Never cook with Teflon or other non-stick pans, as their fumes can kill. Canaries who are too cold puff their feathers up for long periods. If they're too hot, they hold their wings away from their body and pant. Canaries need to have their toenails clipped. Your vet can show you how this is done.
 
Activities
Often content to fly back and forth for most of the day, canaries can also play in their cages with one or two simple toys, changed weekly for variety. A cage cluttered with toys limits their freedom to fly. Another activity canaries enjoy is bathing in a shallow dish of lukewarm water or wet dandelion leaves. Young male canaries learn to copy sounds they hear regularly, such as a doorbell. If you plan on letting your bird have exercise outside his cage, you will need to train him, which takes considerable time and patience. When handling canaries, the bird's back should lie against the palm of the hand, with thumb and forefinger gently holding the sides of his head.

Black-headed canary

 
Black-headed canary
The black-headed canary (Serinus alario) is a species of finch found in Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa. It is sometimes placed in genus Alario as Alario alario
Its habitat is dry open scrub and grassland, edges of cultivation and suburban gardens.
 
Description
The black-headed canary is 12–15 cm in length. The adult male has rich brown upperparts and tail, a white hind collar, and mainly white underparts. The head and central breast are solidly black.

The adult female is similar, but has a dull grey head, and is dark-streaked on the head and upperparts. It has a rich brown wing bar. The juvenile resembles the female, but is paler, has streaking on the breast, and a weaker wing bar.

The Damara canary, Serinus leucolaema, is often considered to be a subspecies of black-headed canary. The male of that form has a strikingly different head pattern, with a white supercilium, and a white throat and fore neck with a black moustachial stripe. The black of the central breast is therefore separate from the black of the head.

Phylogeny
This species is phylogeneticagy included within the group of Serinus syriacus now thriving around the Mt Lebanon and other Asian and African patches in winter, together with Serinus canicollis (African distribution) and Serinus pusillus (Asian distribution) Arnaiz-Villena et al, 1999
 
Behaviour
The Damara canary is a common and gregarious seedeater, forming flocks of up to 200 birds. Its call is a low tseett, and the male's song is jumble of unmusical notes.

Yellow canary

Yellow canary
The yellow canary (Crithagra flaviventris) is a small passerine bird in the finch family. It is a resident breeder in much of the western and central regions of southern Africa and has been introduced to Ascension and St Helena islands.
 
Taxonomy
The yellow canary was formerly placed in the genus Serinus but phylogenetic analysis using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences found that the genus was polyphyletic. The genus was therefore split and a number of species including the yellow canary were moved to the resurrected genus Crithagra.

For an overview of finch phylogeny (including canaries) see the entry on finches.
 
Description
The yellow canary is typically 13 cm in length. The adult male colour ranges from almost uniform yellow in the northwest of its range to streaked, olive backed birds in the southeast. The underparts, rump and tail sides are yellow. The female has grey-brown upperparts, black wings with yellow flight feathers, and a pale supercilium. The underparts are white with brown streaking. The juvenile resembles the female, but has heavier streaking.

This species is easily distinguished from the yellow-fronted canary by its lack of black facial markings, and its bill is less heavy than that of other similar African Crithagra species.

Distribution and habitat
Its habitat is karoo and coastal or mountain valley scrub. It builds a compact cup nest in a scrub.

The yellow canary is a common and gregarious seedeater. Its call is chissick or cheree, and the song is a warbled zee-zeree-chereeo.
The Canary bird is set aside from other pet birds because of their beautiful singing ability.
Canaries are known for their beauty and their song and have been kept as pets since the 1400s. They are not companion birds and are better admired from afar, but this doesn't make them any less of a great pet. They do spend a lot of time in their cages, so you need an adaquately sized cage with perches on either end to provide them with maximum flying space.

If you want a Canary that sings, you will need to find a male. If this is very important to you, you should arrange ahead of time with the breeder to be able to return the bird if it proves to not be a singer. Keep in mind that males sing to attract females, so they should not be kept in pairs. They also don't sing in the summer because it is molting season. We have also heard to not put mirrors in their cages because Canaries are very territorial and they may see this "second bird" as a threat.

The most commonly kept Canary birds are the American Singer, the Border Fancy, and the Red Factor. The American Singer is a song Canary (well known for singing), the Border Fancy is a type Canary (a popular type), and the Red Factor is a color Canary (well known for color--the more red, the more valuable).

Atlantic canary

 
Atlantic canary
The Atlantic canary (Serinus canaria) is known worldwide simply as wild canary. It is also called the island canary, canary or common canary, is a small passerine bird belonging to the genus Serinus in the finch family, Fringillidae. It is native to the Canary Islands, the Azores, and Madeira. Wild birds are mostly yellow-green, with brownish streaking on the back. The species is common in captivity and a number of colour varieties have been bred.
This bird is the natural symbol of the Canary Islands, together with the Canary Island date palm.
 
Description
The wild Atlantic canary can range from 10 to 12 cm (3.9 to 4.7 in) in length, with a wingspan of 21 to 23.7 cm (8.3 to 9.3 in) and a weight of 8.4 to 24.3 g (0.30 to 0.86 oz), with an average of around 15 g (0.53 oz). The male has a largely yellow-green head and underparts with a yellower forehead, face and supercilium. The lower belly and undertail-coverts are whitish and there are some dark streaks on the sides. The upperparts are grey-green with dark streaks and the rump is dull yellow. The female is similar to the male but duller with a greyer head and breast and less yellow underparts. Juvenile birds are largely brown with dark streaks.

It is about 10% larger, longer and less contrasted than its relative the European serin, and has more grey and brown in its plumage and relatively shorter wings.

The song is a silvery twittering similar to the songs of the serin and citril finch.

Hybridization with white-rumped seedeater has been noted by Antonio Arnaiz-Villena et al.
 
Taxonomy
The Atlantic canary was classified by Linnaeus in 1758 in his Systema Naturae. Linnaeus originally classified the Atlantic canary as a subspecies of the European serin and assigned them to the genus Fringilla. Decades later, Cuvier reclassified them into the genus Serinus and there they have remained. The Atlantic canary's closest relative is the European serin, and the two can produce on average 25% fertile hybrids if crossed.
The phylogeny has been obtained by Antonio Arnaiz-Villena et al.
 
Etymology
The bird is named after the Canary Islands, not the other way around. The islands' name is derived from the Latin name canariae insulae ("islands of dogs") used by Arnobius, referring to the large dogs kept by the inhabitants of the islands. A legend of the islands, however, states that it was the conquistadors who named the islands after a fierce tribe inhabiting the largest island of the group, known as the 'Canarii'. The colour canary yellow is in turn named after the yellow domestic canary, produced by a mutation which suppressed the melanins of the original dull-greenish wild Atlantic canary colour.

Distribution and habitat
It is endemic to the Canary Islands, Azores and Madeira in the region known as Macaronesia in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. In the Canary Islands, it is common on Tenerife, La Gomera, La Palma and El Hierro, but more local on Gran Canaria, and rare on Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, where it has only recently begun breeding. It is common in Madeira including Porto Santo and the Desertas Islands, and has been recorded on the Salvage Islands. In the Azores, it is common on all islands. The population has been estimated at 80,000-90,000 pairs in the Canary Islands, 30,000-60,000 pairs in the Azores and 4,000-5,000 pairs in Madeira.

It occurs in a wide variety of habitats from pine and laurel forests to sand dunes. It is most common in semiopen areas with small trees such as orchards and copses. It frequently occurs in man-made habitats such as parks and gardens. It is found from sea-level up to at least 760 m in Madeira, 1,100 m in the Azores and to above 1,500 m in the Canary Islands.

It has become established on Midway Atoll in the northwest Hawaiian Islands, where it was first introduced in 1911. It was also introduced to neighbouring Kure Atoll, but failed to become established. Birds were introduced to Bermuda in 1930 and quickly started breeding, but they began to decline in the 1940s after scale insects devastated the population of Bermuda cedar, and by the 1960s they had died out. The species also occurs in Puerto Rico, but is not yet established there.

Behavior
Reproduction
It is a gregarious bird which often nests in groups with each pair defending a small territory. The cup-shaped nest is built 1–6 m above the ground in a tree or bush, most commonly at 3–4 m. It is well-hidden amongst leaves, often at the end of a branch or in a fork. It is made of twigs, grass, moss and other plant material and lined with soft material including hair and feathers.

The eggs are laid between January and July in the Canary Islands, from March to June with a peak of April and May in Madeira and from March to July with a peak of May and June in the Azores. They are pale blue or blue-green with violet or reddish markings concentrated at the broad end. A clutch contains 3 to 4 or occasionally 5 eggs and 2-3 broods are raised each year. The eggs are incubated for 13–14 days and the young birds leave the nest after 14–21 days, most commonly after 15–17 days.

Feeding
It typically feeds in flocks, foraging on the ground or amongst low vegetation. It mainly feeds on seeds such as those of weeds, grasses and figs. It also feeds on other plant material and small insects. It has also been found that canaries need gravity to swallow, thus leading to death from dehydration in zero gravity conditions such as space.

Relationship with humans
This species is often kept as a pet, often known as the domestic canary. Selective breeding has produced many varieties, differing in colour and shape. Yellow birds are particularly common, while red birds have been produced by interbreeding with the red siskins. Canaries were formerly used by miners to warn of dangerous gases ("canary in a coal mine"). The bird is also widely used in scientific research. Canaries are often depicted in the media with Tweety Bird being a well-known example.