Mary Allen
Bird lovers know that canaries can also show emotions. But you can not only recognize their mood by the many different vocalizations of your feathered singers. These birds have developed a distinctive body language, the meaning of which is quite important for keeping them in cages. After all, their well-being also depends on whether you interpret their behavior correctly.
Body Language or Body Care?
Canaries’ body language can easily be mistaken for personal hygiene. If one of your feathered tenors spreads their wings, they may want to cool off. But this canary behavior can just as well be a threat. The bird wants to show a conspecific that it claims food, territory, or a female for itself.
The situation is similarly ambiguous in the case of a widely open canary’s beak. Either the bird is threatening or it is too hot. Then panting is only used to cool down. Sharpening the beak on a branch can also have different causes. On the one hand, it can serve to appease aggressive conspecifics, on the other hand, the canary can only want to clean its beak with it.
Love Goes Through the Beak
When canaries want to show their great affection, they bill each other. If they also clean each other, the sympathy is particularly great. If a male canary wants to impress a female, it even performs a dance. The canaries often offer their partner body parts for grooming that they cannot reach with their beak when cleaning. As a request to clean, one of them sticks the neck, head, or throat towards the other. If the partner dares to work on a place other than the one offered with his beak, the cleaned will not like it. He picks or flies away.
If There is Anger in the Air, Hacking Takes Place
As sociable and peaceful as canaries are usually, pecking and car chases are common during the mating season. During the breeding season, the roosters form territories and defend them vehemently. It can often be really dangerous for the rival.
But even when it comes to food, seating, or nesting material, there are sometimes arguments. Most of the time, the disagreement is limited to threatening each other through the spreading of the wings as described above. If one of the rivals surrenders, he stretches his body and puts his plumage tight. Even if a canary is terrified, it shows this behavior of humility. If the clouds have cleared out of fear and quarrel, the canary aviary will soon be full of sunshine again.