Mary Allen
The canaries have been in human hands since the discovery and conquest of the Canary Islands and Madeira.
In the course of breeding history, three lines have emerged. An overview of song, color, and posture canaries.
Color Canaries
The wild canary is greenish-yellow with dark brown to blackish streaks on top and black-brown flight feathers. In the more than 500-year history of domestication, all the many colors have emerged through mutations and selection, and crossbreeding. The international bird breeders’ organization Confédération Ornithologique Mondiale has recorded more than 380 colors in the canary. Specialized breeding judges are trained to judge them. There are the classic, pure-colored canaries in yellow and red (intense in the picture). These fat colors consist of carotenoids, which the bird ingests with the food. There are also the dominant white and the recessive white canaries. In melanin birds, dark pigments appear in the plumage. In Mosaic canaries, even the sexes differ externally, with males having an extensive facial mask. So, Isabell, Opal, Phaeo, Topaz, Satinet, and Pied are just a few of the color varieties.
The Singing Canaries
Male canaries sing beautifully. The same tours are often performed over and over again. Since the song of canaries is not inherited but learned, the Tyrolean miners began in the 18th century to catch nightingales and let them sing to the young male canaries in cages. They fetched higher prices for good canaries. This is how the development of singing canaries began. In the Harz mountains in Germany, the miners there perfected the singing by selecting the best singers. Young males study singing soon after leaving the nest. The main routes of the Harzer Roller (pictured) are hollow roller, knorr, whistle, and hollow bell. There is also the mother hen, the school, and the water roller. Singing canaries do not look any different from normal canaries, but they sing with their beak closed. In addition to the Harzer Rollers, there are the Belgian water hammers, the Timbrado Espanol, or the Slavujar, a singing breed from Serbia. Only a few singing canaries are bred in Switzerland.
Posture Canaries
The stature or shape of canary breeds depends on the shape of the bird. However, there are also regulations regarding the colors in the standard. Certain colors are prescribed for each breed. There are about 32 posture breeds that have been bred and established in different areas of Europe. The Swiss breeders were able to establish two breeds with the Berner (pictured as a variegated breed) and the Frisé Suisse. The Frisé Suisse is an example of the fact that there are also groomed breeds among the pose canaries that not only have a special posture, like the Frisé Suisse, which should show a crescent moon on the perch but also have to have special hairstyles in the plumage. The posture canary adopts the posture especially in the display cage because it is trained for it. The breeders then say that he works. As with the dog, which is descended from the wolf, there are also small birds like the Raza Española or large, portly ones like the Border from Great Britain among the conformation breeds.