Canary finch singing. Canary (canary finch). Behavior and nutrition

Canary canary finch or Serinus canaria - detailed description, photos, videos, features of keeping and breeding at home

Classification

Kingdom: Animals
Type: Chordates
Subtype: Vertebrates
Class: Birds
Superorder: New palates
Squad: Passeriformes
Suborder: Singers
Family: Finches
Genus: Canary finches

Appearance

The body length of the Canary finch is 12.5−13.5 cm. The male is green on top with black longitudinal lines, the upper part of the head, throat and rump are yellow-green, the color of the chest at the back turns yellow, the belly is white. The color of the female is paler, thanks to the grayish edges of the feathers, her back is brownish-gray with black lines. Captivity greatly changed the canary, and its color became monochromatic yellow. The cross between a wild canary and a domestic one is very beautiful; it is colored with a mixture of green and yellow.

Lifestyle

The Canary Canary Finch lives in places overgrown with bushes and trees. Sings, according to some, even better than home. It feeds almost exclusively on plant foods: small seeds, tender greens and juicy fruits. The birds are quite sociable and can be easily caught in nets using a decoy bird.

Reproduction

The birds begin building their elegant nests in March and usually lay five pale bluish-greenish eggs. Incubation lasts 13 days.
The Canary finch easily mates with the siskin and goldfinch and produces very beautiful, but sterile crosses, which were formerly highly prized. Darwin reports that the canary was crossed with 9-10 other species of the family Fringillidae; some of these hybrids were almost completely fertile, but there is no evidence that they gave rise to even one new breed of canary. There are also known hybrids with the domestic canary, which were bred on the Canary Islands.

Spreading

The Canary Canary Finch is now found in the Canary Islands, Madeira and the Cape Verde Islands and climbs mountains to heights of over 1,500 m.

Taxonomy

A closely related species to the Canary Finch, the Canary Finch (S. serinus) is sometimes considered only a subspecies of the canary.

The StackGuard software product (developed by Grispin Cowan and his colleagues) is called a “canary”, by analogy with the live canaries that miners used to detect rock gas in a mine. Canaries are very sensitive to the methane content in the air. This feature was once used by miners who, going underground, took with them a cage with a canary. As long as you could hear the birds singing, you could work in peace. If singing had not been heard for a long time, then it was necessary to go upstairs as quickly as possible, the concentration of gas in the mine was dangerous.

Price

Other species of the genus “Canary finches”:

Video

Hybrid red-capped finch and canary. Hybrid Seriniis pusillus X Serinus canaria

The canary finch is the closest relative of the canary in our fauna. It is distributed in northwestern Africa (north of the Sahara), the Mediterranean islands and most of Western Europe.

In the east, the border of the range runs through the Baltic countries, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. Currently, this species is spreading to the north and east and is already found in Sweden and the Leningrad region. Many scientists consider the canary finch to be a mainland subspecies of canary, while others classify it as a separate species.

The bird is small in size, about the size of a siskin, but its beak is much shorter and its tail is longer. In appearance and color the finch resembles a green canary.

The upper side of the body and sides are covered with dark streaks, the abdomen is greenish-yellow. In a male in spring plumage, the forehead, neck, stripe near the eyes, chest and abdomen become lemon yellow. Females and young birds have almost no yellow color in their plumage. In autumn, it is difficult to distinguish males from females.

German ornithologists tried to find their differences in the sizes of individual body parts. It turned out that in most cases, females have a shorter wing from the fold to the tip - 68.5 mm, while males have a longer wing - 73.5 mm. The tail of males is also longer, but the beaks are the same in size.

In the south of their range, canary finches are sedentary, and in the north, including in our country, they are migratory birds. Here they appear in late March - early April. Males arrive first, then females. Males occupy future nesting sites - forest edges, gardens and parks.

They actively defend their territories from uninvited fellow tribesmen and at this time they sing a lot, marking their territory with sounds.

The song of the finch, unlike the song of the canary, is short and not rich in knees, reminiscent of the chirping of a cicada. But the birds perform it diligently and often, which involuntarily evokes a smile and sincere admiration.

The finches build their nest in the fork of a tree at a height of several meters from the ground. The material for it is thin blades of grass and roots; the birds cover it on the outside with moss and lichens for camouflage. The tray is lined with hair, feathers and plant fluff.

The clutch usually contains 4-5 bluish eggs with dark specks at the blunt end. Only the female incubates them. Incubation period is 3 days. The chicks spend about two weeks in the nest, and after flying, the parents feed them for another week and a half. Birds have two broods per season.

After the breeding season, the birds gather in flocks and roam near their former nesting territories. At this time, they molt and prepare for migration, and by the end of October they fly away in a southwestern direction to their wintering grounds, which take place in the Mediterranean countries.

The main food of canary finches is the seeds of various herbaceous plants and greens. Birds also feed their chicks with the same food and small insects. Finches tolerate home conditions quite easily. For keeping, it is better to purchase birds caught young in the fall, then by spring they will be able to begin nesting.

Breeding canary finches was once considered a difficult task, but they now reproduce well with experienced bird keepers. The birds turned out to be very caring parents. Eggs and chicks of more valuable species of finch birds can be placed under them.

Finches interbreed well with canaries and in most cases produce fertile offspring (thus confirming their close relationship to them). They should be fed with dry and sprouted or soaked grains - millet, rapeseed, rapeseed, canary grass; it is good to add seeds of lettuce, flax, hemp, birch, spruce, and weeds (screenings) to the food.

In summer, their diet can be diversified with unripe seeds of woodlice, shepherd's purse, knotweed, and plantain. In winter, birds willingly eat the buds of various

Canary (canary finch)

Appearance

Breeding history

Spreading

Maintenance and reproduction

Sources and literature

The canary received its specific name from the Canary Islands, where Spanish and Portuguese sailors first saw it. However, it later turned out that the habitat of small warblers includes a number of other islands: Madera, Porto Santo and the Azores. Or rather, it was not even a canary, but its wild relative - the Canary finch. Wild birds are somewhat smaller than domesticated forms. The color of males and females is somewhat different: males are brighter, gray-green, with yellowness on the abdomen and a noticeable supraorbital stripe. Females are more modestly colored: they are more of a grayish-brown color. According to information that has reached us, already in the 14th century, Spanish and Portuguese sailors began to little by little bring the singers that had so enchanted them to their homeland. Most likely, these were canaries that had already become accustomed to captivity, purchased from local residents, who happily kept the little singers at home, in cages woven from twigs. Thus began the proud “procession” of the island birds, which were discreet but so generously endowed by Nature, around the world.

Canary, or canary finch

(Serinus canaria (Linnaeus, 1758); obsolete names - Lat. Serinus canarius, Pyrrhula canarius, Fringilla canaria and Dryospiza canaria), is a species of bird from the finch family, representatives of which are widely distributed as domestic songbirds.

Kingdom: Animals

Type: Chordata

Subphylum: Vertebrates

Class: Birds

Superorder: New palates

Order: Passeriformes

Suborder: Singers

Family: Finches

Genus: Canary finches

Species: Canary

Appearance

The body length of the indoor canary is 12-14 cm. The wild species is somewhat smaller than the domestic form (12-13 cm long) and is very different from it in color. The male is green on top with black longitudinal lines, the upper part of the head, throat and rump are yellow-green, the color from the chest to the tail turns yellow, the belly is white. The color of the female is paler, thanks to the grayish edges of the feathers, her back is brownish-gray with black lines. Captivity greatly changed the canary, and its color became monochromatic yellow. The cross between a wild canary and a domestic one is very beautiful; it is colored with a mixture of green and yellow.

Lifestyle and habitat

The wild canary (Serinus canaria) is a small bird (body length 12-14 cm). The plumage of the male is grayish-green with dark longitudinal streaks, and greenish-yellow on the abdomen. The female's plumage is dull gray. The indigenous habitats are apparently mountain forests. However, the bird has fully adapted to life in the cultural landscape and settles in gardens, parks, hedges, etc. The canary is a migratory bird in its homeland and only in the south does it lead a sedentary lifestyle. It feeds mainly on small seeds, tender greens and juicy figs. He loves to swim. Birds fly in flocks to the water to drink and swim, while they heavily wet their plumage. Nests are made in trees. There are 3-5 eggs in a clutch. The female incubates. The male usually sits at the ends of branches and sings throughout the nesting period. The song of a wild canary is pleasant, but poorer and less sonorous than that of a domestic canary. Wild forms, compared to domestic ones, do not have such a variety of colors and singing.

Breeding history

In the 16th century, the canary was first brought from the Canary Islands to Europe, first to Cadiz, then to Italy, and from here it spread further north as a house bird. She subsequently went wild on the island of Elba.

Canary breeding is highly developed and there are many breeds. Initially, the Spaniards monopolized the canary trade, since, keeping their birthplace secret, they sold only males, at a very high price. However, starting from the 16th century, the canary began to quickly spread, first in Italy, then in Tyrol and Germany. From the Tyrolean canary, valued mainly for the beauty of its feathers, many new breeds were bred, and in Holland, France and England, through selection, they mainly improved the plumage of the canary, while in Germany - the musical abilities of this bird, paying special attention to obtaining good singers Darwin mentions a list of 27 species of canaries known before 1718 in France alone.

In Germany, the most significant canary breeding initially took place in the Harz (St. Andreasberg and other places), Hanover, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Frankfurt am Main, Nuremberg, Stuttgart and Berlin. A significant number of canaries were exported from Germany to other countries, especially North America, Australia and Russia. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the annual turnover from the entire canary trade in Germany was 600,000-750,000 German marks. Canaries of average quality were valued at 15-20 marks, the price of good singers reached 50-100, and for the best (German: Prima Harzer Roller) even 150 marks. Annual exhibitions contributed to the expansion of canary breeding. In Holland, when obtaining new breeds, special attention was paid to the shape, in England - to the color of canaries. Among other things, orange-red canaries were bred, for which purpose the birds during molting were fed food to which cayenne pepper was mixed. Very significant sums were paid for the best copies. Canaries were also taught various tricks, some even learned to imitate human speech. Common canaries were fed with hemp and canary seeds, adding sugar, biscuits, herbs, etc. Harz canaries were fed preferably with a mixture of boiled eggs and white bread, with the addition of ground hemp seeds during molting, and also given a little canary seed and greens. The Dutch breeds were fed mainly hemp, the English - canary seed.

In pre-revolutionary Russia (before 1917), the number of canary hunting enthusiasts was constantly increasing. The best canary factories were located in the village of Polotnyany Zavod, Medynsky district, Kaluga province and in the city of Borovsk in the same province, in Tula, in Pavlov, Nizhny Novgorod province and in Moscow. In the village of Polotnyany Zavod, canary breeding, which arose back in the 19th century, was carried out by a significant part of the population, and they were sold in the fall - either locally to buyers, or through delivery by owners to Odessa, Kharkov, Ekaterinoslav, Kazan and even Irkutsk. Having assigned the canaries to travel, they were sorted according to batch prices and each batch was collected in a separate bag, from where they were then transplanted into specially designed travel cages. In total, up to 4,000 pieces worth about 7,600 rubles were exported from the Linen Plant annually, with females valued from 20 to 40 kopecks per piece, and males from 3 to 4 rubles, except for especially outstanding ones, worth even up to 50 rubles. When breeding canaries, they were placed in separate poultry houses, in which two nests were arranged, lined with cotton wool or a fine washcloth with lint. After 2-3 weeks, the females, having adapted the nest, laid eggs, hatched the young and fed them for 2-3 weeks, in which the males also took part. After feeding, laying eggs began again, hatching the young, and so on up to 3-4, and sometimes up to 7 times a year. When the young males began to sing, they were taken out of the poultry houses and separated from the females. To learn to sing, they were hung in a cage from a good old singer, or played on a special organ, and also whistled on a pipe.

Thus, canaries are kept in cages for about 500 years. These are completely domesticated birds. Over the past 500 years of captivity, many colored, ornamental and song canaries have been bred through selective breeding. In many countries breeding work is still ongoing.

The Russian canary breed was registered with the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation in 2007 as a breed of Russian selection.

Spreading

The wild canary is now found in the Canary Islands, Madeira and the Cape Verde Islands and climbs mountains to heights of over 1500 m.

Maintenance and reproduction

The canary is easily tamed, quite trusting, amenable to “education” and successfully reproduces at home. The quality and activity of singing, reproduction, and longevity of the bird depend on the proper maintenance and care of the bird. Canaries can live at home for 13-14 years; they are kept in cages and enclosures.

Cages are made from hard wood: beech, oak, ash, etc. You can use metal cages. They are easier to wash and easier to scald. Plexiglas cages are not widely used. In them the bird is clearly visible from all sides. The most convenient shape is rectangular cells. They can be placed one on top of the other so that when several birds are kept in separate cages, they will not see each other, which means they will sing normally without getting irritated. The size of the cages should be such that the bird in it can move freely, fly and be sufficient to install 1-2 perches in one tier.

The size of the cage is 30-35 cm in length, 20-22 cm in width, height 27-29 cm. The distance between the twigs is no more than 1.2-1.4 cm. The door in the cage should be located on the side. The bottom must be double, preferably made of thin stainless steel (inner bottom) and must be retractable to make it easier to clean the cage, change the sand in it and carry out disinfection.

Feeders can be placed on the bottom of the cage, but this most often leads to an unsanitary condition for the food and the cage. It is still desirable that the feeders in the cages be retractable. In this position, it is easy to get them out when feeding and the birds will be less worried.

The cage must have a perch for the bird, which consists of round perches no more than 1.5 cm thick. The surface of the perch is left rough and not cleaned. The distance between the perches should be such that, when jumping from one to another, the bird can flap its wings freely.

For group housing of poultry and young animals, cage cages and flight cages are used. The size of the flying cells is larger than usual. To transport birds, it is best to use a carrier cage.

Canaries love to swim. Bathing cleanses the skin and strengthens the plumage. Bathing water should be at room temperature. The bathing suit is attached to the outside of the door so that water does not enter the cage. After each bathing, the bathing suit is removed and the doors are closed. Bathing suits should be washed daily. Canaries must be taught to bathe from an early age, i.e. from the moment they leave the female - after 30-35 days of age.

After disinfection, the cage and equipment must be thoroughly rinsed again, scalded, wiped and dried. Dry chamomile is poured under the tray and inserted into its original place. Pour clean, dry river sand and a thin layer of crushed eggshells from a boiled egg onto the tray (bottom of the cage). Sand and eggshells serve as mineral supplements for the bird, maintaining its health and promoting digestion. After this, feed is poured into the feeders and placed at the feeding site.

Drinking water should be at room temperature. It is poured into a small glass or porcelain dish (height 3-4 cm) and placed on the bottom of the cage in a place convenient for the bird to drink. Between the rods of the cage you can insert small feeders in the form of a thimble or a plastic plug for periodic feeding with honey, grated carrots, and yolk in addition to the main food.

The cage is placed in a well-lit place, but not in the sun, not on a window or in a draft. If the room is closed, you can and should let the bird fly. At first 5-10 minutes, and then up to 40-45 minutes. You can train a bird to sit on your hand or shoulder, but this requires a lot of patience. You need to approach cages with canaries in such a way that the birds see you: by talking to them in an even, gentle voice, you will win the bird’s trust, you can even teach them to sit on your hand.

To obtain good offspring, it is necessary to carefully select a male and a female. The male should be large, with an interesting song, beautiful plumage, and active. Age - at least 1 year. The female must also have the appropriate qualities. It is advisable to select pairs of males from one and a half to two years old and even up to five years, and females from 11 months to three to four years. The coloration of the offspring is influenced by both sires, while vocal quality, song sensitivity and hearing are influenced by the male. This should also be taken into account when selecting a pair.

Before mating, a cage with a male and a cage with a female are placed next to each other so that the birds see each other and begin to show mutual interest. During this period, the male is given soft food in addition to grain every day for 5-6 days. Females also increase their diet. Birds ready to mate are placed in one cage. The male is placed first, and after a day or two the female is placed next to him. By this time, the male will get used to the new environment. The female, released to the male, quickly mates with him and begins building a nest. From the beginning of mating and construction of the nest to the laying of the first egg, three to ten days pass.

The mating cage can be regular or slightly larger. The nest can be hung in the corner of the cage from the inside or outside, in a quiet place. In nature, canaries have a cup-shaped nest, and therefore amateur canary breeders make an artificial nest or nest base of the same shape, usually made of clothesline.

So that the female can safely build a nest, she needs to place in the cage pieces of cut cotton or linen threads 2-3 cm in size, small pieces of linen or cotton fabric, and even well-dried small hay, gathered into a ball. Within 6-7 days, the female builds a nest, after which she begins to lay eggs. As soon as the first egg is laid, it is necessary to remove the remaining building materials, add fresh sand, and clean the cage of accumulated construction debris. This is done because sometimes the female continues to build the nest and breaks the egg in the process. You should not change the location of the nest or rearrange the cage after the female has laid an egg and especially after the chick or full brood has emerged. If there is an extreme need for this, it must be done very carefully and only at night. There were cases when the female left the nest and stopped feeding the chicks. Egg laying can last 4-6 days. After the female lays 3-4 eggs, the male is removed from the cage, since the female herself can feed the chicks. But you can leave the male, and he will actively help the female in hatching and feeding the chicks.

The female canary incubates the chicks for 13 days. Males also take part in incubating the eggs. At the moment when the female goes to feed, he replaces her. On the 14th day, the chicks hatch from the eggs. 3-4 hours after the chicks hatch, the female begins to feed them. Both parents also feed the chicks from their beaks. There are cases when the male destroys the nest, throws out eggs and even chicks. Such a male must be removed immediately. The main thing is that there is always grain soft food in the feeders. At this time, in addition to the grain mixture, the female is given soft food - a mass of boiled eggs with crushed breadcrumbs.

On the 8-10th day, you can add grated carrots sprinkled with breadcrumbs to the egg. If the male was not removed from the cage, then somewhere after 10-14 days (after the chicks appear), the female prepares for the next brood. Therefore, a second nest is placed in the cage (usually both nests are placed at the beginning of breeding). There must be plenty of building material, otherwise the female will pluck the chicks. Then the male takes the main care of the first chicks. The female only occasionally helps him. She begins to lay the second clutch.

Http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Http://www.kanareika.net/5.htm

http://canaria.narod.ru/rzv/index.html

Http://www.zoovet.ru/animals.php?vid=481

Http://canaria-club.ru/

The finch family includes a large number of subspecies. They are all very beautiful and have a melodic, unforgettable voice. Most of them have a wide range of habitats, ranging from the African coast, the Canary Islands and Asia.

Appearance

To uninitiated people, the canary finch may seem similar to a sparrow, but of an unusual bright yellow or greenish color. The bird is small in size, with a maximum height of up to 14 cm. It has a strong beak and thin clawed feet.

The color is quite varied, since each species has its own individual characteristics. Thanks to these seemingly small distinctive features, an experienced ornithologist can distinguish a female from a male at first glance.

Bright colored feathers are interspersed with dark gray or brown. Most often, the abdomen is light-colored, and may be white. Females have a more modest plumage color.

Habitat

The yellow-bellied canary finch, distinguished by its “sunny” coloration of the abdomen, lives in South Africa. Its favorite nesting sites are bushes, tall grasses and sparse forests.

The Canary finch is native to the warm Canary Islands. Thanks to its singing abilities, it has become widespread on the island of Madeira. The difference between the Canary finch and other subspecies is the dark stripes on the wings and tail.

The Mozambican canary finch is distributed throughout much of South Africa. It is one of the traditional poultry. Has more than ten varieties. It can be seen in Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia and the Orange River basin.

Differences and features of each type

The canary finch has differences not only in plumage color and habitat areas. These cute birds acquired many habits thanks to the peculiarities of the nature around them. First of all, this affected their diet, and secondly, their nesting sites.

The Mozambique finch likes to nest in savannas and sparse forests, and in cities they love parks, gardens, and public gardens. If the time to hatch their offspring has not yet come, these songbirds gather in flocks and flutter around the surrounding area. They feed on small seeds and insects. Their favorite delicacy is larvae and cereals.

The Canary finch most often lives in bushes and tall grasses. The diet of this species is based on plant foods: fruits with soft pulp, young greens and small seeds.

The yellow-bellied finch is a resident of meadows covered with tall grasses. There he makes his nests and hatches his offspring. It feeds on cereal seeds, midges and larvae. Lives in flocks, the members of which are often offspring from previous clutches.

Reproduction and nesting

The canary finch differs from other species in that it can create and incubate two clutches of eggs during the summer. Depending on the region, the nesting period begins from January to April and takes only 13 days for each clutch.

In a small nest of twigs and feathers, finches line the middle with hair, feathers and down. To hide it from prying eyes, they disguise it with grass and moss. There are three to five eggs in the clutch.

Small bluish eggs with dark specks at the blunt end are incubated by females. The chicks go through the incubation period in just three days. But parents continue to feed their babies for another two weeks, until they begin to get their own food.

If the female leaves the nest during the brooding period, the male finch easily replaces her. They warm the clutches, feed the offspring and protect their territory from the encroachments of strangers.

Darwin crossed Canary finches with other species of finches. Crosses with siskins and goldfinches produced very beautiful individuals, but with a complete lack of reproductive abilities. Not one of the hybrids became the ancestor of a new breed of canaries.

Canary finch in history

The canary finch was used by miners to monitor the cleanliness of air in adits. Cages with these birds were hung in all branches of the mine. Thanks to their sensitivity to methane air pollution, workers could not worry about their lives. The signal for a quick rise to the surface was the long silence of the birds. After all, they can often sing without stopping for quite a long time.

New technologies used to determine the cleanliness of air are also named canaries after these little singers.

The first domestic canaries were imported from the Canary Islands. Such a bird was expensive. To prevent the price from decreasing, traders preferred to offer only kenars for sale. Thus, they had a monopoly on the sale of these birds. But an accidental shipwreck off the coast of Spain with a cargo of these birds marked the beginning of the breeding of a new species of canary. Canaries brought from America began to interbreed with local varieties of finches, and the offspring born were no less vocal than their ancestors.