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ISSN 1492-8132
Issue 154, © 2006
No reprints without permission
Sponsor's Space
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The folks at Bird & Cage aim to provide bird keepers with a great selection of great quality birdcages and accessories for very good prices, along with some of the best customer service you will find anywhere.
A recent customer says,"Hi Elaine & Earl, Just wanted to let you know how much I love the cage that I ordered. It arrived in 6 days in perfect condition. I am proud to say that assembly was simple (not usually an easy task for me). The cage looks great! I have two love birds & will be placing an order for a breeding cage for them. Thanks for great products & a great service. I'm glad I found your web site & will tell all of my friends."
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For more details, please visit BirdandCage.com.
Bird Site Review
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Orchid Tree Exotics
It's always great to find a website that features top-quality, hard-to-find supplies for birds and bird-keepers, but the folks who run this site didn't stop there - they offer their customers some of the best personalized customer service you'll find, no matter where you go!
They've recently expanded the payment options they're able to offer, so if there's something you need for your birds but can't seem to find, this is a great place to go. Even if you're looking for something they don't carry, they can often help you find it. Give them a try, and see why this supplier's reputation just keeps getting improving. You won't be sorry you stopped by - and you'll be able to pick yourself up some great bird supplies at the same time!
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Website News
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We've got an issue full of great websites, useful tools and fantastic deals to offer you this time, all teamed with an informative feature article on the wild canary. It's our hope that you will enjoy learning about everything we've included in this issue, as much as we did!
We're very proud to announce that we've started a new service for bird keepers, known as the "Wings Up Seal of Approval". This is a seal we've created, that we plan to offer to products our birds have used and approved. You can learn more about our new seal, and see the first products that have qualified for it, on the webpage at www.robirda.com/seal.html
Meanwhile, our 15-month Flock Talk calendar has been selling at a great rate - in fact, we're already getting close to the end of our limited supply! We plan to offer a 12-month 2007 calendar later in the year, but it won't have all the photos our 15-month version has, so if you'd planned to get one, you'd best move fast before they're all gone! Don't miss out on this chance to enjoy all the fantastic photos that were entered into the Flock Talk contest - learn more at www.robirda.com/calendar.html
Feature Article
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This is the first in a series of articles the author hopes to eventually publish as part of an extensive book on canaries, focusing on their origins, colours, and kinds, and including their history with mankind.
In her introduction to this article she tells us, "First, we must begin by understanding where our birds come from and what they genetically are. Therefore this article is on the basics of the ancestral canary, the 'wild-type' our domestic canary was developed from."
Later articles deal with the European Serin and the South American Black-Capped Siskin, both of which were used in the development of many of our common canaries today. We hope to be able to share some of these articles with you in the future, but for now, we are pleased to introduce you to...
Arlene Rosenthal
Copyright © Oct 2004
Reprinted With Permission
Range:
The North Atlantic islands of the Canarys, the Azores and the Madeiras in valleys, woodlands and scrubland, and in man-made habitats such as gardens, vineyards and orchards.
Song:
Rich, varied and highly musical, lacking the typical sibilant sputtering of its close relation, the European Serin (Serinus serinus). It generally consists of a series of assorted ascending and descending chirping, twittering, trilling, wheezing, warbling and piping sounds, all highly variable in their duration, tempo and timbre, which may be given as distinct and separate phrases or in a near continuous delivery. Overall song louder, slower, lower-pitched, less metallic, more warbling and more spontaneous and having much greater complexity of rendition with a far more extensive repertoire than that of domestic canaries, but strikingly absent of the domestic canary's long segments.
Birds from the various islands and island groups, and in some cases different areas of the same island, demonstrate degrees of regional and local song 'dialects' within which the origins of the varied melodies and song styles of the Roller, the Waterslager, the Timbrado and the other domestic song breeds can be clearly detected.
General Description
Length 5". Monotypic. Unlike most domestic canaries, the genders of the wild canaries show subtle but distinct sexually dimorphic plumage differences in keeping with most of the other species in their genus. They also display slight seasonal variation. Both sexes recall the juvenile plumage of the canary's closest relation, the European Serin, but the Wild Canary is lighter and duller in color and has less definition to its markings. Many individuals, and some populations between islands and island groups, are variably yellower, browner, grayer or greener, lighter and brighter or darker and duller in overall coloration.
The hen's outline is subtly rounder and fuller than that of the male due to the fact that the edges of her feathers are slightly broader, thus making her appear to be a little heavier than her mate. The male's feather color is brighter than the hen's, especially on his head, face and breast, simply because his narrower feather edges allow more of the color to be seen. He also has a distinctive 'Mexican' or 'Fu Manchu'-type moustache while the hen lacks this marking.
She has grayish cheeks and a grayer head, while the male's yellow and black coloration continues around to the back of his head. Hens have very distinct striations on their flanks and faint striations on their breasts while males exhibit no such markings, their yellow/green coloration being much more solid and intense in these areas. The hen also displays far more brown melanin in her plumage than the male.
The head is neat and round, the dark brown eyes centrally placed, the neck short and rounded, flowing without break into the body. The short beak is medium-stout, pale pink to pinkish-horn in color, with a darker or browner upper mandible. Both breast and back are rounded, the short wings carried in line with the straight tail. The legs are medium length, the legs and toes brown to pinkish-brown in color.
Adult Male:
Frontal to supercilium dull golden-yellow; upper part of frontal to crown and down to nape greenish-yellow with some obscure streaking; lores dusky-olive, the color becoming slightly darker as it extends more heavily down the moustachial streak and around the edges of the ear coverts. Cheeks and middle of ear coverts yellow to olive-yellow; sides of nape dusky to dirty yellow.
Mantle, back and scapular feathers light ashy-gray with blackish centers and greenish-yellow edges. Rump greenish-yellow to dull olive-yellow. Uppertail coverts dark brown tipped with gray-brown. The dark brown tail is forked at the tip and edged with light green. Underparts generally dull golden-yellow with an olive wash on chin, throat and breast, sometimes tinged grayish on the sides of breast and flanks.
Breast and upper belly yellowish to yellow with some broken blackish streaking towards the rear of the flanks. Lower belly and undertail coverts pale buff to whitish. Lesser wing coverts olive-yellow; median and greater wing coverts blackish to black, edged with greenish-yellow and tipped with light buffy-brown; alula and primary coverts black; flights lackish-brown finely edged with yellow; terticals similar but the inner feathers are more broadly edged buff to brownish-buff.
Adult Female:
Similar to the male but generally duller and grayer overall, especially on face and upperparts, and with all the markings less well defined. Sides of head from lores to moustachial area and around to the ear coverts and sides of neck much grayer than the male with small patches of dull yellow present from the lower frontal down to the cheeks and eyes.
Crown to back generally gray streaked with black, usually more heavily so than the male, and more or less tinged with brown. Chin and throat yellow to dull yellowish; breast gray, gradating to yellowish on the belly and grayish to grayish-yellow on the flanks, all with diffuse dark brown to blackish streaking.
Rump, uppertail coverts and tail slightly duller and tinged with green. Median wing coverts with broad yellowish tips; greater wing coverts tipped with pale buffy-brown. Primaries and secondaries finely edged with greenish-yellow; terticals blackish-brown edged with pale buffy-brown and tipped with buff. Undertail coverts white to off-white.
In both genders, the winter (non-breeding) plumage is slightly paler and duller overall.
Arlene Rosenthal
Copyright © Oct 2004
Reprinted With Permission
Every bird-keeper can use a good database to keep their records; and if you are breeding your birds, a reliable way to keep track of all the little details is a must! This new easy-to-use database created by bird fanciers in Quebec for the use of birdkeepers everywhere, fits those needs to a 't', and is easily adapted to your own specific needs and requirements.
Best of all, you can try it for free for an unlimited time! Some may need nothing more, but those who do can choose from two paid versions, the standard or the extra, offering more functionality and options to an already very useable record-keeping database program. A great way to keep track of your birds and all their activities, no matter what your plans for them!
* * * Do you know of a good or bad bird product? Why not review it for Flock Talk readers? We will be reviewing foods, cages & cage accessories, toys, and other bird items, in upcoming issues. To arrange for a review, send us your inquiry and a brief description of the product(s) to one of the contacts listed here.
Do you know of a great bird site which deserves a review? Maybe you have a favourite tip or trick that you like to use, or know of a product that has made your bird's life better or easier to manage in some way? Why not share them with other Flock readers? Send us tales of how you cope, or how your birds confuse and puzzle, interest and amuse you, and we will share them with the rest of our readers in a future issue. Just send them in an email here.
Sponsor's Space
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SALE! Cathy at Antique Bird Prints is running a special end-of-summer sale for Flock Talk readers only, in celebration of her daughter's new status as an Instructor in English Literature!
Flock Talk readers (and only Flock Talk readers) can get a 20% refund on the purchase price of any print, or if you buy 3 or more prints, you'll get a whopping 30% refund! Just make your purchase with PayPal, and remember to mention in the comment field that you saw this ad in Flock Talk. (Since only Flock Talk readers are eligible for this discount, you'll need to enter a comment to qualify for these savings)
If you prefer not to make a purchase through PayPal, just get in touch with Cathy by email through her contact webpage, and make arrangements with her to send a check or money-order for the prints you want at the discounted price.
These are genuine antique lithographic prints, painstakingly hand-painted in rich, vibrant colours and in incredible detail, most originating in the 19th century. Don't miss this chance to own a real piece of the history of bird-keeping, for such a great price! It all starts at Antique Bird Prints.
Tips 'n Tricks
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Show season is coming up fast, and now that fall's almost here, it's time to focus on preparing your birds for competition. Even if you only own a few pet birds and don't plan to show, you'll still find lots to enjoy about going to a show, so make plans now to support your local bird clubs, and attend their shows.
If you don't know of any bird clubs near you, check with local pet stores, veterinarians, and libraries; chances are you'll find somebody who knows something about such a club, in one of these locations. If you still can't turn up anything, consider getting together with other local bird-fanciers and starting a club of your own - it'll be obvious that there's a need!
Even if you have to travel a fair ways to attend shows, chances are very good that you'll learn more than you might have thought possible, and enjoy yourself far more than you'd ever expected!
For You & Your Birds, With Love
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We rely on YOU to help keep this publication and its associated websites alive. If you find help you need in this ezine or on one of our websites, please consider joining our sponsors.
Please feel welcome to read testimonials or find out more about becoming a sponsor. If you're looking for something different, check our home page for links to all our information and products!
Our next issue is due Monday, Sept 25th. We hope you and your birds stay safe, well and happy in the meantime, and we look forward to seeing you all then!
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