ISSN 1492-8132
Issue 44, Copyright © 2002
All rights reserved, no reprints without permission

The Canary Cam is back, just in time for breeding season! The first nest didn't work out, but a second nest was speedily built, and eggs have been laid.

"One of my concerns was proper lighting schedule, such as the one featured in Flock Talk's 30th issue.

"There is only the minor inconvenience of having to adjust the light timer periodically to match your chart. I didn't like the fact that the timer shut off the lights so suddenly so I added a second timer for a lower intensity light to shut off a few minutes after the main lights.

"This gives my birds time to roost or nest before total darkness. All very fine and dandy.

"I like to 'fiddle' with gadgets, and began looking at fully automatic timers that could be set to automatically adjust the sunrise/sunset time and slowly dim the lights at sunset. There are some devices that do this but they cost a lot ($300+) and even though many simulate dawn and dusk, most don't automatically adjust the sunrise/sunset time through the year.

"But wait, I have discovered an inexpensive way to do this! I would like to share this information with you.

"You will need the HomeSeer Home Automation Software, and an X10 Firecracker Kit. The HomeSeer software allows you to program the sunrise/sunset times in a cycle similar to the chart at robirda.com/sunset.html and the brightening and dimming functions that simulate dawn and dusk. It then controls the X10 lamp modules automatically.

"The X10 plugs into the back of your computer and it wirelessly transmits the control signals to a transceiver plugged into a nearby wall outlet. The transceiver sends the control signal through your house wiring to the lamp. The lamp module, plugged into a wall outlet in your birdroom, has the ability to control the dimming of an incandescent lamp and simulate dawn and dusk.

"The lamp module can NOT control fluorescent lights, though, as they cannot be dimmed, however, the transceiver doubles as an appliance module that CAN control the turning on and off of certain types of fluorescent lights.

"Take a look at the links below. One is to the SmartHome web page with information about the HomeSeer software. On that page you can download a free demo version (which works for 30 days) if you'd like to try it out. It can be run without any of the X10 hardware, so you can see how it works.

HomeSeer Automation Software

FireCracker 4 Piece Home Control Kit

"The second link is to the X10 webpage where you will find a discount offer on the FireCracker Kit. You need this kit to have the minimum of hardware to make this system work. You may be able to find this or similar hardware at a RadioShack or similar store in your area.

"The trickiest part of all of this was figuring out which coordinates to give the HomeSeer software in order to get a year with days mimicing the sunrise/sunset times of the Canary Islands, but in my time zone."

See the next issue of Flock Talk to find out how Jim solved his puzzle!

Our next issue is due out May 12th - until then, may you and your birds enjoy all the best of everything!

Robirda
April 28, 2002

Welcome to Robirda's Companion Birds eZine

For bird people who care.

Hello! Welcome to Flock Talk's 44th issue, thanks for reading!  

Share your tips, tricks, ideas, thoughts, stories or comments by sending an email here, to Robirda.

Buy one of Robirda's new Bird eBooks in March or April, and your email address will automatically be entered into the draw. Each purchase will give you one chance in the draw, until the contest closes April 30th. The winning email will be drawn at random, and the winner will be announced in the May 12th issue of Flock Talk.

The contest has only a couple of days left to run, don't miss your chance to win a copy of this marvelous book!

You will be pleased with your new ebook(s), too. Here's what readers have said about Robirda's Bird eBooks:

"...I really hadn't realized what a wonderful writer you are until I read your ebook. I mean, I love your ezine and web articles, but with more room you really were able to soar!"

"I have your ebook on breeding canaries and just wanted to let you know, I think it's full of really helpful information, and I've been scribbling notes madly as I read."

"WOW! I love your e-book for new canary owners, thanks, this is exactly what I needed!"

Learn more about Robirda's Bird eBooks - and how to get your own! - here

Try and ignore the Angelfire pop-ups long enough to visit this website, if you like song canaries and good, clear, basic sense. There is descriptions posted of many elements of the Waterslager song, and you can listen to sound clips (called 'snippets') of some of the special Waterslager tours.

This is also a great contact to note down, for when you want those certain non-feed related song canary, show or bird-room supplies. The author assures me the site is being actively developed, so keep your eyes open for new items to show up soon!

Feature Article

This issue of Flock Talk features the second part of Arlene Rosenthal's comprehensive article in which she explains for us the details of the...

by Arlene Rosenthal
Copyright © Apr 2002
All rights reserved.

What many people don’t realize (and the various Canary clubs, societies and organizations never seem to mention), is that our modern Canary is well on its way to becoming a human-created fertile multi-hybrid - if it isn’t already.

In the first place, in the long-standing tradition of Canary mule breeding, offspring that were known to be fertile were most often bred back to Canaries. Many others assumed to be sterile spent a good part of their lives housed in flights and aviaries with Canaries and other finches where, every so often, their owner was surprised by finding an unexpected clutch of eggs from a pairing with one of the Canary hens.

It’s therefore more than likely that any number of 'foreign' genes from one or more different species have become a part of at least some Canary lines.

Moreover, any Canary boasting an orange, red or rose ground color, however pale it may be, unquestionably has had Red Siskin added to its genetic make-up.

The Lizard/London Fancy bloodlines may have the Red-Fronted Serin and/or the Saffron Finch and/or some other species in their heritage (and, therefore, any breed with Lizard/London Fancy in it’s background will as well).

The Russian Singer, the Raza Espagnola and the Spanish Timbrado, as well as some lines of American Singer, many strains of the Colorbred’s New Type yellow mosaics, as well as a host of other breeds (perhaps even all of them), are very likely to have their nearest living relation, the European Serin, as at least a small part of their genetic heritage too.

For most of the Canary’s first century of domestication the Spanish Canary traders sold mainly the male birds, so hens were probably rather scarce. To get around this, and because the Wild Canary was thought to be only a larger and better-voiced race of the European Serin during that period and for centuries thereafter, the early aviculturalists often unwittingly bred the two together.

Although the hens produced from the first generation of this cross are usually sterile (which would not be the case if they really were the same species), most of the males are fertile and can be successfully back-bred to either parent species.

By the second generation some of the hens are fertile as well, and the majority certainly prove to be by the third, so hybrid forms could be found in abundance everywhere. Over time, these hybridized forms inevitably came to be absorbed into the general domestic Canary population.

It wasn’t until the early 1940s that both taxonomists and field ornithologists alike (Stresemann, 1943; Wolters, 1952; Vaurie, 1956 and 1959; Nicolai, 1960) began to realize that the Wild Azore/Canary/Maderia Islands Canary and the European Serin are actually two separate and distinct monotypic species, albeit very closely related.

The two were finally deemed separable on the basis of morphological differences in size and proportions, vocalizations, song, courtship and general behavior, as well as on their food and habitat preferences. Moreover, it couldn't help but be noted that, even under captive conditions, if given the choice the two will usually behave as good species should and rarely interbreed.

Later, biochemical and egg white protein analysis, as well as DNA testing, all supported this division.

It’s been theorized that the split in the evolutionary history between the Serin and the Canary occurred fairly recently, some twelve to fifteen thousand years ago when much of the northern hemisphere was still locked in the waning grip of the last Ice Age.

As has been documented happening with birds even today, one or more storm systems over a series of years or even centuries probably swept migrating flocks of proto-Serins off-course over the Atlantic, with those that survived making landfall in the Canaries, the Madeiras and the Azores (although probably not to all these island groups, or even to all the individual islands in any one group, all at the same time).

Finding a vacant ecological niche that they could exploit, the birds thrived in their new home, and evolution took it from there, reshaping them to fit their new circumstances. The proto-Serin continued with the course of its evolution on the mainland while its isolated island members assumed a different direction.

This twelve to fifteen thousand years of time translates as some twelve to fifteen thousand Canary generations, long enough to differentiate the Canary from the line(s) its progenitor was evolving into, but apparently not quite long enough for it to begin evolving into separate and distinct subspecific forms on each island or island group.

While there's little visible or measurable differences between Canaries from the Canaries, the Azores and the Madeiras or the individual islands within these groups (although there's some), they aren't precisely identical on the genetic level, either.

Like many island analogues of mainland forms, Canaries became larger in size and duller in overall coloration than at least one of the species, the European Serin, their progenitor evolved into. Proportions also evolved differently, most notably the higher wing/tail ratio (relatively shorter and rounder wings coupled with a longer tail), and the larger and heavier tarsus and stronger foot development.

The behavioral and song changes kept pace with the physical changes.

Today, some ornithologists combine the Wild Canary and the European Serin into a polytypic species family group or 'clade' (sometimes thought to include the Syrian [Tristram’s] Serin, S. syriacus, as well) , to indicate the closeness of their relationship, but there’s very little doubt any more that these birds are actually separate species.

There are also strong indications that both Canaries and the European Serin are closely allied with the sympatric Citril Finch (S. citrinella) / Yellow-Crowned or Cape Canary (S. canicollis) clade. While they might all eventually prove to be first and second cousins, the full extent of the relationships within this entire complex are too obscure, and as yet too poorly understood, to allow the whole group to be confidently treated as a single superspecies.

Because ornithological and avicultural literature doesn’t always closely reference other works, a fair number of otherwise learned books, papers and websites - and even some recent encyclopedia entries on Canaries - relying on information handed down and repeated from older sources, still haven't completely caught up to all these facts.

More recently, the European Serin has been further hybridized with Colorbred Yellow Mosaics to help develop the luminosity of the yellow ground color while simultaneously deleting any remaining brown phaeomelanin.

The sought-after improvements in the definition of the gender-defined dimorphic color patterns, however, was not achieved, probably due to the fact that both the Canary and the Serin have virtually the same general Serinus dimorphic pattern of lipochrome to begin with.

I have researched these areas extensively in order to be able to present you with the latest information in this area, and as much clarification as possible. The same research also proved to me that our understanding of the realities of the true evolution of various animal and bird species has barely begun.

What will be next? I guess we will just have to wait and see!

by Arlene Rosenthal
Copyright © Apr 2002
All rights reserved.

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