ISSN 1492-8132
Issue 74, © 2003
No reprints without permission

Our CD of Robirda's canaries singing is proving to be a popular choice. In the months since we first offered this CD for sale, dozens of customers have sent in glowing praise. Here's just a few of the comments we've received:

"Quick delivery, Awesome CD, even better than I expected! Super transaction!"

"The cd is so lovely, cute, uplifting... I could go on and on! Just listening to your little critters makes me smile... one little guy makes a squeak... then another a gurgle, then one by one they start warbling until it's a symphony of sweet, varied songs."

"Just received the Songs from the Birdroom CD - the birds are enjoying it tremendously - our cockatiel is telling them to 'be quiet'!"

"Wonderful!! Professional, shipped with lightning speed. GREAT CD... RECCOMMEND!"

Learn more about our Song CD

If you use a Hotmail email address to sign up for Flock Talk, or to order a product through PayPal, please be sure to check your email often enough to ensure that there is adequate room in your inbox for you to receive our emails and notification links. If your inbox is consistently so full that it refuses to accept our emails, your email address will be removed from the FT mail list; and if you pay for a web-delivered product and we cannot contact you, we will not be able to deliver the requested product to you.

This is the home page for one of the older and better-known chapters of the American Singers Club Inc, in Michegan. It does not seem to get updated much, but is still a good source for information on the wonderful songster native to the US - the American Singer.

Their name, 'Dragon', is an acronym, and stands for 'Determined Renaissance of the American Singer through Growth and Organization of the Novice'. The links and articles posted here will help a beginning canary fancier to do just that - learn more about raising and training the American Singer Canary.

If you're looking for something different, don't forget to check our home page for links to all our great products!

For all those who've helped out in so many ways, thank you for your ongoing support. We hope you enjoy our feature story in this issue! The next is due July 6th - 'til then, we hope you and your birds will be well and happy, and enjoy the summer. We look forward to seeing you all then!

Robirda
June 22, 2003

Welcome to Robirda's Companion Birds eZine

For breeder or pet bird owners who care.

Feature Article

There are three general kinds of canaries. Within each kind is, in most cases, a multitude of different breeds. These three kinds are song, type, and colour canaries.

While you can find good songsters in any breed of canary, rarely will those bred for colour or type have the refined songs of the birds bred specifically for song.

I have discussed a few of the more common singing breeds here, but this is by no means a complete list! But it should be enough to give you an idea of the variety available in the world of...

by R C McDonald
www.robirda.com
Copyright © 2003

The German Roller

The German Roller Canary, originally known to many as the 'Hartz Mountain Roller', is the bird most people think of when they speak of a singing canary. This is one of the older and best-known of the distinct breeds of canaries, having been in development for hundreds of years. Its history goes back almost to the beginning of canary keeping, and it has a quiet, refined song, singing with the beak almost fully closed.

These birds are trained to sing on cue for shows, but this does not mean that they require training to sing, as this leads some people to think. All canaries sing naturally. Training can help refine the sound of the song to a certain extent, and will teach the canary to sing when he is expected to, but it does not teach him how to sing-he knew that already.

A few breeders worked on developing red German Rollers some years back, but none of these attempts seem to have been successful at producing red or bronze roller canaries with a pure song for their breed.

In general, red or bronze colouring should not occur in any of the song breeds - if it does, it usually means one of two things - either the bird is not purebred, or it has been artificially colourfed.

Some fanciers of the German Roller endorse feeding a diet rich in oily seeds, such as canola. This is said to improve the song.

What it actually does is coat the syrinx (the canary's voice box) with a layer of fat, which mellows the sound of the tones the bird is able to emit. The fact that such a diet renders a canary susceptible to heart and liver disease seems not to be taken into consideration, along with the fact that such a practice can help mask song faults which would otherwise be very noticeable.

In my experience, it is not necessary to feed a well bred song canary such a diet to hear beautiful songs, and I recommend that anybody wanting to buy a roller canary should make a point of inquiring about the exact diet the bird has been receiving, before considering buying it.

The Waterslager Canary

Waterslager canaries, like most of the other song-breed canaries, are an old breed. They originated in Belgium, where records indicated their presence as early as the 1733, when a French traveller noted the beauty of the songs emitted by the otherwise rather plain-looking little yellow canaries raised by people living in the town of Mechelen, which the French called Malinois. This is why you will sometimes, to this day, still find the Waterslager being referred to as a 'Malinois' canary.

Waterslagers were bred for the 'water' sounds of their songs, rather than the 'rolls' typified by the German Roller. This trait led to the name they are most commonly known by, 'Waterslager', from the Flemish term 'waterslag', meaning, 'water sounds'.

Rumour has it that this unique song was taught to the ancestors of the breed through 'tutoring' the young canaries by allowing them to listen to a nightingale, in order to encourage their canaries to mimic this bird's bubbling, cheerful song. Science has recently discovered that this breed has a genetically inherited difference, in that their inner ear lacks certain sensory hairs, so that the birds hear (or don't hear) a different range of sounds than do other breeds of canaries.

You will never see a dark Waterslager canary-they don't exist. It is rare to see even a small tick on one of these birds, and some people say that such a tick is an indication of impure blood.

Most Waterslagers are pure yellow, with an occasional white bird occurring. Red or orange should never be seen, and if they are, they will indicate that the bird cannot be purebred.

White Waterslagers are more often considered acceptable, and yet visit a show and you will find groups of fanciers engaged in intense discussions over whether white birds should be allowed to be shown on an equal basis as the yellows, it being argued that the white is a mutation from the original yellow stock, and therefore not pure.

The American Singer Canary

This breed is one of the three breeds of canary developed in the United States, the others being the American Hartz Canary and the Columbus Fancy. The American Singer originally came from a planned cross between the Roller Canary and the Border Canary as it existed earlier in the 20th century.

The goal was to achieve a bird with the bright active personality and freely offered song of the Border, but with with the overly loud, often harsh song of the Border modified by the singing skills bred for so long into the German Roller.

The result is a bird who sings more loudly than a Roller, but who is nowhere near so loud as it's Border ancestors. The American Singer does, however, display the Border's renowned habit of being very free with its song, offering its songs willingly and frequently.

American Singers are known to be very inventive little birds, who have the ability to mimic sounds they hear in their environment. This means that breeders and affecionados need to be rather careful just what their birds hear; if any member of the flock decides they like a certain sound, they are liable to keep repeating it, and teach it to the whole flock!

When this happens, it is known as 'song contamination' - except in the case where the added sound enhances rather than detracts from the overall quality of the song.

The way American Singer Canaries are judged at shows reflects this philospohy, and has led to some fanciers of the older song breeds, who are judged much less freely, to be heard to state the opinion that the American Singer is not a 'real' singing canary.

Occasionally you will find a seller who believes that, because they are situated in America, they have the right to term any singing canary as an 'American Singer', due apparently only to their geographic location, and because the bird sings!

This is a rather blatant invention, and the truth is, that if a bird is going to be sold as an American Singer, it should be wearing the certified American Singer closed bands, marked with the club's initials, on its leg. These bands are registered with and obtainable only through the AS clubs, and must be put on when the chicks are still in the nest, helping to serve as proof of the lineage of the bird.

Further, the American Singer Club is incorporated, and that means that any seller incorrectly using this terminology to describe their birds is actually conducting business illegally!

What it comes down to is that an canary not close-banded with the proper leg rings - no matter what its lineage - may not legally be called an American Singer.

The Timbrado Canary

Although new to most of the world, the Timbrado has a long history in the land of its origin, Spain, where it was known for centuries as the 'Canary of the Country'. The Spanish breeders who developed this breed kept only two goals in mind, that the bird's song must be attractive and freely offered, and that no use must be made of other songbirds, whether other breeds or other species, either in breeding or in song training.

Instead, the songs considered the most desirable were fixed to the repertoire of the breed through strict selection of the breeding stock.

The Spanish Timbrado is similar in appearance to the wild canary, but tends to be a little larger. In principle, all colours are accepted in the Timbrado, however, it should be stressed that the pure bloodlines of the Timbrado do not include the Red Factor, which derives from the South American Red Siskin.

Beware when looking to buy a Timbrado, of people who will try to take advantage of its rarity by trying to sell you any dark-coloured canary as a Timbrado, which will usually sell for a much higher price than a bird of a more ordinary breed.

The Timbrado's song is often called 'metallic', being freely offered, bright and cheery, full of bell tones. A good songster will have a great richness and variety in his songs, a trait the breed is famous for.

This canary was not officially recognized as a breed until 1962, when, after several failed attempts, the breed was finally recognized during the celebrated General Convention in Brussels. This was a triumph to many Spanish breeders, to whom it represented the first great honor of Spanish canary keeping.

The Russian Canary

This breed has reportedly been in existance for more than three hundred years, but suffered severe declines through the political climates of the last century or so in its homeland.

Nonetheless, the breed persisted here and there, due mostly to the efforts of the people who loved them and were unable to give them up, despite the label given this canary as being a symbol of everything bourgeois. Although they kept the breed alive, it is still in a state of severe decline, with few dedicated fanciers remaining.

Ironically, at the same time it has recently begun to gain more notice throughout the world for the uniqueness of its song, known in its homeland as 'ovsyanochnevo'. Very few people know much about this unique and historic canary, but recently a society was created to support and educate interested fanciers, as well as planning contests, creating record libraries, etc, so it is hoped that in the future more will be heard of this unique and most interesting breed of song canary.

The Future of Song Canaries

Raising and training song canaries requires dedication, skill, and much time. The art of training canaries in the delivery of their song is a long and involved process, requiring not only interest and a natural talent and ability for working with birds, but also specific skills developed laboriously through much practice, along a good ear; not to mention a fairly hefty material investment in equipment and other related costs!

In these days of fast food, fast travel, and fast living, such arts tend to drop by the wayside, and few ever seem to realize what is being lost until it is already gone. Will our beloved song canaries, who left their mark on so many ears, take the same route, in the end? Or will there be enough interested and dedicated fanciers to maintain their presence in an ever-more-rapidly changing world?

Only time will tell - time, and our own efforts.

by R C McDonald
www.robirda.com
Copyright © 2003

Now that it's summer, you will want to make sure that your birds are able to cope with the heat. If you use fans, swamp coolers, or an air conditioner, make sure that there is no draft blowing directly on your bird, unless there is also an area he can step into that will provide enough shelter to get out of the draft.

Also check that if at any point during the day the sun is shining on your bird's cage, at least part of the cage is in shadow, so that your bird can step out of the sun if he wishes.

Making a bath available to your bird every day is a thoughtful thing to do during hot days - there are few nicer ways to cool off than a quick dip! For even better cooling, try floating a few ice cubes in the water. Most birds greatly appreciate this, as cold water helps keep the feather oils in top condition and this in turn enhances the feathers' ability to insulate the bird from temperature extremes.

An over-heated bird will have his feathers slicked down as tightly as possible, and will be holding his wings away from his body, panting like a dog. If you find a bird like this, you must take immediate action to cool him or risk heatstroke. A quick light misting with cool water will help to relieve his immediate stress, but you will also need to re-evaluate his cage location and if possible, move him to a cooler area.

A few small simple precautions can help to make the hot days of summer pass enjoyably, and save everybody stress, worry, and trauma, so be sure to take a little time and check that your bird is as ready for summer as you are!

Renewed For A Limited Time, A Special Deal For You!

The folks at Bird and Cage Co have made it their goal to provide birdkeepers with a great selection of quality cages for the best possible prices - and if you live in the continental US, there's an even nicer bonus - for now at least, shipping is free!

But the good news doesn't stop there! In response to the eager interest displayed in these cages by our readers and visitors to Robirda.com, Bird & Cage is continuing to offer a special deal to those buying their cages from our site.

This sale was due to end on June 15th, but by popular acclaim has been extended until July 15th, so you can still save up to $100 dollars on selected flight cages from Bird & Cage - all you have to do is order your cage(s) from the review pages on Robirda.com, and when ordering, be sure to enter a note in the comments field that you first saw the cage here.

See Robirda's reviews of these and other cages.