Birds of a feather...

[Pajarita]

A nice little article even though there is something wrong: canaries are NOT social birds, they are territorial. What bothers me deeply is not the fact that this is a mistake, it's that the person who said this is the aviary manager of the Schubot Center for Avian Health at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences - shouldn't they have hired somebody who actually knows about birds to take care of them?!

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/neighb ... 021483.php

[TashiaGerard]

are you sure it is territorial?

[SecondChild]

I have heard once that it is not a social bird, but I don't have an argument.

[Barberry]

By territorial it was meant that these birds are not social. They are usually very solitary and to say that these birds are social is wrong. Do you know the author? It depends on the specialization of the person. I mean if the author has never studies these birds, than he might got wrong. But it also depends on the resource. If it is not a veterinary website, the article could be written by a copywriter who has no idea about veterinary, nor some studies about birds. So always be on point with internet articles. I have subscription on emerald for journals and on https://www.veterinaryschoolsu.com/vet-tech/ for profession specific articles, but sometimes happens that authors are not accurate.

[Pajarita]

The problem with canaries is that it's a 'man-made' species. They started out with wild canaries in Spain back in the 1400's but they have since not only manipulated breeding (for song, color and form) but also crossed them with other passerines like the African Gold Finch to improve color and song among others - and, in the case of red factor canaries (one of the color varieties), with the Venezuelan Red Siskin. This created a bird that does not exist in the wild and, because of different mixes and the fact that people simply do not keep them right, they ended up with what we call 'kitchen' canaries that are not as territorial as the wild canaries or the purebred song canaries (the more the canary sings, the more territorial it is). So, yes, some canaries can be kept in a flight cage with other canaries without fighting (the purebred song males will fight to the death if they are made to share a cage) but the constant stress reduces their lifespan significantly. This has caused most people to think that canaries don't live longer than 7 to 9 years when, in reality, a canary that is kept the right way can live well into their late teens.

[Barberry]

Ahaaa, very interesting. Thanks for sharing this information