Pajarita's update

[galeriagila]

My favorite part of that update was the visual I got, imagining clumps of little finches perching together in a happy flock. There's nothing more adorable, nor more satisfying. It just looks as if everything is right with that.

[Pajarita]

Yes, finches are cutest when in flock! I just sent an update to her previous owner to tell her that she was perching smack in the middle of the little flock, with Yaga next to her (Yaga is the handicapped male that has no mate) and that she is already eating the gloop - so is Cherry, btw!

[galeriagila]

Awwwwwwwwwwwww...
A match made in heav-... no, in Pajarita's aviary!

[liz]

I used to visit a Veterans' nursing home. In the lobby they had a big enclosure with finches. It was so relaxing to watch them.

[Pajarita]

Yes, I know of three nursing homes where they keep birds in aviaries in the common rooms. Watching them is not only relaxing, it's also entertaining and brings a burst of life and excitement into places that tend to be too quiet and monotonous...

[liz]

Their constant little tweets are very relaxing.

[Navre]

Do canaries do well in flocks? I've heard some singling beautifully in pet stores, and I've always been tempted, but I honestly know nothing about them.

[Pajarita]

Noooo!!! Canaries are territorial birds, not social. And the better the singer, the more aggressive it will be to other canaries -even females! People think of canaries as aviary birds but that's only people who don't know anything about canaries. It's highly stressful to them to share a cage and the only way you can do it is with hens that have been together since before sexual maturity and then, making sure they have plenty of room and several feeders. The tendency to put them all together in a cage is what has made people believe that canaries don't live more than 7 or 9 years (well, that and a bad diet, light, etc, of course!) when they can actually live well into their teens with no problems. But you can only put several males in a cage without any danger with type or color canaries, songbred canaries will even attack a female if not in breeding condition.

A single male canary is more than happy all on its own BUT if you want A LOT of song, you should get two males, put them in separate cages and put the best singer's cage on top of the lesser singer's one. This way, they can hear each other but not see each other which will make them sing the most often and loudest. You see, their song is a secondary sexual characteristic and it's used to mark territory (if you can hear a canary singing, you are 'in' his territory), for aggression (a male canary will use his song to 'defy' another male to a fight) and for wooing (females will finish going into condition hearing the songs of the males).

Would you like a good singer, John? I would be more than happy to give you one of my Timbrados!

[galeriagila]

You are so right, Pajarita!
I raised a few canaries, and also hung out with some serious "canary people" back in New Mexico. The little males believe themselves to be mighty roosters. I raised a few canaries ( and some Black-Hooded Red siskins, as a part of captive breeding/reintroduction program; they were hunted to near extinction in their native Venezuela, due to their being prized for introducing "red factor" genes into canary types). When we moved North, I kept one little canary guy... a roller. He lived to be nearly 15, a ripe old age. To the very last, his "water notes" were loud, lovely, and persistent. One morning, I woke up to find him on the cage floor, cold, on his tummy, wings spread, beak forward, as if he were flying away. I was completely surprised that he was gone. I was also surprised at how much I missed him, and I'm still surprised at how easy it is to cry when I remember his songs, and he passed almost five years ago. His name was Eddiebird, named after Eddie Van Halen and Edward Lear.

The Rb imitated his songs, but of course since he can't/won''t whistle, it was...
"rit rit rit rooootytooooo rit rit rit roooootooooorrrrrreeeeeoooo" Very comical, but he quit doing it after Eddiebird was gone.

[Pajarita]

Well, I tell you, I can well understand your missing him! To me, a house is not a home if there are no canaries singing in it and I don't think I've ever been more than a few months in my life without a canary. I do believe that their songs pulled me out of some dark places of the soul more than once because, personally, no matter how terrible the situation at the time and how depressed or hopeless I might have felt, all I had to do is listen to a canary singing and I could feel the dark cloud leaving and my heart filling up with joy. The cries quakers make when in flight have the same effect on me... and the smell of Madame Rochas, the perfume my mother always wore. I think it might have to do with the fact that these things remind me so clearly of my childhood.