Domestic Canary, Serinus Canaria Domestica

The Domestic Canary was a domesticated form of the Wild Canary and part of the Finch family groups originating from the Spanish archipelago. Prized for the singing voice of its male birds, the Canary was once exclusively marketed only to those wealthy enough to afford the birds, although prices went down once local citizens were able to obtain hen birds to breed. Domestic Canaries usually possessed distinctive yellow-green feathers, although other colour varieties such as Brown and Ivory arose through hobbyist breeding. In countries such as the USA and Europe, Domestic Canaries were often judged at bird shows following the end of the breeding season for the quality of their voice and their appearance, whereupon only the person who raised them would be granted the right to show the bird.

With bodies no larger than 15cm, Canaries were extremely popular pets due to their friendly personalities and the ease involved in their care. Their small size and inoffensive voices moreover made them easy to rear even in apartment buildings, although predation from neighbouring cats seems to have been a risk posed to the careless owner. Canary male and females were however extremely difficult to tell apart by mere appearance, since not all males sang and all females remained silent. While their gender was able to be determined upon internal examination by veterinarians, most of the time, the only reliable way for a breeder to make entirely sure would be to wait and see if ‘she’ laid eggs! Generally non-social animals, Canaries were able to thrive even when kept on their own, provided they were fed well and had access to a large cage with room for flight. Their diet consisted mainly of seeds, and could also be rounded out with various fresh vegetables and greens.

The use of Canaries in coal mining as an early warning system for toxic gases was finally outlawed in ----. Unfortunately, the susceptibility of these otherwise hardy birds to methane and carbon monoxide meant that they were among the first avians to succumb to the dust following WWT, along with owls and sparrows.