Colorful characters bring sweet songs

By Libby James
Correspondent

"Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come," advises a Chinese proverb.

Human beings value sweet songs, in the forest or mountains, their own backyard, or even from a small cage in the family room. Sometimes, when it's tough to "keep a green tree" in one's heart, a canary can provide an uplifting song.

According to Doug Barlin, who breeds and sells canaries, some people take their small charges with them wherever they go. Owners of recreational vehicles find that canaries take little space and are easy to feed and maintain.

Canaries are a variety of finch, a common backyard bird, prized for their cheerful personalities, colorful feathers and vocal abilities. They live wild only on islands off the coast of Africa - the Azores, Madeira and the Canary and Cape Verde Islands.

Spanish sailors brought canaries to Europe in the 1400s. Domestication and breeding have developed pure yellow and red birds and many prized variations in size, body structure and color.

Some trill a soft mellow song with beaks nearly closed, while others throw their heads back, open their beaks and produce a wild, free sound. Canaries can be taught musical scores and instrumental tones, and even a few words. Males sing to attract females, who are limited to cheerful chirping and trilling. Fyodor Fokenko, a Russian canary trainer, has created a canary choir with a repertoire of 80 classical pieces including "Moonlight Sonata."

In 1983, when the National Coal Board in the United Kingdom tried to phase out the use of canaries to detect carbon monoxide in coalmines, they were unsuccessful. Miners trusted their feathered friends more than they did mechanical devices. Canaries are 15 times as sensitive to carbon monoxide as humans. Miners keep a sharp eye on their caged canaries as they work, and at the first sign of distress quickly remove themselves and their birds from the mine. They use tiny oxygen tents to revive the birds.

When Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote, "It is not a carol of joy or glee, but a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core...I know why the caged bird sings," he probably didn't know that domesticated canaries prefer the security of their cages to flying free.

Canaries are housed according to gender. While they thrive together, they are equally content to live alone. Most of Barlin's customers purchase a single bird unless they are interested in breeding.

By day, Barlin is a biological technician for the USDA Agricultural Research Service, but early mornings, he's busy tending birds. In his specially built aviary, cages are designed for maximum ease of feeding and cleaning. Light is automatically controlled so that the birds will be ready for breeding at the appropriate time. Each bird is banded and numbered and pedigrees are recorded.

Developing better singers and birds with ever more brilliant color and perfect body structure are the challenges that keep Barlin enthusiastic about his canaries. He is busiest during breeding season when he must select and monitor pairs. Canaries lay one egg a day, and it is important for their survival that all eggs hatch at the same time. Barlin collects the eggs and carefully returns them to the nest when laying is complete. Males may help in the feeding process, but only females sit on the eggs. Eggs hatch in 13 or 14 days. Canaries are polygamous, but not always compatible as randomly selected pairs.

Bird fanciers will gather Nov. 1 through 4 in Denver for the 20th anniversary of The Great American Bird Show. Barlin will attend with his birds in hopes of gaining recognition for the finest singers and the most beautiful birds among the several species he raises. Customers come to the "Bird House" from as far away as Wyoming and Kansas. Prices for a single bird are $75 to $80, depending on type.

Because they are solitary and not amenable to handling, canaries may not be the most suitable pets for young children. But for anyone who enjoys sweet music, and wants a pet with a small appetite and a big voice, a canary could be the perfect answer.

Information for this article came from Doug Barlin, the web site www.kidcyber.com.au and "Barron's Canaries: A Complete Pet Owner's Manual and Small Birds."