Le canari sauvageThe Wild Canary -

Discovery of wild canary

The wild canary could be domesticated after its discovery to the XIVth century by Genoese navigators who were impressed by the multitude of multicoloured birds and singers present on the thirteen islands of the archipelago of the Canaries. This last which forms part of the family of fringilds was born on these islands bearing the same name. Thus Europeans or habitants of the old continent, made knowledge with the ancestor of our current domestic races. He was introduced at the Spanish court with the whole beginning of the XVth century and little by little conquered whole Europe, Spanish made a true trade of it. Thus, they preserved their monopoly during many years by prohibiting the export of the females outside the country. But at the sixteenth century, a boat coming from the Canaries made shipwreck and its invaluable cargo flew away in the surfaces. Fringilds adapted to the climate of theItalian coasts and started to reproduce there. The Italians then started to export the bird in all Europe.

Change of color

If you have gone on holidays in the archipelago, you inevitably sought to see a small red or yellow bird as one generally sees them in the animaleries. In spite of their great number on the island, you could seek a long time, the wild canaries are very different from our domestic races. This small sparrow with the plumage yellow-greenstriated with gray-brown is moreover smaller than its domestics cousins with its 12 cms, which enables him to be based in the landscape. The transfer of color towards the yellow did not only appear that has the end of the XVIIth century.

Living conditions

To a hundred kilometers of the African coast and under the beneficial influence of the Stream Golf, it lives in a moderated climate, neither too heat, nor too cold. Indeed, the temperatures day labourers oscillate between 20 and 30°C by the current of the year. These volcanic islands constitute the emerged part of chains under high navy of more than 3000 meters. Composed of a mountainous and strongly wooded relief, they constitute a broad space of flight for our winged little friends. The rather various vegetation allows them to prove their agility and their abtitude to fly admirably. Inshort: it is not for only these islands were called ” fortunate islands ” as of Antiquity. By its green yellow plumage with striations of brown, the wild canary morfond in this sumptuous landscape.

Preamble to the loves

It nourishes primarily oleaginous and starch-based seeds (Canary seed of the Canaries for example), but it also appreciates the delicacies as the cane with sugar and the dandelion. It saw summer at the winter in groups of about fifty individuals or more and returns in couple at the end of the winter (which is very soft in the Canaries) for make its nest in the trees isolated from the islands which constitute for the males a place of marvellous song. By its song the male encourages the female to build the nest which it papers of feathers and tender fibres and delimits its territory. If territory of this last is not respected, the confrontation between the males is inevitable.

The future generation

The nest will be built preferably in an insulated tree or a large bush. In the natural environment it lays 3 to 5 clear blue eggs and starts to brood only when the laying is complete. The male nourishes the female so that it does not move away from the nest too a long time. After 13 to 14 days the eggs hatch at the same time and the young people appear tiny and with their sleeping bag. Previously, they bored their shell using a small protuberance on the higher mandible called ” diamond “. At the birth, they are almost naked and also have the closed eyes, the couples can raise in nature to three broods per season. The father is then charged after the hatching to nourish its small birds in order to let put back the female.The young canaries grow quickly and in a 15 days space, the plumage is almost complete and they leave little time after the nest to join at the six months age the future groups which will traverse the islands by length and broad.