Canary reel: types and features

The family of finches combines a large number of subspecies. They are all very beautiful and have a melodic, unforgettable voice. Most of them have a wide area of residence, ranging from the African coast, the Canary Islands and Asia.

Appearance

A canary reel for uninitiated people may seem like a sparrow, but an unusual bright yellow or greenish color. Bird of small size, the maximum growth of which is up to 14 cm. It has a strong beak and thin clawed feet.

Color is quite diverse, as each species has its own individual characteristics. Due to these small at first sight distinctive features, an experienced ornithologist can at first sight distinguish a female from a male.

Bright colored feathers are intermixed with dark gray or brown. Most often the abdomen is light, it can be white. Female are more modest in color plumage.

Habitat

Yellow-bellied canary finch, distinguished by its "sunny" color of the abdomen, lives in South Africa. His favorite nesting places are shrubs, tall grasses and rare woods.

The Canarian canary finch is from the warm Canary Islands. Thanks to his singing abilities spread on the island of Madeira and the Azores. The Canarian finch differs from other subspecies - the dark stripes on the wings and tail.

The Mozambican canary finch is common in most parts of South Africa. It is one of the traditional poultry. It has more than ten varieties. It can be seen in Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia and the Orange River basin.

Differences and features of each species

Reel canary has differences not only in the coloring of plumage and habitats. Very many habits these pretty birds have gotten thanks to the peculiarities of their surrounding nature. First of all, this affected their diet, and secondly, in the nesting areas.

The Mozambican finch likes to nest in savannas, rare forests, and in cities they like parks, gardens, squares. If the time to incubate the offspring has not yet come, these singing birds gather in flocks and flit around. They feed on small seeds and insects. Their favorite treat is larvae and cereals.

The Canarian finch settles most often in bushes and tall grasses. The basis of the diet of this species is vegetable food: fruit fruit with soft flesh, young greens and small seeds.

Yellow-bellied finch is a resident of grassy meadows. There he builds his nests and breeds offspring. It feeds on seeds of cereals, midges and larvae. Lives flocks, whose members are often the offspring of previous clutches.

Reproduction and nesting

The canary reel differs from other species in that it can create and incubate two egg laying during the summer period. Depending on the region, the nesting period starts from January to April and takes only 13 days per masonry.

In a small nest of twigs and feathers finches lined the middle with hair, feathers and down. To hide from prying eyes, mask it with grass and moss. In the laying of three to five eggs.

Small eggs of a bluish shade with dark specks from the blunt end are hatched by females. The incubation period takes place in just three days. But parents continue to feed the kids for another two weeks, until they begin to independently procure themselves food.

If the female leaves the nest during the incubation period, the reel males can easily replace it. They heat the masonry, feed the offspring and protect their territory from the encroachments of strangers.

Canary finches still Darwin crossed with other species of finch. Crossbreeds with chic and scheglo gave very beautiful individuals, but with a complete lack of breeding abilities. Not one of the hybrids did not become the ancestor of a new breed of canaries.

A canary finch in history

Reel canary was used by miners to monitor the purity of air in the galleries. Cells with these birds hung in all branches of the mine. Due to their sensitivity to air pollution, methane workers could not worry for their lives. The signal for a rapid ascent to the surface was the long silence of the birds. After all, they can often sing for a long time without stopping.

New technologies used to determine the purity of air, also named after these little singers canaries.

The first domestic canaries were imported from the Canary Islands. It cost such a bird dearly. To keep prices down, traders preferred to sell only kenars. Thus, they had a monopoly on the sale of these birds. But the accidental shipwreck off the coast of Spain with the load of these birds was the beginning of a new species of canaries. Kenars, brought from America, began to interbreed with local species of finches, and the born offspring was no less vocal than the ancestors.