Pure white or blue canaries

[bickitrainer]

Does anyone know if these colours of canaries exist?

[robert]

Bickitrainer just found this members.hn.ozemail.com.au/~ailwood/blue.htm also www.avianweb.com/fifecanaries.html from Robert and Precious. PS will put these in links section soon. Please also notice thread on white canaries here.

[madaussie]

:DThank you lord of the links they where very good sites kept me quite for a few hours reading
j

[lilfaery]

Hi Bickitrainer,
yes there are such things are pure white canaries and blues, although the blue canary isn't strictly blue. A "blue" canary is referred to as "blue" when it is one of the brown/fawn/grey types, and has a bluish tinge to the softer feathers, most noticeably on the breast. (At least that is what all my research, and owning one of them, has told me). My beautiful male canary - Pippin - is a blue, and he has also sired a blue in his 2008 breeding.

This is a pic of Pippin, although it is hard to see the bluish tinge properly in a pic. (The yellowy orange tinge you see on his underside is just a reflection from the hen, Merry). Merry is a Yellow Lipochrome in colour ie dominant yellow, and she has two chocolate brown eyebrows.

Pippin is just completing his annual molt and he has come back into a beautiful soft greyish/blue feathering all over, apart from the wings and tail, which are the darker brown and fawn colour.

Merry and Pippin produced 8 chicks in the 2008 breeding season, 4 of which were white. Their first nest of 3 were all white. Here are those three at 12 days old.


These little angels grew up to be strong healthy birds, two cockbirds and a hen. Both the boys have a darker mark, one on the right wing and the other above the right eye (I called him Phantom after The Phantom of the Opera). However the hen is completely white.

There are two kinds of white bird - dominant and recessive. All my white birds are dominant white, indicated by a streak of yellow along the edge of the wing feathers. If the yellow streak is absent, then the chicks are recessive white.

Here are two of the first three white chicks, all grown up.
Phantom on the right has a dark eyebrow over his right eye. Eowyn on the left is all white, except for the yellow wing edges.

White birds should only be bred to yellow birds. This avoids genetic problems. Two recessive white birds bred together will cause a loss of approx. 25% of their chicks due to the weakness of the genes. There can also be hard and soft feather mutations leading to problems for the bird with relation to the feather structure.

I hope that little bit of info might be helpful to you Bickitrainer? You can research canary breeding and genetics to find out more if you wish. There is much info out there on the WWW.

Cheers, Shauna ;D

[Karen]

WOW! that was an amazing bit of info Shauna! I don't know anything about canaries except that they are beautiful - didn't know their genetics were that complicated.
Thank you!

[lilfaery]

Hi Birdcrazy,
thanks for the kind comments ;D

I never actually intended to breed birds, but I suppose like the rest of us addicted folk, you get one and it goes on from there. I only thought about getting a lovely little friend for my lonely bird, and I know you cannot house two cockbirds together unless they have LOTS of space. They are quite territorial. Didn't want to go to the trouble of having split cages and not allowing them to see one another.

Anyway, I digress. Yes, the genetics may seem simple enough at face value. But then I learned about the base colours of which there are only two in canaries - white or yellow. Believe it or not, the darker brown/grey etc birds like my Pippin have white base colour, so that comes to play in breeding. Hence my unexpectedly getting 3 dominant whites when breeding him with a lipochrome (dominant factor) yellow hen, Merry.

Their next nest however was colourful. From 4 eggs, we got a white, a lipochrome yellow, a fawn/brown split to blue, and a Recessive sex-linked cinnamon, with the red eyes at birth. The little chicks looked black, brown, white and yellow as they began to get their pinnies. Here they were at 10/11 days of age:

So as you can imagine, after three white chicks, these were a surprise and a thrill at the same time.

I want to try breeding a Red Factor cockbird with a White hen, and would like to try going for a more variegated yellow either with Lipochrome (dominant) yellow or buff (recessive yellow which is much paler but very pretty). There are also different shades of yellow, from the very bright intensive like my Merry, to an almost apricot or palest buttercup yellow. But I have to sell 5 of my chicks first, as I will not run the risk of inbreeding them. That will be tough, but I know they will be happy as I will sell them to definite fanciers. 3 of the cockbird chicks are already wonderful singers.

Anyway, I ramble on too much, so I will close here by saying that I don't pretend to be an expert - I just want to impart my knowledge and the experiences I have had in order to continue the breeding of high quality birds with strong healthy bloodlines. I hope some of the info is helpful to some, and if so, that is great. ;D

Thanks for your time and attention.

[robert]

How are your Canaries going,Shauna?
from Robert and Precious

[lilfaery]

Hi Robert,
all going really well thanks. Singing up a storm at present as it is a lovely sunny day outside. ;D

I lost my beautiful yellow hen Merry in early April which totally broke my heart, but I have purchased a new Green cockbird (ex showbird) at the Avicultural Society of WA's regular open day, that I needed to improve the breeding quality of my flock. I will need another cockbird as well, and am hoping to buy a Red Factor cockbird.

I am hoping to pair the Green cockbird with a cinnamon hen I have from last year's breeding. And I want to to pair a new Red Factor cockbird with both a white hen, and possibly a fawn or Lipochrome Yellow coloured hen.

I'd love to breed some of those beautiful red and white canaries that were in the pages you set a link for.

But, it won't happen now until the Spring is sprung. hehe ;D

[norwichfinchman]

In the UK we have pure White's and pure Blue's. But if you go to the shows and look at the blue's they are not quite Blue as you would imagine them to be. They are still beautiful birds and look great on the show bench.
I have a pure white Hen and she has been entered into two shows and has won both of her sections. She is my star! I purchased her from a Champion Breeder for only £8 (16 Aus dollars) she is also my little bargin!!!!!

[lilfaery]

That's great Steve. Is she a dominant or recessive white? Have you bred with her before, or do you intend to breed with you and if so, what colour cock would you pair her with?

I have some whites too - mine are all dominant whites. They are a very beautiful bird when their whiteness is so pure aren't they? My best is a hen also. She is also very friendly, since I have handled all my canary chicks from the day of their hatching, and find they are more calm when you have to hold them for nail clipping or to inspect them or spray the feathers etc.

I love canaries, they are such tiny inquisitive little beings.
Cheers, Shauna ;D

[vankarhi]

wow what a fountain of knowledge ;D

I also love canaries. My father used to breed them.....hobbist only. I grew up with canaries and finches (along with many other types of animals). I just love the male canaries song. I own a male named Songa (original name hey) and I bought him a female for company. they have managed to only raise one baby successfully but have had a couple of live clutches that for one reason or another have not survived. Maybe this year will be a better year.

We saw some white canaries and some white and black ones.......I think they are stunning along with the red factor canary also.