The finch family unites a large number of subspecies. All of them are very beautiful and have a melodic unforgettable voice. Most of them have a wide range of residence, ranging from the African coast, the Canary Islands and Asia.
Appearance
A canary reel for uninitiated people may seem similar to a sparrow, but an unusual bright yellow or greenish color. The bird is small in size, with a maximum height of 14 cm. It has a strong beak and thin clawed legs.
The color is quite diverse, since each species has its own individual characteristics. Thanks to these seemingly small distinguishing features, an experienced ornithologist can at first glance distinguish a female from a male.
Bright colored feathers alternate with dark gray or brown. Most often, the abdomen is light, may be white. Females differ in a more modest color of plumage.
Habitat
The 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.
Canary Canary Reel native to the warm Canary Islands. Thanks to his singing abilities, he gained distribution on the island of Madeira and the Azores. The difference between the Canary finch and other subspecies is the dark stripes on the wings and tail.
Mozambique canary reel distributed throughout much 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 in the Orange River basin.
Differences and features of each type
Canary finch has differences not only in the color of plumage and habitat. These cute birds got many habits due to the peculiarities of their surrounding nature. First of all, this was reflected in their diet, and secondly, on nesting sites.
Mozambique finch loves to nest in savannahs, rare forests, and in cities they love parks, gardens, squares. If the time to hatch offspring has not come yet, these songbirds gather in flocks and flutter in the vicinity. They feed on small seeds and insects. Their favorite delicacy is larvae and cereals.
Canary finch settles most often in bushes and tall grasses. The basis of the diet of this species is plant foods: fruit fruits with soft flesh, young herbs and small seeds.
Yellow-bellied reel - a resident of meadows overgrown with tall grasses. There he makes his nests and hatches offspring. It feeds on cereal seeds, midges and larvae. Lives in flocks, whose members are often offspring from previous clutches.
Breeding and nesting
Canary finch differs from other species in that it can create and hatch two egg clutches during the summer period. Depending on the region, the nesting period starts from January to April and takes only 13 days for each clutch.
In a small nest of twigs and feathers, reels line the middle with hair, feathers and down. To hide from prying eyes, mask it with grass and moss. In the clutch of three to five eggs.
Small eggs of a bluish tint with dark dots from a blunt end hatch females. The incubation period of the chicks takes place in just three days. But parents continue to feed their babies for another two weeks, until they begin to independently get their own food.
If the female leaves the nest during the incubation period, the males of the finch easily replace it. They heat the masonry, feed the offspring and protect their territory from the encroachment of strangers.
Canary finch still Darwin crossed with other species of finch. Crossbreeds with a Siskin and Carduelis gave very beautiful individuals, but with a complete lack of reproductive ability. Not one of the hybrids did not become the ancestor of a new breed of canaries.
Canary reel in history
The canary reel was used by miners to track air purity in adits. Cells with these birds were hung in all branches of the development. Due to their sensitivity to methane air pollution, workers could not worry about their lives. The signal for a quick rise to the surface was the prolonged silence of the birds. After all, often they can sing incessantly for quite a long time.
New technologies used to determine air purity have also been named after these canaries by these little singers.
The first home canaries were imported from the Canary Islands. Such a bird was expensive. So that the price does not decrease, merchants preferred to put up for sale only kenars. Thus, they had monopolies on the sale of these birds. But an accidental shipwreck off the coast of Spain with a cargo of these birds was the beginning of the breeding of a new species of canaries. Kenars brought from America began to interbreed with local varieties of finches, and the offspring born were no less vocal than the ancestors.