Information
Domesticated
canaries originated from wild birds imported from the
Canary Islands. It should be noted, that the birds were
named after the islands from which they came and not
vice versa. Most breeds as we know them, began to emerge
from the early 1800s onwards. The wild canary is almost
identical in appearance to any common crossbred, Self
Green, domestic canary; that is to say, 12.5cm (5 inches
in length), greyish green on the back, yellowish green
underparts and streaked with black on both back and
flanks.
From those early imports of wild caught Canaries, all
of our current breeds have been developed. One can only
imagine today, the devotion needed to selectively breed
birds which display the diversity and conformity of
today's types. Remarkably some of the major advances
were made early on in the species domestic history.
Wild canaries are still to be found in their original
locality and in some other Atlantic islands.
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