Customer Comments

"You are a terrific writer! Can't wait to see more!"

"I really enjoyed The Canary Angel. It was full of emotion and feeling, esp. for an animal lover like myself. Happy endings are always wonderful."

"I just bought your book "Brats in Feathers". I have and love canaries. I have purchased many books over the years, but this one has the best and most understandable information on these wonderful little "brats". I am now breeding a pair of Glousters ... and have 3 chicks less than a week old. I also have American Singers. Your book has helped me so much - you can always learn. I thank you for that." Sandi L, NY

"Received your book today, and was surprised how great it is! It's well worth the cost and then some, thank you!"

" ...We hope it reaches every pet owner and makes them sit up and take notice... bless you for the excellent job you are doing educating bird owners."

"I ordered "Canary Tales" by Linda Hogan last year... Although I fully recommend buying the book, I find Robirda's book much more complete, easier to read with less difficulty finding information." R.C., NY

"You have a way of making things easy to understand, and I love the look and feel of your book - not to mention that it is so easy to find the information I am looking for. THANK YOU!!!"

"I really hadn't realized what a wonderful writer you were until I read the book. I mean I love your web articles... but with more room you really were able to soar."

"...your advice has given us excellent assistance in keeping our canary alive! The advice of other 'experts' nearly killed him, including two vets who did NOT know about canaries, and gave us dangerously wrong advice."

"I'm just starting on your fabulous book 'Brats In Feathers' and have learned a ton of things... I'm stunned at how much I have learned in so very few pages! I will devour the information in no time flat! Thanks again, I can't wait to get all the way through... It really is so very complete and informative!" S Mathews, PA

"Since my father received your book, he has read it from front to back. My dad is 85. Five weeks ago he got his first (canary) babies, he was so thrilled... out of 4 eggs the hen laid, 3 survived. They are SO beautiful! Any day now, there should be 4 more. Without the book to follow, we don't think we would have been this lucky. There is so much detail! Also his male birds are singing nicely, your CD came in handy too." S. B., USA

"It's everything I imagined it would be and I'm just thrilled with my copy! - so great to have and to hold!!! It's a very attractive book, and a nice size as well -one that I can easily tuck and have on hand to refer to and read whenever and wherever. "

Announcing Robirda's newest book,

The Canary Angel

A Tale of Love, Hope, & Magic

Follow a canary's life from birth to near death in Robirda's latest book

The Canary Angel
Chapter One; A Lucky Little Bird.

       The setting sun strikes the perch where I sit, and I fluff my feathers to soak in the heat, a ritual I like to enjoy every evening, weather permitting. My life has been a long one for a canary, especially considering how many times it was so nearly cut short.

        This evening my thoughts are returning to the very beginning of the long, strange road that led me here to my forever home.

        I wasn't always so lucky - in fact, there were many times during my life when I’d fully expected to die within the next few minutes. It was sheer luck - and the love and caring of a few very special humans - that saved me. I don't think of those days often any more, but when I do, I realize all over again just how very lucky I am to be alive.

        It wasn't like I didn't have a good start at life. I was one of five chicks who hatched out in my mother's nest. My parents were so proud of us! One of my first memories is the sound of their voices, encouraging me with tiny, proud, protective cheeps as I struggled to free myself from my shell.

        They hovered protectively over me the entire time I fought, cheering me on with their soft voices, sheltering me from the cold with their bodies as I struggled. I sometimes wonder if I would have come up with the courage to hatch at all, if it had not been for my parents constantly talking to me as I strove with all my might to break free of my prison. They told me again and again of all the joys of the life awaiting me, giving me hope and the will to muster the last of my strength and get the job done.

        As I finally managed to flip the top of my shell back, my father began to sing out his pride and joy in me to the early morning sunshine. My eyes were still closed, and would be for several days yet, but even so I could tell the light was stronger, while the feel of the air on my damp skin was simply glorious. The sound of my father's song echoed through my whole body and filled me with joy while I panted in relief, still sitting in the bottom of my shell. I was free, and alive; life was good!

        The sounds of my parents' voices, and the tiny demanding cheeps of my brother and three sisters, was my entire world for the first five days of my life; that, and the life-giving food carefully and tenderly given to me by my mother,bite by careful bite, whenever I raised my head and voiced my hunger.

        My nestmates and I all hatched out at the same time, so my parents had their work cut out for them, raising us. For the first four days of our lives, our mother tended us alone. Meanwhile, our father would be down at the food dish, eating as much as he could hold of the special, nutrient-rich foods provided by our human. When his crop could hold no more food, he would flit up to our nest to feed our mother; once she was full and he was empty, he would leave to begin all over again, while she in turn tenderly fed each of us, one at a time, bite by careful bite. By the time she was done, our father would be back with more food, and the entire cycle would begin again, until at last we were full.

        Then, while we slept and our bodies used the time to grow some more, our parents could get a brief rest from their labours. Even then their job wasn't done; while we slept and grew they shared the important job of keeping us warm. Until our feathers grew in, we relied on the warmth from our parent's bodies. Without it, we could not digest our food, and would quickly become chilled, then dormant, and eventually die. While one parent sheltered us, carefully fluffing out his or her feathers to cover us all, the other would be down at the food dish, getting a little snack for him or her-self. What time was left went into a quick bath-and-preen, then all too soon we would awaken, hungry all over again, and it was back to work for the two of them.

        In fact, we grew so fast during those first days, that each of us more than doubled our weight every day! That kind of growth takes an enormous amount of food to fuel, and my parents knew they had to feed us every second they could, as long as there was enough light to see. When darkness finally drew near as evening crept over the world, we were all exhausted, either with the stresses of such fast growth, or from the work of fuelling it.

        Gratefully, both of my parents would climb onto the nest after using the last moments of light to stuff our gullets as full as they could manage, fluffing their feathers out and spreading them to shelter us all.

        When my eyes finally began to open, late in my fifth day of life, my curiosity overcame my fear as I realized the day was waning and it would soon be night. Feeling protected by the dimming light and the presence of my parents, I pushed my head out from under my mother and looked out over the edge of the nest.

        My first sight was of my father, standing tall against the sunset as he began singing out his joy in his family to the brilliant colours adorning the early evening sky. As I gazed wonderingly around at the immense world outside our nest, my eyes returned time and again to watch my father, studying him, listening closely to every detail of his glorious song, hoping that one day I could learn to be just like him when I grew up.

        It wasn't many days later I discovered our world was really not all that large, huge though it had seemed in that first glance. My brother and I lived and grew with our three sisters and our parents in a small apartment that we shared with an elderly gentleman. My mother in particular never tired of telling us how lucky we were to live with him, repeating over and over again the tale of how he had rescued her and father from a nightmarish existence.

        "We wanted to die, but we couldn't,"she would tell us, and my father would get a faraway look in his eye, while we would shiver with delight.

        We loved scary stories, and felt secure that such a horror could not happen to us. We knew we were loved, wanted, and cared for, and we had often heard our human muttering to himself that if he ever did sell any of us, it had better be a good home, or else!

        We thought his love would keep us safe - little did we know that the future actually held something very different for all of us.

        I was always the most active of the five of us youngsters, and my mother often told me that I was more work than all my other siblings put together, but I didn't care - I was too busy exploring.

        I was the first to leave the nest, and the first to try my wings. While my siblings were still holding on to the nest with their feet, waving their wings and pretending they were flying, I simply went - and found that flying was not only easy, but glorious!

        Landing where and how I wanted was a different matter, though. Time after time I missed where I was aiming, and suddenly found myself tumbled head-over-heels... but I kept stubbornly at it, until finally I figured out just how to get my wings and my feet to coordinate with each other.

        Our human often left our cage door open when he was home, so I quickly got used to using my wings to soar all over the place, exploring the entire apartment. I found it particularly fun to dive down and flit quickly behind him, lightly flicking the back of his neck with my wings.

        By the time he'd jumped, I would be safely perched on his old rack of antlers, cheeping with amusement, all my head feathers erect as I watched his reaction with interest and curiosity.

        "You don't know how lucky you are!" my mother would admonish me, glaring at me.

        "Most humans would never tolerate such antics- you are lucky he doesn't lock all of us up, just to keep his neck safe from you!"

        "Aw Mom, c'mon, I barely touch him!" I protested, "and besides, didn't you hear him laugh the last time I flicked him? I think he likes it as much as I do!"

        "Well, it's true that he is special, for a human,"she said tartly. "But I don't want you getting the idea that you can play with all humans like that- most of them are very strict, and don't believe in sharing their living space with birds- we are very, very lucky, to have a human who not only respects us, but doesn't mind letting us come out to play, or even cleaning up after us."

        Little did I realize, at the time, just how prophetic my mother's words would soon turn out to be.

Want to read more? Buy your own copy of The Canary Angel for only $13.99, directly from the author

More Customer Comments

"It's SO beautiful, and the photos and illustrations are wonderful, I love it!!!!!! Thanks so much!!!"

"I'll start off by saying that seed sprouting did not register with me until I got my copy of 'Brats in Feathers'. My first attempt was a disaster until I read about stale seeds. That's when you told me about Herman Bros and I placed an order with them. I sprouted four teaspoons of the Herman Bros 'soak seed' mix, according to your recipe in Brats and they were ready today. The results are almost miraculous. Enrico sang from 9am until noon. I am hearing 'riffs' I didn't even know he was capable of. I also went to the organic food store and got some fresh kale and a leaf as big as my hand lasts about 1/2 hour. He absolutely loves kale. Enrico has gotten less aggressive, flies to his sprouts perch which is inches from my hand and waits for his sprouts and NOW is singing like his namesake, Don Enrico Caruso. Your book has been yellow magic marked to unrecognizability. What a wealth of information." P Cruise, SC

"Thank you so much for the book on canaries. That is a really nice book. I needed one, because I bought my Mom two canaries, a male and a female, we don't know anything about them. I'm so glad to have this book, I couldn't believe how much was in there. Thank you so much!"  

"...It looks like a really great book. The printing is of a good quality, and the pictures reproduced extremely well. Your other book was most informative. I am sure I will learn a lot from this book."