The Cape Canary

      This is the only species besides the canary in this series which I have had the honour to meet 'in the feather', as it were - this is the Serinus canicollis canicollis, or Cape Canary. Native to eastern Zimbabwe and the eastern and coastal areas of South Africa, this species has a lovely song - at least the hen I met did!

      I believe this picture to be of male Cape Canary - the hen I met was less distinctively coloured, being a rather drab olive-green overall, with a lighter-coloured vent, rather than the distinctive grey-and-green seen here. It is said that they need large cages in which to breed - I would tend to agree, because the owner of that hen tried to breed her in a rather small double-breeder, used for canaries. Although she seemed to like the canary male she was mated with, she was clearly unhappy in the small cage, and never produced live young.

      One thing meeting her taught me, was that a successful breeder of exotic birds adapts his methods, caging, feeding and other such techniques to meet the bird's expectations, rather than the other way 'round, as it is so human to tend to do...