Chickadee and Gruyghe

      Contrary to what many people think, all canaries get their colour from their food. Without any lutein, (yellow food colour) in his diet, the normally yellow canary would appear to be white after completing his annual moult, or change of feathers. Luckily for the canary, most seeds and greens are quite high in lutein.

      Without any cartenoids in his diet, the red canary will appear to be (depending on the amount of lutein in his diet) yellow or white. This has mislead some people to believe that a non-colourfed canary is showing his 'natural' colour, when this is in fact not the case.

      The action in this photo is typical of a couple of healthy canary males - even in strange surroundings, their primary concern is to prove to themselves that they are the dominant male canary present. These birds invented the term macho; humans just borrowed the concept.

      Oh, the funny name? It's pronounced 'groo-gee', with hard g's, and it's a Gaelic comment on his personality...