The History of Coloured Canaries

by Mattia Felice

The Hooded (Red) Siskin

If you look in depth in the history of the hobby of professional bird keeping you can see that from the beginning of the hobby a lot of Canary breeders were not pleased only with having the ‘common’ and type canaries, so they always tried to develop a red strain in the plumage of the canary. Countless attempts were made, but without success. Finally in the beginning of the twentieth century the German Dr. Hans Dunker discovered that the South American Hooded (Red) Siskin would mate with a yellow hen canary. The result was similar today’s Apricot. Over time the ‘red canary’ got perfected and other kinds of coloured canaries were developed, amongst one can mention the red factors, phaeos, melanins (bronze), agates, opals, mosaics and Isabels.

The Red Bronze Frosted Canary

The Red Phaeo (brown) Canary

The Red Factor Frosted Canary

Donated by Mattia Felice