FINCHforum

I'm headed to our local bird mart next week and have a list of birds I am interested in. One of the tops on the list is a canary. I have an aviary with 8 finches and was wondering if a canary could join them. I am also interested in knowing if the canary will not sing. I was told many years ago that putting a canary with other birds will result in the canary mimicking its cage mates. Is that true?

dunker817
Layne, I have a mixed aviary with a variety of finches and 4 canaries (2 males and 2 females). The canaries get along well with most of my finches. The only exception was my male green singer, which went after both male canaries constantly. He was so aggressive and disruptive that I had to remove the green singer pair and placed them in their own cage. The aviary was pretty peaceful after that.

As for the singing, being with the finches has not stopped the dominant male canary from singing. My red factor male sings pretty much daily. However, my other male canary (a spanish timbrado) stopped singing after I added the red factor male to the aviary. Before that, he sang loudly and frequently. It seems that in a flock setting, only the dominant male gets to sing.

The canaries add so much colors and personalities to my aviary. If you have room, I recommend adding some to your aviary. Good luck shopping for canaries

Thank you for the information and sharing your experiences. It's very helpful. At the last bird mart there was a very nice canary that sang beautifully. I'm hoping there will be another.

dunker817 Hopefully, Trish Hartnett will be at the mart with her American Singer canaries. She has the second table on Finch Row (the wall directly to the left as you enter the hall).

@vienneparis Green Singing finches are closely related to the domestic canary, and they can be quite aggressive to other yellow birds.

Sally, I discovered the aggressive nature of green singers the hard way, and had to house my pair separately in their own cage. They don't seem as happy as they were in the aviary without room to fly around, but I can't risk having them harm the gentler canaries and finches.

Hello there,

I had a canary in my flock, and he was ALWAYS the boss. He sang louder (and more off tune as he got older, it is true) than any of my other birds. He competed with the radio, the vacuum cleaner, sounds outside, people over the road with the lawn mower etc etc. Its REALLY quiet now - apart from my Zebra finches honkling! I miss my canary!

They're great!

Kind Regards

Zebrafincher

Today at the bird mart I got a pair of Spanish Timbrado canaries. They are doing well and settling into quarantine. The male is a bit spooked I guess. He hasn't made a peep all day long. The hen is peeping.