Identify new birdies please? :)

[waxbill lover]

I know this is a finch forum, however can Canaries be included too? lol.
I was checking our local classified ads for Kijiji, and found a pair of canaries (what I was told was male/female pair) for $40! Bargain as far as I'm concerned... Can someone tell me what kind of canaries they are? I was told the male sings (he's the one with more yellow, and a spot of bright orange on the back of his neck). I haven't heard any singing as of yet, just canary chatter...I was also told they have laid eggs & hatched young, but the chicks never survived. Apparently the female is the darker bird.

Also while I was picking these birds up the lady asked me if I wanted to take 3 zebbies she was keeping in a little tiny cramped cage (in her basement no less! ) I felt so bad for the little guys. Apparently they're all siblings, and were all on the floor of the cage. (it was filthy and hadn't been changed in weeks obviously)... one of them is missing an entire tail, and seems to have trouble expelling its feces, but the feces don't seem runny or unnatural looking, just a bit stuck. They are now in a much better cage, with proper perches, and as soon as i put them in there they started eating like they'd been starved for a week. They'll be in quarantine for a while until I can get them up to snuff. The male appears to be a pied. He's got some gorgeous white patches all over his face and wings. Both of his sisters appear to be mostly normals, however both have some white wing feathers.

Pictures of the new additions are attached for your viewing pleasure!

Thanks
Brady

[waxbill lover]

and the zebs

[Mynard]

beautiful birds-koodos 2 you as well for taking the Zeb`s

[lovemyfinch]

They are all beautiful
What a beautiful heart you have to have saved those poor little pied zebbies

[CandoAviary]

They look like either american singers or colorbreds. Very pretty birds And bless you for rehoming the zebras

[G8love4finches]

The darker one looks like a Gloster to me...This is a picture of my Glosters....They have a unique high forehead....They are a Consort Gloster....There is a Corona Gloster that has a "Beatles" haircut and is crested....The other canary looks like an American Singer to me

[annague]

Beautiful canaries... the zebras don't look too bad, just a little ragged. It was kind of you to take them! Keep us up to date on how they are doing!

[waxbill lover]

Thanks guys! Sounds like from what everyone thinks here, the male canary is an American Singer, and Debbie I agree the female is most likely a gloster (with a hint of yellow under her chin) because she looks almost identical to your birds pictured. She is a bigger, more robust looking bird with a higher forehead than the male, however doesn't have the 'beatles' cut or crest. I've discovered she's missing 2 toes on one foot, but seems to do just fine without those toes. The little zebs are all 3 crammed into their food dish to sleep for the night. I'd put a nest for them to sleep in, however I'm concerned they'll breed and they're siblings, so that won't be happening! As far as I'm concerned they're much better off here at my light and airy CLEAN house than the dingy filthy house they were in...

[6finchfriends]

Congratulations on the additions! The canaries are very pretty! (*question-can you breed two different kinds of canaries?) And the Zebbies are so cute! I know they will be so much happier with you. Who can tell what would have happened to them in the basement ! Euuuwww, spiders! Creeps me out. I'm invisioning dungeon. I have a vivid imagination ... Now you'll have to come up with new names for their new life!

[CandoAviary]

Glosters are thick birds with a "browing" of the eyes. All consorts will have this heavy feather brow that droops over the eye, almost making them look half shut. Most consorts will also have an abundance of feathers around the cere. They also have NO neck as in Liz's pair. Here are some pictures of some consorts showing the brow.
http://www.rojasbirds.com/apps/photos/a ... id=3611430
Glosters, whether coronas or consorts are shorter in length than american singers but stockier. I don't see the brows on your bird nor would it be bigger than the american singer. Maybe a close up picture would help.
You can not go by the color alone as both the glouster and american singer come in this variegated color.
Canaries do breed with other canaries and sometimes you may have a cross already. Also in the ameriacn singers, as in any finch, there is a wide range of head shapes... the desired full round of a quality bred to a snipey, thin lesser quality. Also in glosters there will be a degree of differences of the crest and brows depending on the quality. Most time breeders don't cross the gloster (type canary) with the american singer(song canary) because you loose quality of song with this breeding. But for pet ownership the crossing will not hurt the health of the bird.

Here are a couple of my American singers.. the one on top has a really nice head for this species.. the hen's head is not as nice. Notice the high forehead but no brows over the eyes.

[Queen_Bee]

Beautiful canaries! And well done taking on the little zebbies. They have such spunky personalities you will love them!

[kenny]

hi
well done with saving the zebs ,i think personally they are all pieds due to the white wing tip they have ,and with them being siblings the likely hood of that they are all pieds reinforces it,nice canaries also at least they look fit and the zebs tail will soon grow back,thats probably the mucky conditions they where kept in


ken

[waxbill lover]

Thanks for all the kind comments everyone.

Ken, I would agree with you, I think they're all pieds, or at least split for pieds. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the one female, she still has some digestion problems going on in the lower end.

Candance, your darker American Singer in that picture is almost identical to my bird, except my female has a higher head, almost round in appearance, however no feathers drooping over the eye. I'll try and get a close up pic in the next few days... hard to keep her still for a photo. She doesn't have an abundance of feathers around her cere either. I can't even believe my ears when the male sings lately... he almost sounds like a video game at times (kind of like a childrens toy gun)... Hence his name "Video"

Trish, I agree, basements and spiders are groce! Your comment made me laugh and shudder at the same time! The ladys house I bought them from had 4 kids under the age of 5, and the place was an absolute disaster, and all the birds cages looked like they hadn't been cleaned in months. I felt bad for all the birds there...Thankfully she has most of them for sale, and they'll all go to better homes!

[kenny]

hi
amen to that,if they are not going to look after birds /cats/dogs in thier care why get them in the first place its so dissapointing when people let pets suffer it is totally beyond me


ken

[CandoAviary]

Maybe with such a round head and no feather brows it has some border canary in it... though borders are rather small birds compared to other breeds. You may have a crossbreed also.
Here is a site with good border head pictures.
http://www.canarybirdshed.co.uk/birdshedblog.html