Chapter 25 twenty three companion birds

The human connection to the wild Several species of birds have been, or have almost been, raised by humans, but these birds are not of real economic importance other than those who breed and sell their young.Pet dealers sell bird food, animal-based bird food, cages, toys, perches, food trays, gravel and paper for cages, tapes for vocal training, and a variety of bird books , and home care products.Beyond these items, the primary value of companion birds is psychological rather than economic.This is very similar to their natural enemy domestic cats since ancient times. ★Canary It is generally believed that the canary is only found in the Canary Islands in northwest Africa.In fact, various species of the canary family can be found from the Ethiopian highlands all the way to South Africa.There are many kinds of finches. In addition to some more familiar birds, it also includes finches, goldfinch, gray finch, main cardinal, yellow finch, sparrow, seed-eating finch, 鵐, iron-clawed 鵐, North American sparrow , grass finch, red-eyed finch, wax-billed bird, tanager (organ bird) and so on.

However, some of those domesticated birds do come from the Canary Islands, such as the Canary canary, which can be found in the Azores off the coast of Portugal, and off Morocco, in the Canary Islands and the Azores. Madeira Islands between the Sore Islands.The time when humans first bred canaries in captivity is now unknown.The Portuguese declared their occupation of the Canary Islands in 1341 AD, and three years later, the Pope of Rome gifted them to the Spanish Kingdom of Castile (Castile).In the 15th century, the Spaniards conquered all these islands; at that time, the Spaniards may have discovered that the canary was already a companion animal of the local aboriginal Guanche (Guanche), so the Spaniards soon began to breed the male canary. Export to the growing European market.

Another more widely accepted theory is that a Spanish ship full of canaries sank off the coast of the island of Elba (which also belonged to Italy at the time), and it is said that the canaries later fled to Elba. The island of Ba has become a wild canary group in the local area. Italians catch canaries here and enter the small but profitable market of canary trading.The British later joined in the trade, but it was the Germans who benefited the most, especially in the Harz Mountains region of central Germany between the Elbe and Weser rivers.Today, the canary is a cage bird that can be seen all over the world.Because there are still some escaped or released canaries, there are also a few wild canaries in some areas with suitable climates.

Humans chose to keep canaries in captivity purely because of the male bird's announcing cry; and because this call is so melodious, humans also breed for the canary's call.In addition to breeding canaries for their singing ability, humans also select for their body size, plumage, style, posture and color.The original wild canary is small in size and is a fairly dull drab, olive green with yellow (male), or gray with brown stripes. There are many anecdotal accounts of humans mating canaries with other similar-blooded breeds for ideal color and plumage quality, though how much of this is real or fictional is unclear.Since the sixteenth century, the competition among peers to breed the most beautiful and beautiful canaries has been fierce, so various stories about how to breed the best mutant canaries have always been regarded as a cover-up to protect commercial secrets.We should be able to say this: canaries (often referring to the buff canary, the favorite of all cage birds) have long been domesticated by humans, and their dark, small ancestors came from the Canary Islands .

★Other companion birds There are hundreds of species of birds raised by bird breeders, and the number of bred birds is also very large.From flamingos and exotic waterfowl to hawks, pheasants and Xinjiang song robins, they have become decorations in the homes and gardens of bird watchers all over the world. There are more than 320 species of birds in the large and fascinating Psittaci family, including favorites of bird lovers: parrots, lorikeets, cockatoos, lorikeets, cockatoos, rosellas, love parrots , parakeets, macaws, conures, South American parrots, canoe parrots, and Amazon parrots.Among them, many species, such as cockatiels, budgerigars (or parakeets) from Australia, and love parrots from Africa, have been bred by humans for hundreds of generations, so they should be regarded as poultry.Many other species have also been bred by humans, but they haven't changed much.In the breeding process, the length of time or the number of breeding by humans is not important. The breeds created by human breeding instead of natural selection are the so-called livestock breeds.Most caged birds are captured by humans from the wild, and among the hundreds of species of birds kept in captivity by humans, only a few are truly domesticated.As for which birds are wild, which are moving towards the goal of domesticated animals, and which are actually poultry, it depends on individual inspections.

Bird watchers buy pets from pet retailers, but rarely think about where these pets come from?How is the loss of life and damage to birds calculated if they are captured by humans from the wild?However, for cage bird enthusiasts and those who sell cage birds, the birds bred in captivity will become more and more important.The days of hunting wild birds from wild areas and hoping that enough prey will survive long convoys and transports to profit financially from such adventures are coming to an end.Too many species and habitats are already at serious risk of extinction, so many of the methods that were used in the past can no longer be continued.Entire shipping containers full of live animals have died en route to ports around the world; an act of unimaginable cruelty.Today, the trade has dropped to such a low point that smugglers have to try to squeeze every last bit of value out of wild flocks.The death rate from illegal smuggling is worse than the delivery record in the days of legal bird retailers.Generally speaking, the commercial behavior of buying and selling exotic pets is often unavoidable. However, at present, these have to be declared over.

Exactly how the lack of access to wild populations will affect the status of popular species in human husbandry is difficult to predict.In the past, because wild birds were easy to catch, little effort was made on breeding except for a few unique species.Today, that may be changing.As a result, whether humans will raise more breeds is still open to debate.However, it is time to change the basic rules for humans to obtain companion birds.