The canary and siskin cross was considered infertile for many years just as are many other canary hybrids. Fortunately it was discovered that these hybrids were sometimes fertile when crossed back with a canary, furnishing a new incentive to thousands of canary fanciers now on the trail of both an all-red and an all-black canary. Today, many fanciers believe that the introduction of the Black-hooded Red Siskin’s blood will provide the means of producing a red canary. [PLATE 30]
FEMALE VENEZUELAN BLACK-HOODED RED SISKIN
This attractive but much less lively colored “other half” of the Black-hooded Red Siskin will also produce fertile canary hybrids. The female siskin illustrates very well the dimorphic colorations common to many wild birds, being slightly orange in many of the areas showing deepest red in the male Black-hooded Red Siskin.
These siskins are considerably smaller than even very small canaries, and they have an unattractive wild song. As might be expected, their coloring, size, and song characteristics are transmitted to the hybrids resulting from crossing with the canary. The fancier, through selective breeding back to desirable canary stock, endeavors to eliminate the unwanted siskin characteristics and at the same time retain the effect of the red coloring which produces many shades of apricot, orange and copper. [PLATE 31]
MAHOGANY CANARY AND SISKIN 1ST CROSS
The canary and siskin hybrid is always a very dark bird and usually small in size. Depending on the depth of color they are usually called a copper, bronze, or mahogany. When these hybrids are mated back to pure canary stock, the chicks obtained are called second cross and generally have a much more attractive appearance. [PLATE 32]
ORANGE-CINNAMON CANARY AND SISKIN 2ND CROSS
The deep orange coloring of this second cross hybrid was obtained from a fertile canary and siskin first cross that was mated back to canary stock carrying some cinnamon blood. The orange tint has little, if any, tendency to fade and is often as bright as that temporarily obtained through color feeding. In a second cross bird such as this, the siskin heritage is usually very noticeable in the song. [PLATE 33]
APRICOT CANARY AND SISKIN 3RD CROSS
When the second cross canary and siskin is mated back to pure canary stock again, the apricot coloring is one of the possible results. This bird illustrates the way in which the Red Siskin coloring has been diluted and evenly spread throughout. The apricot stock is used by breeders in crossing with unrelated hybrid stock in order to intensify desired coloring, form, feathering, and size characteristics as well as to further introduce the color to type birds such as Border Fancies. [PLATE 34]