Hello, Frank Indiviglio here. Male canaries (Serinus canaria), long prized for their beautiful songs, may have unique learning abilities that explain their outstanding performances. Most birds acquire singing abilities by listening to others of their kind early in life…without appropriate role models, they fail to develop normal songs. Young canaries, however, seem able to switch [...]

See Part 1 of this article: Taming and Training Canaries and Other Finches, Part I
Hello, Frank Indiviglio here.
Last time we discussed some finch training basics…getting your pet to calm down when near people and out of its cage. Please see Part I of this article for further details.
Returning to the Cage
As mentioned in Part I [...]

Hello, Frank Indiviglio here.
When we think of tame birds, it is most often the parrots and mynas that come to mind. Canaries and other finches, on the other hand, are largely thought of as pets to enjoy for their bright colors, active ways and cheerful songs. To a great extent, these perceptions hold true…but not [...]

Looking much like out-sized crows, to which they are related, Common Ravens are considered by many ornithologists (biologists who study birds) to be the most intelligent of the world’s 9,000+ bird species. People have apparently held this view from the earliest of times, as the folktales and legends of many races are filled with [...]

Research this month (June, 2008) at Japan’s Keio University has proven what pet keepers have long known – that birds possess much more intelligence than they are given credit for.
The work showed that pigeons have a well developed sense of “self”, and can distinguish their own images from those of another pigeon after a delay [...]