Russian singing canary

 
 
The following article was written by Efim Umansky and assisted by Malcolm McCambridge. Montreal,Cage bird Society.
  
  Recently, the Russian canary gained widespread popularity due to the efforts of some Russian immigrants, who succeeded in bringing to North America the “bunting”-song canary. This type of canary was created by Russian breeders and result of about three hundred years of careful selection.Why does the Russian singing canary attract American fanciers?  
  1-th-its amazing abilityto memorize song.  
  2-th-the exellent capacity of its trained larynx passed from generation to generation.This special equipment in its throat gives a great ability to imitate long and diverse song  
  3-th-The musical composition as a mean for young canary teaching was well composed and based on the most melodious and beautiful sound,performed by different wild birds of forest,field,on river.That’s why this song sounds very natural unlike of German “rollers” or “waterslagers”,who was trained by artificial means like bubbling water e.t.s. The recorded canary song consists of up to 12 possible tours.If the canary performs it’s song in exact sequence during competition,judges give up to 10 points extra.That’s why it is very important to judge each singer individually,but not in a team of 4 or 5,because they interrupt each other,take up the song and continue the song started by another bird.Besides,each canary has it’s own timbre! Now,let’s analyse the standard song dividing it into several elements.  
  1. The beginning or the solo tune is triple portamento conditionally called “a tee”.It sounds like a marlet’s piping when it flies.Each of the three lines of this “tee”changes it’s pitch undulating.  
  2. ”The tee” is followed by the sound combination”coo-lee”.  
  3. ”Depsit”is a dense even pulsation similar to chirring of grasshoppers or crickets.The pitch of the “deposit”doesn’t change.It sounds like a combination of the sounds”r”and “i”,and depending on the pitch can be conditionally considered as low,high and very high-“silvery deposit”,which is hardly perceptible to our ear.  
  4. ”Yellow bunting”-the base of the song,is a sound combination associated with the wild bunting’s piping.It is a high-pitch pulsating warble.This part conditionally called “an ordinary bunting”.Then rhythm and pitch start growing,accent in sound pulsation shift,shake movement of the two notes,accelerates and decelerates.It seems as if a canary does a bunting improvisation.It resembles a gust,a joyful,laughing sound-noisy movement.  
  5. ”Small titmouse” is a sound combination”tee-fee”or “tsy-fee”.This is a warble consisting of two notes quite distinguishable for our ear because of relatively moderate frequency.It sounds like monotonous even pulsation accents,pleasant and calming.  
  6. ”Large titmouse” is performed with a wider amplitude and less frequency comparatively with a “small titmouse”. Warbles consisting of two notes are accented on a higher sound. Bird’s breathing can be heard{inhalation-exhalation}.  
  7. ”Tripple{spring}titmouse”performed by a large titmouse during the mating period.It consists of three warbles as the sound combination “tee-tee-tah”with an strong accent on the higher note.  
  8. The sound combination “tsohn-tsohn”is a percussive part of the song and the entrance into the finale.It hampers successive development of the song.It containes slow accented beating and resembles a crystal clink of glasses.  
  9. Finale is the most complicated percussive sound combination “dee-een-do-ohn”,resembles linnet’s spring pipe.The combination consists of four quite distinguishable pitch sounds,performed in one breath.Then the last two or three parts of the composition can be repeated by a canary many times{po nastroeniyu},so a listener can enjoy the perfomance.  
     
  You may have an amazing Russian Pavarotty, just call Efim Umansky: 514 343-08-07-breeder and trainer. CDs with recorded songs are available as well.  
   
 
Email address: umansky@videotron.ca