Interesting concept

[Diane]

Ive about 3/4 through watching a BBC documentary of the Secret Life of Dogs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMKFxxou53k
There is quite a bit about the domestication of the dog from the wolf and it goes on to show a fox breeding project in Eastern Europe that has been running for over 50 years and shows how domesticated some of these animals have become. At time point 43.40 the narrator shows other factors that are also changed in conjunction with the domestication.
I found this piece of information very intriguing and wondered if the same thing could apply to birds.

[Mortisha]

I think it would apply to birds and almost all domesticated animals.
As so as you start keeping them confined you start to lose the more highly strung stressy individuals.
The one with personalities that could cope with artificial environment and are more laid back with humans, cats, dogs,lawnmowers,kids and whatever else is in suburbia would be the ones that would be breeding.
Like the foxes you have to wonder what other traits are linked to a placid temperament.

[finchbreeder]

No matter what creature we keep and breed, we tend to keep the ones that are "gentler" and cull those that are not. Or keep them as reserve stock, which is less likely to breed. We do the same with the appearance, choosing those that appeal to us. So even when we prefer "natural or wild type" creatures, we are still making some "unnatural" tweeks in the nature of the creature. Is this a bad thing? Would we keep on keeping on if we did not?
LML

[maz]

I think the biggest difference between finches and some of these other species is that we don't expect the finches to be tame (whereas when we domesticate other species we rapidly select for tame and not aggressive animals), so although there will be some selection towards those birds that cope better with living in aviaries, the selection pressure is occurring at a much lower rate and we are less likely to see as many of the differences we see in other species.

[finchbreeder]

You don't select for the birds that sit quietly on their nests without panicking when you go in the avairy? Hmm - well maybe not. But their very calmness means they will do better in their breeding and therefore become the norm in avairys. So indirectly you do by domesticating them.
LML