Xbreeding

[djb78]

I was wonder where everyone stands about cross breeding finches with canaries. I don't see the sense in breeding goldfinch x Canary to produce an infirtial bird that has no benefits except its song, or a siskin with a Canary especially when its a red siskin. I'm a great believer that we should keep all speices pure, but that's my opinion.

[jusdeb]

Sheesh its been a controversial forum of late makes it hard for the politically incorrect such as I to remain out of trouble .

Don't like the idea at all of Finches x Canaries .

Don't like those drab looking Canary x Goldfinches either , both birds are nice to look at as they are .

That is my opinion only .

Let the games begin

[toothlessjaws]

overall, i find hybridisation of any birds in aviculture not only dangerous, but unnecessary.
i'm yet to see a hybrid or mutation that is better than the original bird. equally as beautiful, sometimes. but certainly not better

(the same goes for most mutations but - we wont open up that can of worms for the billionth time)

coupled with the fact that it only takes one dishonest person to potentially pollute the entire stocks of a given species, im glad that hybrids are becoming taboo amongst aviculturalists.

but there is two exceptions where i am likely to go softer on the idea.

1) canaries are a fully fledged bona fide domesticated species, and their reason for domestication was for their song. mules are often considered superior singers and are by most accounts, sterile. sterile crosses don't bother me as they are a convenient dead end for people like me who are worried about cross pollution of genetics. breed as many infertile hybrids as you like, if you think their song is better - it doesn't worry me.

should canary crosses be fertile, well, in some regards, continuing to breed from these hybrid lineages can be justifiable too, since the canary is a domesticated species. should say a person be attempting to develop a new domesticated breed of bird, for given features in a controlled breeding program - then well in a way i can accept that. the red factor canary after all started out as a siskin cross. hybridisation for developing a domesticated breed isn't my preferred methodology - but i cant deny that it hasn't been a utilised technique in other developed taxa over the centuries. i suppose the justification comes from a clear goal - you want a bird that sings like a canary with a blue colour. its a bit more honourable than creating hybrids of wild species just to see what come about. the key here is that the domestic canary is no longer a representative of its natural counterpart anyway. so who am i to argue you cant mess with it more - but this concept nonetheless i'm not so comfortable. some domestic species themselves are endangered and have value in being conserved, but thats another topic all together....

2) the second quasi-valid excuse i have for hybridisation is if the species without such, will go extinct in our region. for example if someone had the last 2 violet eared waxbills in the country and both were cocks. if they were my birds i would indeed attempt to cross them with a related species such as a cordon or a purple grenadier (which is likely too rare in itself) and then back cross these hybrids with their parents and try and develop a new breed this way. but make no mistake - i would not lie to people about what i had done, and i would not consider them anywhere near as valuable as their pure counterparts once were. from that point on, should i resuscitate the visual look of the original birds i would still forever refer to them as "violet eared cross'" and i'd be phasing out the lot should someone ever import any pures.

but even still, i'm just not that cool with hybridisation. like i said these are examples i am softer on. but not entirely comfortable with.

[Jayburd]

I pity the poor bugger who asks for opinions on hybrids on this forum
but conversation is what it's all about, so here's my 2 cents worth.

I will personally shoot all people who will cross one bird to another deliberately, and I'll bazooka anyone who does it "to save the species in australia". better to lose the species than do that!!!!

my thoughts, yes I am prepared to crash to earth like blue ice out of an aeroplane toilet.

EDIT:
as I really should give a reason for my wanting to shoot people, I believe hybrids are unnecessary, and they are usually either an accident, which is fine and I have no objection to as long as they learn their lesson and DO NOT TRY TO SELL THEM AS PURE, or a get-rich-quick scheem

[jusdeb]

Oh to be in a perfect world ...people are going to try to make new hybrids and people are going to sell them off as pure .

People release domestic birds into the wild .

People over crowd their aviaries .

What can we do about ? How do we educate them ?

[finchbreeder]

Hybrids = No. Mutations = Yes. Hows that for simple. But this is from someone who had a canary x goldfinch of her own breeding so nothing is really as simple as we would like. And he sang better than 75% of the pure canaries I have heard and was a beatiful mix of browns. Like munias are a beatiful mix of browns. One vote here for those birds that are monocromatic rather than colourful.
LML