Aussie Finch Forum

If you go to the bottom of that page you will see that all those hybrids are sterile.
The author makes a point of not crossing closely related species which could be fertile- what he terms as "cross-breeding" whereas crossing distantly related species which produce infertile offspring- or "hybridising" as he puts it is for novelty value only.

This is vastly different to what is happening to our birds in Australia.

Although I do not necessarily agree with his definitions of cross breeding vs hybridisation, at least he acknowledges the difference.

Knew I'd get the chance to post this

I agree with Myzo. Whilst what he is doing serves no 'conservational' purpose whatsoever, except to reveal some interesting taxonomic relationships when looking at what features predominate, it equally does no harm as the offspring cannot be bred from. The same procedure is carried out by 'canary-mule' enthusiasts all over the world. Again they are sterile so can never contaminate the pure stock from which they came - they do however in the case of canary mules open up and support a very popular component of the hobby in some areas. These people have great respect for their birds and respect the species from which they breed by avoiding breeding combinations that may produce a fertile hybrid. Compare this to a parrot breeder than introduces one colour into another species by hybridisation and then repeats the process numerous times until a 'pure' bird once again exists but in a new shade. The outcome is chalk and cheese. The latter leaves a trail of genetic destruction that can go on to further damage genetic integrity for years to come.