Characters of the Aviary (part 1)

AKA "Canaries Looking Terrified In-Hand."

I am pleased to introduce several of the fine ladies and gentlebirds from the Bird Barn, in various states of horror after finding themselves in a giant person hand.

1. The Little Upstart

This young whippersnapper is one of two of the lucky little ones born in-house this past summer. While his mom was a fat yellow lady, his dad was dashing in red. This fellow is yellower than a highlighter and has patches so saturated with yellow carotenoids that they nearly glow orange.

Not pictured: His cousin, who's currently molting and hence bald as a vulture.

2. The Blushing Beauty

One of the first canaries I brought to Auburn from Florida, this lovely lady probably won't enter into any research projects because her dapper grey patches are reminiscent of song-bred rather than color-bred types. She's also white dominant, giving her the yellow glow around her shoulders and primaries. Normally a cheeky chirper, she was more camera-shy than the rest in-hand, but showed off her fluffy back feathers!

3. The Angry Eyebrow

This hen, the yellowest of my red-factors, has the facial adornments to match her spunk. Her dark eyebrow--found only on one side, for added character--gives her a forever peeved and/or quizzical expression. She laid 4 eggs in a nest when inadvertently paired with another female (who incubated her own eggs, side-by-side), but sadly failed to produce when paired with an ACTUAL male. I'd love some eyebrow babies.

4. The Hoodie

The only white recessive to make the current list, this lady has the most elegant of streaky grey hoods gracing the back of her fluffy head. Shy and camera-wary in-hand with her leggies dangling, she prefers hopping about her cage with her girlfriends to being scooped up by The Human Monster.

5. Proud to be Orange

Retaining only traces of his Crayola-red feathers from past color feeding, this little dude--and the father of the Upstart--has all the character you could hope for. In fact, I hope for him to someday grace my own little aviary here at home--we don't need red canaries for research, right? RIGHT??!