Island Canary

About the Island Canary

The Atlantic canary (Serinus canaria), known worldwide simply as the wild canary and also called the island canary, common canary, or canary, is a small passerine bird belonging to the genus Serinus in the true finch family, Fringillidae. It is native to the Canary Islands, the Azores, and Madeira. Wild birds are mostly yellow-green, with brownish streaking on the back. The species is common in captivity and a number of colour varieties have been bred.

This bird is the natural symbol of the Canary Islands, together with the Canary Island date palm. The Atlantic canary was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the finches in the genus Fringilla and coined the binomial name Fringilla canaria. In 1555 the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner had used the Latin name Canaria for the species in his book Historia animalium. The Atlantic canary is now one of eight species placed in the genus Serinus that was introduced in 1816 by the German naturalist Carl Ludwig Koch. The species is considered to be monotypic, with no subspecies being recognised; domesticated canaries are sometimes cited as... Wikipedia →