Tour Guide

I love the history of Domestic Canaries. They were first bred in captivity in the 17th century when brought over by Spanish sailors to Europe. Canaries became expensive and fashionable to breeding in courts of Spanish and English kings. The birds were known for their beautiful song.

A Red Factor Canary is the third bird I’ve Taxiied. This color bred Canary gets its red and orange pigments from what it eats. Consequently the Red Factor Canary requires feeding a special diet including beta carotene to keep its intense coloring.

The process of Taxiing this Canary went way better than my second bird I tried. I still will shorten my foam neck on my next bird because it still looks a bit too long on this Canary I think. Also, one of its eyes could have turned out better. The way that the eyelid stuck to the glass eye cuts off its pupil and makes it look a bit cat like. Overall I still feel like I improved a great deal from my last bird and definitely did a better job grooming this little fellow. Something I found really cool while fleshing it was that it’s skin was completely translucent! That was something I didn’t expect.

I really enjoyed Taxiing this little guy and I think he turned out with a great personality. I wanted to pose him as if he were asking a question. I decided to perch him on this little antique guide to Paris I picked up when inside a dusty attic in a record store in London. The pages are so pretty inside but the guide is past the point of return. Nobody will ever be able to page through this brittle treasure without ripping the old pages. I repaired the spine with glue and made two holes through the pages so I could mount the Canary on it. So if you happen to visit Paris soon take this bird with you to maneuver the streets and be your tour guide! Chirp, Chirp!