Canary Colors: Most Common to Rarest

The wild Atlantic canary (Serinus canaria) is native to the Macaronesian Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, including the aptly named Canary Islands. Europeans may have started importing wild stock for aviculture as early as the 1400s. By the 1600s, the domestic canary (Serinus canaria domestica) was a well-established species. Today, it is one of the most popular pet birds in the world.

Domestic canary breeds are generally categorized into three main kinds. These are type canaries, bred for their physical traits; song canaries, bred for their singing voices; and color canaries, bred for, you guessed it, their color!

Color-bred canaries come in a mind-boggling number of varieties, with breeders always working on the next novel mix to add to the ever-growing list. Because canary color genetics involves multiple factors that can readily be mixed and matched into so many different combinations, it is difficult to simply rank these in order of rarity. However, we can make some general observations about which are more or less commonly seen. Read on to find out more about the rainbow of canary colors currently available!

The Primary Pigment Palette

There are two main classes of biological pigments involved in creating canary base colors. These are lipochromes, which make yellows and reds, and melanins, which make browns and blacks.

#1 Lipochrome Yellow

As the name suggests, this pigment is responsible for shades of yellow. This, of course, includes the bright all-yellow “Tweety Bird” type! This enduring classic remains amongst the most popular on the market.

#2 Lipochrome Red

Interestingly, this pigment is actually not natural to canaries. Rather, it was first introduced into the gene pool in the 1920s via crossbreeding experiments with another finch species, the red siskin (Spinus cucullatus). However, it has over time become one of the most commonly seen canary colors!

#3 Phaeomelanin

This is the “brown” melanin type, although this class also produces ruddy reds and sandy yellows, as seen in human hair color. While it can make simple brown feathers, it is more often combined with other pigments to create new shades (see #5).

#4 Eumelanin

This is the “black” melanin type. This pigment commonly manifests both as black markings on the feathers and as a darkening factor when layered on other colors. However, while a pure black canary should also be possible, this has so far proven elusive to breeders. Rather, the closest thing they can currently produce are very dark varieties dubbed “cobalt” and “onyx.”

#5 Color Combos

Canary breeders cultivate a range of different colors beyond the basic brown, yellow, red, and white through a combination of mixing the above primary palette of colors and tuning their intensity (see “Dilution” below). As breeders create these new designer colors, they give them appropriately descriptive names like bronze, buff, cinnamon, copper, fawn, orange, rose, and many more. Additionally, it is the combination of yellow base color with layers of both melanins that creates the typical greenish tint seen in “wild-type” color.

White Feathers

Canary feathers that lack both melanin and lipochrome pigments will appear white. Breeders also further distinguish between dominant white genes, which produce white feathers that may still show some slight lipochrome tint, and recessive white genes, which produce pure white feathers.

#1 White

A fully white canary results from an all-over lack of plumage pigmentation.

#2 Pied

Unlike pure white canaries, pied canaries exhibit distinct patches of both pigmented and unpigmented (white) plumage.

Pigment Dilution

Aviculturists also exploit pigment genetics to achieve different forms of dilution.

#1 Melanin Dilutions: Agate, Eumo, Isabelle, Opal, Pastel, Pearl, Satinette, etc.

As breeders tinker with different levels of dilution of black eumelanin and/or brown phaeomelanin to create different grays and tans, they also coin new terms to describe the results. Unfortunately, the nomenclature isn’t truly standardized, and new terms can pop up anytime.

#2 Lipochrome Dilutions: Ivory

A single genetic mutation known as ivory dilutes lipochrome yellows and reds. Yellow ivory is sometimes also called cream and red ivory is also known as rose.

Color Distribution/Pattern

In addition to the bird’s base color(s) and dilution factor(s), breeders also cultivate a variety of pigment-based plumage patterns. As with dilution, there is a whole suite of terms used to describe these forms.

#1 The Variegation Scale

1. Clear: these canaries lack melanins, producing solid-colored birds of bright yellow, red, orange, or white. These birds are amongst the most popular on the market.
2. Self: conversely, these canaries are coated in melanins, producing birds with solid dark shades.
3. Ticked: these canaries show just a few dark patches on otherwise colored/white plumage.
4. Foul: in contrast, these canaries show just a few colored/white feathers on otherwise dark plumage.
5. Variegated: these birds fall somewhere in between the ticked and foul range. They are further divided into light (less than 50% dark feathers), medium (50% to 75%), and dark (more than 75%) categories.

#2 Mosaic

While clear red canaries possess a solid red color, mosaic canaries display distinct patches of red. This variety is also unusual because it is sexually dimorphic, with males exhibiting notably brighter colors than females. (While wild canaries are also naturally dimorphic, in domestic canaries, both sexes are usually the same color.)

#3 Lizard

While usually technically classified as a type breed rather than a color breed, the lizard’s primary distinguishing factor is in fact a unique form of “spangled” variegation. This striking pattern gives the appearance of lizard scaling, hence the name.

Other Genetic Factors Used in Color Breeding

In addition to pigment type, dilution, and distribution/pattern, canary breeders also exploit a number of other genetic factors to achieve even more color effects.

#1 Frost and Intensive Feathers

Soft frost feathers, as the name implies, give feathers the appearance of having frosted tips, as the barb edges lack any lipochrome pigments. In contrast, rigid intensive feathers are fully colored to the very edge of the barbs. Frost feathers are a recessive trait, while rigid feathers are dominant. Many modern designer varieties of color-bred canaries include frost or intensive factors as part of their recipes.

#2 Ino Factor

Unlike other melanin mutations, an “ino” mutation blocks melanin production in not only the feathers, but also the eyes. This, in turn, produces the distinctive red-eyed trait. Breeders further define Ino color varieties as phaeo/inos (only brown pigment present in plumage), lutinos (only yellow), rubinos (only red), and white albinos (no pigmentation present). Ino varieties are relatively uncommon in comparison to their black-eyed counterparts.

#3 Optic Factor

A rare recessive gene mutation is responsible for creating canary feathers capable of producing a structural blue color. Unlike biological pigment color, structural color is purely a trick of optics. Similar to how the sky and ocean can also look blue to us, these feathers refract light in just the right way to appear blue to our eyes. Canaries with a white base color and a strong Blue Factor mutation will appear bright blue to blue-ish gray. Weaker forms appearing more shimmery gray have the Silver Factor. Additionally, canaries with a yellow base color and Blue Factor mutation will appear bright green.

Fun fact: blue feather pigments simply don’t exist in the bird world. In fact, every “blue” bird you see uses this same trick of structural color to fool your eyes! Likewise, only a handful of bird species are known to produce green pigment. This means that most of the time, bright green birds are also using the blue structural color plus yellow pigment color mixing trick described above.

Conclusion

Thanks to centuries of selective breeding by aviculturists, what was once just a wild greenish-yellow canary now also exists as a popular pet canary available in an abundant assortment of colors. Along with type and song canaries, there are now literally hundreds of different canary breeds to choose from. These can range from the simple classic yellow varieties to complicated mixes like “Rose Isabelle Opal Mosaic” — and this variety will only continue to expand as breeders keep experimenting and creating even more cool combinations!