Читать книгу Finches For Dummies - Nikki Moustaki - Страница 7

IN THIS CHAPTER

Knowing what a finch is

Understanding finch anatomy

Looking at the different varieties of finches

Getting in touch with finch clubs and societies

The term finch is actually a very broad term, encompassing hundreds of species and subspecies, from canaries to sparrows. In general, finches are small songbirds that come in an amazing variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. They all have short, cone-shaped bills adapted to the type of food they typically eat. All finches are seed eaters, but most will eat other vegetation and insects as well.

Finches have been kept as companions for hundreds of years. The Chinese and Japanese have been breeding finches since the 1600s — for example, the society finch (also known as the Bengalese finch) is not found in the wild because it was developed (domesticated) by humans, much as breeds of dogs were. It’s also one of the most widely kept finches today. The canary is the oldest domesticated bird, having been bred in captivity for many centuries, and, like dogs, bred for certain traits, such as color, feather type, or song (its ancestor, the serin finch, is still found in the wild in the Canary Islands). Finches that have a long history with humans do very well as companion birds. They tend to be hardier and less skittish than other types of birds, who haven’t been around the bird scene for as long.

In the following sections, I show you what makes a finch a finch.