Abstract
While I was attending and judging Color-bred canaries at the 40th, 1992 COM World Championship of Ornithology, in the beautiful island and one of the birth places of the melodious and colorful canaries, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain, I met another substantial and successful Venezuelan Black- hooded Red Siskin breeder. His name is Manuel Medina Rodriguez and he lives approximately 20 miles from downtown Las Palm as.On the island in Gran Canaria there are actually quite a few siskin breeders. Although some are small, I was told that there were three or four which can be considered substantial breeders. For example, Carlos Suarez Rodriguez who lives in Las Palmas raised 420 Red Siskins in 1990. Furthermore, Manuel in 1991 raised a good number of siskins. In fact, almost 200 healthy, big, strong, colorful Red Siskins were reared in 1991.
By contrast, Carlos' breeding room location in Las Palmas was on a hillslope overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Manuel's home is located at a lower elevation - just a few hundred feet from the sea. I noted his breeding room, however, was located on the third floor of his house, approximately 25 to 30 ft. above the ground, as siskins like to breed at higher elevation levels. As for my personal experience, in the many years that I raised siskins, I had obtained better success when I used a breeding room on the 3rd floor of my house rather than the basement. Although I did achieve some success in my basement, it was considered rather poor by contrast to the breeding results obtained in the higher location of my house. All Manuel's cages in his breeding room were the English type box cage, neatly located across the huge, approximately 20 x 40 foot room. The cages were assembled in three rows, beginning approximately 24" above the floor. I asked Manuel which of the cages in the room would produce the best results. He pointed to the top two rows. Consequently, the height from the floor was approximately six to eight feet. Manuel said, "The siskins experience better reproductivity in the higher cages." The bottom row of cages is used for housing youngsters and the extra breeding stock. Incidentally, Manuel at the time of my visit, which was the end ofJanuary, 1992, had in his possession 25 pairs of Red Siskins, plus extra pairs and other species of siskins, including Blackheaded Siskins. There were also some other species of finches which I didn't pay much attention to, and several small female canaries, which he sometimes used as foster parents when the parent siskin did not feed properly.
Manuel's breeding room is definitely an ideal environment. The construction of the house is 100 percent concrete and masonry. All the walls and ceilings were smooth plaster. the floor is terrazo tile, which makes it very easy to keep clean and hygienically sterilized. Along the outside wall of the room were several glass windows allowing natural sunlight to enter. This setup is the most ideal environment you could provide for the birds in captivity. I even said to myself I wished I had a room like that.