Abstract
The American Federation of Aviculture's (AFA) Red Siskin Project cross-breed the Red Siskin with canaries (RSP) is a very stimulating and to inject a wild note in their songs aggressive breeding consortium. The and to promote an orange colored AFA is a U.S. organization comprised canary. A very small percentage of of private citizens which seeks to pre-hybrid male offspring were fertile and serve wild birds in their natural habitat could successfully reproduce offthrough public education, habitat spring. This produced a red-orange preservation and, where appropriate, canary, the red factor, which was captive breeding. Red Siskins are very prized by many throughout the world. difficult to breed and project breeders Unfortunately for the Red Siskin, it have been carefully selected to partici- then became one of the most soughtpa te. Most birds in the project are after birds in existence, creating a AFA-owned birds that are loaned to market very devastating to the wild project participants. A few own their populations.own siskins and donate offspring to This past August, a Siskin Summit the project. Babies are banded and was held in Kansas City, Missouri. matched up on a "Cupid" computer Many project breeders attended this system devised by ISIS (International "peak experience" as it is referred to, Species Information System) which and spoke on various topics. Prohas a SPARKS (Small Population Anal- fessor Jim Hardin, Captive Wildlife ysis and Record-keeping System) Management at the University of studbook. This process of record- Wisconsin, spoke on keeping wild keeping ensures the best genetic traits in captive-bred flocks. Steve diversity possible in the captive flock. Fowler, a physicist-turned-bird...