American Singer canaries are selectively bred for song. What this means is that, in the words of many successful American Singer breeders, “the song is the thing”.  When breeding Singers, the song must be the absolute priority, followed by conformation.  Also included in the equation must be personality – in order to win at the shows, the birds must be good performers. They should have outgoing personalities, a steady temperament, and a desire to please.

Champion birds can often be differentiated from their good-singing, but less successful, fellows by this personality alone. One can watch a champion bird literally “turn on” when placed on the bench before a judge – one American Singer breeder who transported a show team bred by the legendary breeder Cliff Williams to several shows once recounted how she had listened to this team for several days in her home and heard nothing extraordinary at all from them. In fact, the birds did not even sing very much. When she listened to these same birds when they came before the judge at a show, however, there was an amazing transformation in the birds- they stood straighter, looked the judge in the eye, and began PERFORMING.

I saw this for myself at the 2006 National Cage Bird Show when I sat in on a class of birds that the eventual Higgins Trophy winner (presented to the best bird in each section) was in- that bird sang to me as I carried the class in on the carrying board and then sang directly to the judge from the moment the class was sat down on the table until the class was over. He even sang to the judge as the man stood over the cages judging conformation and condition! As far as that bird was concerned, there was only one person in the room that mattered for twenty minutes. Later, during the Song Canary contest when the best American Singer, Waterslager, Timbrado, and Roller competed against each other that bird did the same thing again- looking at the judges the entire time he was before them and singing his heart out.

This personality factor makes breeding American Singers a challenge unlike that of breeding other kinds of canaries as success on the bench is not merely a matter of genetics and training. One can breed birds that possess extraordinary song and train them well, yet still have birds that lack that “special something” that sets them above the other 150+ birds that come before the judge. One will still win on the show bench, but Grand Champions will elude a breeder until he finds a way to capture that spark.

Many folks make statements about this or that judge having a preference for a particular type of song, but when it comes right down to it a superior bird will win under many DIFFERENT judges from all over the country. A champion will make a judge take notice of him!

Return to American Singer Song.