The canary is generally known for several features: a shade of yellow, a sensitivity to noxious fumes, and of course, its song. Not all canaries sing (notably, females rarely do) and not all canaries sing alike.
This is a recording of Watson, the male in the White Pair.
You can hear him singing in response to tweets from his mate, Bossa, hidden behind their cage’s divider.
A canary’s song is an important part of attracting a mate in the wild, but once a pair is made song seems to decrease in frequency. That’s why separating the male encourages song.
Here is a longer Watson recording:
You can hear that he has a variety of notes and rhythms in his song. Canaries who sing high-pitched, clipped notes are known as “choppers,” while birds who repeat lower pitched notes continuously are called “rollers.” Mixing these styles like Watson makes him a “warbler.”
Training a canary to sing involves making sure it hears the right kinds of song during what’s called the sensitive period, sometime between weeks 2 and 3 of life. At this point the young male’s mind is especially receptive to new songs and sounds and what they hear (usually from their father or other males in the area) dictates their future style of singing.
This naturally means that you can breed particular styles of song – and people do: American Singers, Spanish Timbrados, German Rollers… canaries bred for song make up a large portion of the overall scheme of canary breeding.
Personally I feel like breeding for song makes the most sense – you will more often than not be hearing your canaries instead of watching them, so it’s good to be focusing on pleasant song.
As for cheeps and tweets – the females and young are masters of these. A chick will cheep to get its mother’s attention or request food, an adult female will tweet to catch a male’s ear or alert her chicks. The one caveat involves a hen sitting on a nest – they rarely make any sounds while nesting – I assume to keep the eggs and chicks safe from predators.
