Of acoustic and physical barriers in spanish timbrado education systems

Breeding Cages E. Ramos

This year has got complicated a little  with regards to the physical space allocated to the canaries at home ( so you already can figure out who calls the shots at home !), so I will be forced to go back to the 2010 physical arrangement using rather an acoustic barrier than a physical. To start with, let’s make clear that a physical barrier (as suggested by its name) is one that isolates the two main areas of a song canaries premises, namely breeding area and education area. An acoustic barrier is one that isolates two close areas from a sound perspective.

 In 2010, even having adults in the same room as close as one meter, the acoustiv barrier worked out smoothly and I could obtain a good group of birds with clean repertoire, some of them with neither timbres nor rodadas (yes, neither timbres nor rodadas, see the post in this blog:  Sin Timbres ni Rodadas). Of course a physical barrier is safest but the space is a critical variable in the ecuation and one needs to know how to establish an acoustic barrier properly.

The space I have available for my birds is 8 sqm2=4 long, 2 wide). In the middle of the room I installed an sliding acoustic insulation door but to really secure the outcome I just installed a second independent audio system that just covers the breeding area. This I decided to do it after noticing several cocks were constantly singing the same passage stimulated by the proximity of hens.

 

Acoustic barrier layout

This secondary audio system does not contain any note of the main audio education system, the reason for this is that when the same notes are played at the same time a peculiar echo is generated that might be misinterpreted by the learning birds. Additionally, the reproduction schedule must be programmed in such way that there is always one of them being played.

And last but not least, the second audio must be as clean and worked out as the main one. You will notice that some smart young canary will retain a couple of these notes learned during his first thirty days of life and will not drop them even if he only is exposed to the main audio for the rest of his education period (see the entrance in this blog: cuando aprenden los canarios timbrados).

This explains why some birds have unwanted notes in their repertoire even though the education systems isolated them from the 30th day of life.

Is everything already invented in the spanish timbrado ?

I must admit that I have been taken aback  a couple of times by this lapidary statement coming from two good breeders, well,  I must say that I’m not so surprised from one of them, understanding the sales context to which he constantly recurs in order to preserve his yearly list of bird buyers.

From the other breeder it was indeed quite a surprise, and either shows some arrogance or absolute ignorance, the truth of the matter is that in the Spanish timbrado arena there are many things to be yet understood especially from the science and biology point of view. And as an example I would like to point out a few examples of questions that need to be answered objectively.

1.- How do the learning mechanisms work exactly? Are there particular moments of the daytime where they are more sensitive to learn? Concrete days in the molting cycle? I have my own hypothesis from an empiric point of view that I have already shared with you through the blog.

2.- Exactly, what is the genetic contribution from the hen in the canary singing capabilities? Is it different in every mating? Is there dominance present from the genetic point of view in the singing capabilities?

3.- Is there any correlation between the bird color and its singing/repertoire capacity? Please do not jump into this one, the obvious answer is no but we are always trying to establish scientific evidence.

4.- Is there any way to influence in the neurogenesis process so canaries once they learn, never drop their repertoire?

I have left only four simple questions that are yet to be address from the scientific point of view, again, we all might have our own theories but no scientifically proven. If you get an answer then ask again and again and you will find that there is no evidence to support some of the lapidary statements some breeder use. Replicating systematically a success formula that you’ve been taught has no merit in my opinion. The constant search for learning must be part an integral part of in the spirit of good canary breeder.

Six Key Tips to beginners in the spanish timbrado canary world

I would like to share these tips with you and especially with those that are starting from scratch in this fascinating world of the Spanish timbrado canary, these are tips that I would have liked to receive at some point and I really hope that come in handy.

  

1.- Select the type of spanish timbrado canary that you like. When one starts usually has been influenced by some friend or family member that already is breeding a certain type of song canary. Listen to all Spanish timbrado canaries that exist, namely: classics, intermediates and discontinuos. Even though there are a good number of videos and audios available in internet, the best place to listen to the state of the art is in the yearly contests. Be there and listen to as many birds as you can. Pay especial attention to the judge comments.

2.- Establish contact with the fanciers that breed that type of song canary and try to acquire a few birds (not many) to start with, if you don’t have enough space do not mix different types of song canaries, if you have been breeding a certain type of song canary you must get rid of the existing birds, do not get trapped in sentimentalisms or any other factor. If you don’t proceed as advised you will inevitably fail in trying to obtain excellent birds.

3.- Determine which are the best practices used for the most successful breeders of the selected type of song canaries, ask questions to these breeders, many of them will be willing to help. Look into detail, inquire and read magazines, articles and blog posts in different forums, try to identify the methodologies that are being used, isolate them from the “war” among breeders of different trends and make the best out of it. There is a lot to learn on how to obtain high quality Spanish timbrados in a consistent manner. Naturally, the trial and error method is valid if a sufficient number of birds is available.   

4.- Be consistent, it’s a common practice among fanciers to acquire several specimen before the breeding season starts and hope that results will change the obtained results, truth of the matter is that if you follow the #2 tip and obtained good specimens, the desired genetic is already present in your aviary even though results can be affected by wrong pairing or by establishing a defective method for education (or lack of it, for me it works in the exact same way). Another harmful practice  I have observed is the eagerness to incorporate birds from other aviaries without taking into account (underestimate) the presence of better canaries  in your own aviary or even worst the lack of compatibility with the existing birds.

5.- Be patient, when you are developing a particular type of Spanish timbrado canary, you can be successful at the beginning but it is not usually that way, the usual is that we might need to work fo several years before reaching to the target specimen, so we must be extremely selective (remember: Selection, Selection and Selection…….) and only focus in those birds that portrait the desired qualities-

6.- Establish your own objective, it’s different and not necessarily compatible to develop one specific type of canary than winning song canary contests or even more complicated to achieve both things at the same time. I’m for breeding the type of canary that I like independently of the results. Winning is a magnificent feeling but even more magnificent is to win as a result of the work you’ve believed in and as such there is in it a unique contribution from oneself as a breeder.

Critical aspects in the education of the spanish timbrado canary

Youngster 2012. Breeder Ernesto Ramos As it is well-known for those who know me, I am a strong believer of the need of educating our canary so we can generate birds that can take full advantage of their genetic capacity. I listen continuously to the enemies of the education for the Spanish timbrado canary arguing that by education we obtain birds with the same repertoire or that they lost tours during the molt.  Truth of the matter is that most of my birds keep most of their repertoire  and if some tours are lost during molt it is not related at all to the factor that canary was educated, as noted by Fernando Nottebohm in many research publications  it is more related to the fluctuation of the testosterone levels in the canaries.  So a Spanish timbrado canary who was not educated also will lose part of its repertoire. On the other hand, the birds that I obtain year after year having listened to the same “training material” are different from each other, the genetic of each bird and its “learning and execution” capacity are the real differentiators. Following I would like to point out the crucial factors to be successful educating Spanish timbrado canaries: Isolate the youngsters at the right time: our young canaries must be separated before they are 30 days-old, once they feed themselves. They must be placed in an environment  that provides isolation physically and/or acoustically. As it is well-known, there are two critical periods in which the youngsters learn most of the training material, a) between 30 and 45 days of life and b) at the end of the molt period.  Isolate physically and/or acoustically: birds must be only exposed to the training material. If they listen to adults either cocks or hens we can spoil all our work. Separate in subgroups: when we isolate a group of canaries (whether we educated or not) there is a possibility that one of birds assumes the leadership of the cage and it is followed by the rest. If this individual possesses faults in the repertoire execution, these will be copied by the rest of the member of the cage (again, whether we educated or not). This is a permanent risk so what I recommend is to separate our youngsters in groups of 10 individuals and by doing so generating different “classrooms”.  I guarantee that birds from each cage will not sing alike even if they are members of the same family. It goes without saying that we must dedicate enough time to listen to the canaries to quickly detect those with defects and get rid of them.   Continuous exposure: even though there are two critical periods for learning that influence decisively in the learning , even for birds that were born in close days, they don’t go through the molt period at the same time, therefore it is highly recommended that continuous exposure to the training material is provided (whether we use a maestro bird or an audio) until “song” is closed by the youngsters. Selection: If we use the education to traing our birds, we must execute a strict selection at the end of the competitions, keeping only those individuals that were outstanding in learning or execution the training material. In this stage there is no place for sentimentalisms or special considerations different for their capacity to learn and execute. Only by acting rigorously we will approach to our ideal singing bird. Consistency: we must work year after year using the before mentioned criteria, unfortunatedly there are many spanish timbrado fanciers that each year introduced numerous birds from other breeders underestimating their own work. This is one of the most dangerous practices to be successful. In my particular case, I try to minimize new birds unless they are carefully selected and either contribute or complete the work in progress. Of course the latter is only valid if we possess a stock of high quality. I hope these few lines can be of help and guidance, especially to those fanciers that are just beginning in the fascinating world of the Spanish timbrado canary.

The education of the spanish timbrado canaries by using electronic means: more questions than answers

In 1921, Karl Reich was widely known in the canary breeders circle in Germany, not only for the perfection of his bird recordings but also for the song quality of his canaries flourished with a peculiar repertoire mostly based in the nightingales' song.

Phonograph similar to the one Reich used

Reich’s work was mainly carried out by altering the molting period of his nightingales, he had to it because the nightingales stopped singing when the canary breeding season started (by May). Reich started modifying the nightingales diet at the same time that gradually altered the amount of light, creating the effect that the season was far ahead than it really was. By using this method, he managed that his nightingales molted in April and were in their best singing condition by September and October which was the ideal time  for his young canaries to learn.

Since 1910, Reich had  been recording and producing disks containing his canaries’s songs at the same time he sent them to his circle of friends in different parts of Europe. Reich was an authentic pioneer of birdsongs recording, having them singing with the perfect timing to be recorded, a real feat in those times were audio editing was not possible. Reich’s merit was not only the use of nightingales' recordings to educate his Roller canaries (becoming this the first official record  that this was done) but also establishing the first evidence that it was possible to educate a canary by only using external audio sources.

The spanish timbrado canary is poised at a historic crossroads with two clear trends related to the need of educating the canaries, namely: the isolation of canaries letting them to develop its song (i.e., innatism) and the formal education by using maestros or alternative means.

There is a lot of polemic with regards this subject; those who favor the “no education” method preach that canaries obtained by means of education lose are monotonous and repetitive and that eventually lose their song while the group that support the education claim that there is no such thing as the song innatism and therefore the education is the foundation for a quality and flawless repertoire. Both positions are opposing sides and it is very unlikely that will reach an agreement shortly.

These canaries were educated with electronic means

                The historic reference in other song canary types such as Malinois or Roller is using formal education by using a maestro with the objective of producing a flawless and extensive repertoire. The exclusive use of maestros does not guarantee flawlessness or assimilation of unwanted tours, although the right use of electronic means to educate canaries allows the objective of a bird with a long/extensive repertoire or capable of executing complex flourishes. The way-forward seems to be obvious for those who favor the education but it’s paved with hundreds of answered questions and of consequences, especially for fanciers of earlier generations.

                The internet has not only changed in many ways the way we live, communicate, relate to each other or work but also has changed forever the hobby of breeding canaries. Nowadays it’s possible for the fanciers to communicate instantly with other fanciers independently of their geographic location by using email, dedicated webpages, blogs, Youtube or social networks such as facebook or tweeter. As such, it’s possible to share, assess and compare our work as canary breeders with thousands of fanciers worldwide.

By the same token, it’s very easy to share song or video files and also carry out virtual song contests (http://www.timbrado.com/concursocurso2004.shtml). The possibilities are unlimited and I don’t have any doubt that shortly we will be able to “vote” for the bird of our preference as part of the judgement process. Technology constantly opens new paths, and, nowadays, in countries such as Colombia or Venezuela some contests are celebrated by a closed circuit television systems so everyone is able to listen to the birds with disturbing the judgment or creating noises that could affect the execution of the repertoire by the canary.

The easy access to audio editing software such as Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) has also contributed significantly to the use of electronic recordings to educate our Spanish timbrado canaries.

 And this is one of the causes of the existing digital divide among fanciers; those who have knowledge and IT skills will have an advantage over those who haven’t and, in such way,  dependent of the skilled ones or not having other option that the use of maestros in the old-way(it a good alternative but in the context intended as a handicap).

Advantages of using electronic means

       The education of Spanish timbrado canaries by using electronic means, properly carried out, provides a good set of advantages to the fanciers, namely:

Enables the use of the best individuals for Reproduction:  the use of maestros implies  reserving some individuals (probably the best ones),  avoiding them to reproduce or limiting it. This is done in order to preserve the maestro’s repertoire as long as possible.

34-ATV7-2007 a polemic and interesting canary educated by electronic means

Exposes the young canaries to a customized and flawless repertoire:  the fancier can select the tours the canary will listen to, by eliminating those that he doesn’t like, lack of the minimum diction to be used to educate or emphasizing those that he would like the canary to sing. Also, if we have all tours included in the song code we can easily generate canaries with “complete” songs from the repertoire point of view.

Avoid the loss of tours during the molt period: it is no secret that some canaries lose part of their repertoire during the molt period as part of the natural process in which their testoterone level decreases. However, if we expose those individuals to the same repertoire which was used when they were educated, they will keep most of their individual repertoire.

        It is also worth noticing that the use of the electronic means has the following implications:

        It is required a certain level of IT skills to get the best out this method.

It’s of the utmost importance to create acoustic barriers and if possible “physical” to secure the exposition to the “learning material” in an exclusive way.

       

        It’s very important to constantly enrich our audio library making a habit the recording of those individuals that stand out in our aviary because of their diction, ability to build tours or generating new links between tours from the original song. Not all canaries that are trained (by any method) build an exact copy of the song used to educate them, on the contrary, some will   execute it in a better way by linking tours and notes according to their vocal and learning capabilities.

      The selection process must be systematically and rigorously carried out in accordance to the bird capability to “learn and execute” the original repertoire.

      The audio quality is a cornerstone of this method, an audio with notes or tours that lack of diction, have background noise, hiss, notes not linked properly or distorted will make the process to fail and waste one year effort.

Selection

        As mentioned before, it’s necessary to select only those individuals with certain characteristics that are of our interest, namely:

        Learning capacity, in this sense we must take into account:

·         Complexity: the bird capacity to “understand” or imitate a complex note

·         Repertoire extension: number of notes from the original repertoire learned by the individual.

·         Innovation: The originality of the bird to translate or imitate the note or tour.

·        Diction: how the canary “says” the note or tour, sometimes this is also defined as the easiness for the listener to identify and translate as an onomatopoeia as disposed in the song official standard.

·     Composition: quality of the arrangement and linked notes executed by the bird, i.e., the bird contribution to the final product.

It’s also worth noticing that our selection criteria must depend on exclusively of our objective: canaries that are capable of executing an extensive repertoire or those that are capable of executing very complex notes. This is also a polemic subject: judges have a framework the song official standard, in that sense, how would they score an individual with a short repertoire but capable of executing very complex notes or tours. It looks like there is no much space in the song official standard to reward this type of bird and for this reason some of them will fill the canary score with songs that are not executed by the canary.

 Techniques

In the technical aspect there are a lot of variants:

·         Use of electronic means exclusively or a combined method with one or several maestros

·         Speakers location to produce optimal results

·         Playback volume.

·         Audio Repertoire with isolated notes or provide the song

·         Number of repertoires

·         Frequency and daily duration

·         Level of acoustic and /or physical isolation

·         Continuous instruction until the end of the plastic song or focused in certain periods

·         Ideal number of individuals per Cage

Summarizing, all fanciers that use this technique for educating their Spanish timbrado canaries must have their own criteria in relation to the variables above exposed, what is extremely interesting is that there is a lot to learn to master the technique as it opens a lot of possibilities to the fancier and that this technique is here to stay.

References

A Brand New Bird: How Two Amateur Scientists Created The First Genetically Engineered Animal -  Tim Birkhead

Basic Books; 1st Edition. edition (August 20, 2003)

(http://www.amazon.com/Brand-New-Bird-Scientists-Genetically/dp/0465006655)

Notes from the author

This article was firstly published in the “ornitologia Práctica” magazine may 2011 number  47.

It has also been published in other magazines like Club Timbrado de Madrid, ATC magazine and Venezuela National Contest magazine.

The reader can agree or disagree on the concept but respect is required, I have practiced this method with success (not measured only on contests but on the quality of the obtained individuals).

There are lots of myths around the education of canaries, one of those is that you get always canaries with similar songs, I invite you to watch all my videos in youtube from video number 1 to 28, all those canaries were trained with the same audio and if it's obvious that all are different, they might have similar notes or tours but they don't sound alike. Other urban legend is that if you educate them, they will lose their repertoire during the molt period, this definitely not true and if they lose notes due to the molt period it’s  related to the level of testosterone and the neurogenesis process which has nothing to do with the education or lack of it.
Even though this article is referred to the spanish timbrado canary; I am quite sure that applies as well to other song-type canaries.

Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed!.

Critical aspects to be successful educating spanish timbrado canaries by using electronic means

  

I have been educating Spanish timbrado canaries by only using electronic means for some years and I must say that I’m quite satisfied with the results, to the point that I will never do it in a different way. I do believe there are several key aspects that experience has taught me and I would like to share them:

1.-Selection: only use individuals which genetic capacity allows them to learn by thee means. Even though it is true that most canaries have the capacity to learn by listening, there are some that have been selected by its ability to learn and those are the ones we need to focus on.

2.-Consistency: by leveraging on the previous aspect of selection, it´s critical that most birds from our stock possess the characteristics on which our selection is based, in our case and because we are focused on teaching by electronic means, most of our stock must be able to learn in such way. A typical example is the fancier that has a stock with a certain quality, let’s say, Spanish timbrado canaries with a classical repertoire. And he/she decides to introduce one or two couples with other characteristics, he/she will produce a minor effect over the descendants of such birds but it will quickly dilute because always the majority drags the minority, in this case our brand new couples, therefore, my recommendation is that is better to breed with birds that possess the characteristics we’d like to fix even though it implies to breed with a lesser number of birds.

3.-Audio Quality: this is also a critical and fundamental aspect, what the canaries listen to will become its primary guidance, therefore the material must be free of noise, hiss and distortion, by the same token, connections between notes must be carefully reviewed avoiding any alteration in the note continuity no matter how minor it is. Also, the audio must have the same volume all along; this is easily carried out by using the Normalize function, which is available in most audio editing software.

4.-Acustic Isolation: the Young canaries must be isolated from parents or other adult canaries physically, acoustically or preferably in both ways. If young birds listen to adults, they will always copy from them instead of the audio because it is much easier for them, and for the same reason I do not advise to use mixed methods for educating canaries (professor-audio).

4.-Repertoire: as indicated before, what the canary listens to becomes its primary guidance, therefore  the repertoire must be of our taste and the notes used must be of a the right complexity for our birds to learn  and to execute them.

  

  I hope these few lines will contribute in some of you getting better results.