Canaries Convene for a Singing Contest
An American Singer Canary puffs out its throat during a song trial competition in Livonia, Mich. Long Haul Productions hide caption
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Back in the 1930s, a group of eight women in Massachusetts gathered with one goal: to create a uniquely tuneful pet canary. The result of their breeding experiments was the American Singer Canary. Recently, an annual national competition was held to name the best bird.
MADELEINE BRAND, host:
Back now with DAY TO DAY.
(Soundbite of birds chirping)
BRAND: Ah, the sweet sounds of the American Singer Canary - not your ordinary songbird.
(Soundbite of birds chirping)
ANTHONY BROOKS, host:
The American Singer Canary started as a breeding experiment. Back in the 1930s, a group of eight women from Massachusetts got together to breed the perfect songbird for their houses.
BRAND: Today, there are chapters of the American Singer Club throughout the U.S. and Canada. Club members hold song trials to crown the best bird soloist. One of the biggest competitions takes place each year in the Detroit suburb of Livonia, Michigan. Canary fans with their identically caged birds wait in a high school gym for their shot at the title.
(Soundbite of birds chirping)
Unidentified Man: Birds ready. Birds ready.
ELIZABETH MEISTER: It's Saturday morning at the DRAGON song trial. The judging is underway, and will continue until at least 7 o'clock tonight.
Unidentified Woman #1: I don't know.
Unidentified Woman #2: Birds coming through.
Ms. JESSIE DURKIN (Treasurer, Chapter 22, American Singers Club): My name is Jessie Durkin, and I am the treasurer of Chapter 22 of the American Singers Club.
(Soundbite of birds chirping)
Ms. DURKIN: Our show is pretty much typical, and entry fees would be $2 a booth.
DAN COLLISON: Total birds in this show: 245. I personally brought 14, because that's limit.
(Soundbite of birds chirping)
Mr. MIKE GROHMAN (Member, American Singers Club): Mike Grohman's my name. I'm from Saginaw, Michigan. I've been a member of the club since 1982, and I was lucky to win last year. In a way, I hope somebody else does this year so they get the same excitement.
(Soundbite of laughter)
(Soundbite of bird chirping)
Mr. GROHMAN: I duck hunt, and so I just train mine up with a hunting camp. What you want is exposure to people, move them around, getting them used to touching the cage, and I play Mozart.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. GROHMAN: They love Mozart. And I started out on Willie Nelson. That doesn't work. As much as I like Willie Nelson.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. GROHMAN: This bird has a fault that every once in a while, it'll open its mouth and go ka, ka. That's a fault. But it has freedom, which means it sings a lot. It has a lot of variety. You can breed that bird to another line that's quiet, and you breed out that. So the young will have that freedom, but it won't have that obnoxious nose.
(Soundbite of birds chirping)
Mr. GROHMAN: Okay, we are now proceeding to judge eight birds in the chapel that's been converted into a bird judging room, which consists of fluorescent lights about four foot over the birds with a white sheet backdrop so that you can see the bird's throat when they sing. And in there we have to be quiet, because he has to concentrate on the song. And any noise distracts him, and he'll look at you funny.
(Soundbite of birds chirping)
Unidentified Man #3: Okay, number three is in first place.
Mr. GROHMAN: Well, he missed the fault. I heard it.
Unidentified Man #3: Number nine, all the way in the end, in second.
Mr. GROHMAN: Had he heard it, it wouldn't have been first place.
Unidentified Man #3: Number five there is in third place.
Mr. GROHMAN: As I said, it has a great song and lots of freedom. And even if it stopped to eat, it shouldn't even do that. But he still liked it.
Unidentified Man #3: Forty-three.
Mr. MIKE GRIFFIN (Member, American Singers Club): My name is Mike Griffin. I've been a member for three years now.
Unidentified Man #3: Four-eighty-four.
Mr. GRIFFIN: Cage 483 is my bird, and he needs four more points to be a grand champion. And he doesn't even need to be best in show to get his grand championship. He just needs to be number three, two or one. And that's all I'm looking for.
MEISTER: A grand champion is a bird who accumulates 20 points, so our show and the top bird will win six points, and five, four, three, two for the top six places.
(Soundbite of timer ringing)
Unidentified Woman #3: Time for the next class.
(Soundbite of birds chirping)
Mr. DON TAYLOR (Judge, American Singers Club): My name's Don Taylor. I'm an American Singers Club judge. Occasionally, you get a really loud bird and you cover them up, so they will stop singing. See, how some white cloth that you put over an individual cage if there's a really screecher bird that you - that's just annoying you. But then you can concentrate on maybe a quieter bird.
Mr. GRIFFIN: When the judge covered up that bird, I was absolutely shocked and devastated. That bird was doing nothing but what he does, and he's three times best in show, and he picked a bird that's never placed at all. And to cover up a bird like that, I'm just shocked by that.
Mr. TAYLOR: A lackluster class.
Mr. GRIFFIN: Yeah, a lackluster class. Well, then I'll have to say that's a lackluster judge.
Mr. TAYLOR: We're trying to do the best job for these birds, and we're trying to pick out the best one for today. And if your bird's too loud, well, please. You just need to breed some of the quieter birds.
(Soundbite of bird chirping)
Unidentified Woman #3: Ten minutes to nine, the judging is all over.
Mr. TAYLOR: And now comes the fun part: giving out the awards. It's what everybody waits for. It's sort of like the Oscars. And the winner is…
MEISTER: And the best bird in show, with cage 211 with the score of 91.5, and he is bred by Roger Stroman.
(Soundbite of applause)
Mr. GRIFFIN: Well, there's always the next show. So keep me coming back, I guess.
Mr. GROHMAN: I have no complaints. The (unintelligible) bird that has the funny ha - when it did to only one time during the show, and the judge had its head down. So it placed ninth in the show, which is pretty spectacular because that's out of 245 birds.
MEISTER: And it's now ten minutes to 10, and it's all over, and you can kind of hear in the background people are packing up their birds and all the scores'll be recorded. And we pack up and go home and do it all again next year. And we all have to vacuum up all the bird seed that everybody has left behind. So if you're feeling generous, grab a bag and…
(Soundbite of laughter)
BRAND: Our story on the Canary Song Trials was produced by Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister for Long Haul Productions.
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