Lizarddag 2015

Posted on 01/11/201502/11/2015 by Huw Evans Leave a comment

This year’s event was well up to the mark: 176 entries from 18 exhibitors, including three from Belgium and two from Britain. Best in Show and Best Gold was awarded to Jules Etienne’s clear cap gold hen, while the Leijen-Staal partnership won Best Silver, also with a clear cap hen. You can see the full […]... Read More

The Best Lizard Canary Show in the World?

Posted on 01/11/2015 by Huw Evans Leave a comment

Dutch pronunciation is not for the faint-hearted, yet every October you will find English and French-speaking canary breeders gamely trying to pronounce Keijenborg *, the name of an attractive small town in the east of the Netherlands. Why? Because Keijenborg (also spelt Keyenborg) hosts one of the best Lizard canary shows in the world. Commonly […]... Read More

Lizard canary basics, Part 2: the difference between spangles & lacings

Posted on 18/10/201502/11/2015 by Huw Evans 1 Comment

How many times have you been to a show, looked at the Lizard canaries, and heard people discussing their show features? In my experience, the spangles are mentioned every time. Quite right too, spangling is the single most important feature of the Lizard canary. Now ask yourself how many times you’ve heard people discuss the […]... Read More

Lizard Canary Basics, Part 1: a learning process

Posted on 07/10/201515/10/2015 by Huw Evans Leave a comment

“Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn” (Benjamin Franklin). Let’s start with what makes the Lizard canary unique. The Lizard is not a song canary, a colour canary, or a type (posture) canary. It is a bird of pattern. The Lizard is judged on the ornamental design of its […]... Read More

The Red Fronted Serin

Posted on 06/10/201508/10/2015 by Huw Evans 2 Comments

The red fronted serin is like a mysterious guest at a fashionable party: striking dark looks; an enigmatic past; the subject of whispers and rumours; everyone is intrigued, yet no one seems to know much about him. He is the Jay Gatsby of the serin world. The fascination with the red fronted serin stems from […]... Read More

Back from the dead

Posted on 02/10/201502/10/2015 by Huw Evans Leave a comment

An e-mail arrived from my friend Harry Kapel, a silver medallist with a Lizard canary at the World Show in 1998, and well known to many British breeders. It was a club notice for a show in Meijel, the Netherlands. My Dutch is very basic, but the first sentence was clear enough: Op de internationale […]... Read More

William Scott: the beginning

Posted on 01/10/201502/10/2015 by Huw Evans Leave a comment

William Scott, John’s father, was originally a Roller canary breeder. He took up Lizard canaries in 1937 and joined the Lancashire and Lizard Canary Fancier’s Association, the predecessor of the LCA, in 1938. He acquired his initial stock from a Mr. Cooper, whom Mr. Moorbey, the Honorary Secretary, described with impeccable good manners as “a breeder I […]... Read More

fine spangled sort

The London Fancy and the Lizard canary

General