Description:
The border canary is a sprightly, active bird, rather lightly built and with a gay and jaunty carriage of the body. It has close and compact feathering showing no tendency whatever to coarseness, so that all its features appear cleanly cut with flowing, harmonious lines.
The head is neat and nicely rounded with a bright, alert eye centrally placed and a fine, smallish beak. The neck is well proportioned in relation to head and body and should never be too thick nor too fine, either of which would destroy the whole effect. The body gives an impression of roundness when seen in cross section and, after a gentle curve over the shoulders, the back gradually tapers off in a straight line towards the root of the tail. The breast also is gracefully rounded, yet without any undue prominence, and again tapers off cleanly between the legs to the underside of the tail producing, along with the line of the back, a perfect wedge shape. The feathers of the tail are closely compacted, continuing exactly the line of the wedge, for if carried too high or too low the whole balance of the bird's appearance would obviously be upset. the wings are compact and carried tightly-braced and close to the body, with the tips of the primary flight feathers just meeting each other -- never overlapping, crossing or failing to meet, which would leave the rump feathers exposed.
In keeping with the general conformation of the bird, the legs are of moderate length and show practically nothing of the thigh joint, while the natural carriage of the body is in a semi-erect position at an angle of approximately 60 degrees.
Fancy societies specifically lay down that the length must not exceed 5 ½ inches.
Border canaries are seen in the following colors White, Blue, Yellow, Buff, Green, Cinnamon, may also be "ticked" or "variegated".
