Timbrado for America

TIMBRADO FOR AMERICA 1

It's not easy to work with song canaries; they make music, a highly subjective matter in terms of assessment. To worsen things the inner essence of song in birds is not fully known and we don't understand completely (and maybe never will) a lot of factors that take part in the small miracle of a bird singing. However, we do know quite a lot of things ,thanks to the modern genetic and ethological studies, and the years of experience in the selective breeding of song canaries, first Roller, then Malinois and finally, for more than 50 years, Spanish Timbrado. If we look 3 or 4 decades backwards, it's easy to realize that the improvement in Timbrado breed has been really important and, in the begining of the XXI century, we've got a consolidated race in a continuos process of development and evolution (and we don't know the limits!!!) with a great variety of tours (almost infinite if we think about the posibilities of "floreos" and cojoint variations) which allows the breeder a great freedom in the design of his birds, choosing the tendency closer to his personal preferences.                  

This huge repertoire is just the result of ancient lines of work with the wild canary, that still sings free (I hope for a long time) in the vulcanoes of the Canary Islands ( listen an example at  http://timbrado.com/roller.shtml  )    In the song of the wild canary we can trace ,in a very rudimentary way, all the tours (positives and negatives) later developed and improved in Timbrado. We can even find lineages of wild canaries (in specific islands or parts of islands) with characteristic ways of singing, very much like happen with strains of domestic birds.

As the outcome of the work in our Timbrados in the last 50 years, we can find, by the nature of the sound that shapes his song, metallic, hollow or watery birds. Timbrados before the 70s were mainly metallic with a bright and lively sound but some tendency to raucuos notes when sung in high tones or volume. Hollow and watery lines should be careful to don't fall in Roller or Malinois territory respectively .

By the transmission rate of the tours that form their repertoire, we can find "floreados", "classics" and intermediate birds. 

  1. "Floreados" are those birds in which song the discontinuos notes("floreos",slow water...) are the most important character, with semicontinuos (clucks, semicontinuos water...) like balance feature, and without timbres or rolled variations (continuos turns)
  2. "Classics" are call like that because were the birds originally recognized like Spanish Timbrado by the COM (Worldwide Ornitological Confederation). In these birds continuos tours ("timbres") are very important, but are poorer in floreos (discontinuos tours)
  3. Intermediate line would be somewhere between "floreados" and "classics"

Nowadays in Spain "floreados" and intermediate birds are reaching each year more popularity, with "classics" still very strong in some regions and associations. As it's a very hot subject, I'll continue talking about this in my next article.

 

TIMBRADO FOR AMERICA 2.

In my last article I used an important concept in the study of the song in birds which is the trasmission rate of the sounds that we listen. By this criterion we can find three kind of passages:                                        

  1. Continuous: when the syllabes of the passage are sung so fast that it is not possible to individualize them, with a sensation of continuity ("timbres", rolled variations) rrrriiiii /rrrrroooo                                                                                                                           
  2. Semicontinuous: we can apreciate the syllabes of the tour but there are no clear pauses between them (clucks, jingle bell) clocloclo/ linlinlin                                                                                                                                           
  3. Discontinuos: there are clear breaks between syllabes, like if the bird was resting ("floreos", church bell) tui tui tui / tilon tilon tilon 
    ( check the different emission rate of the notes at  http://timbrado.com/curso.shtml )

In Spanish Timbrado, as I said previously, the birds with the three kind of tours are known as "classics" and the ones with just the two latest "floreados". The first question is obvious: why in hell are there Timbrado breeders that don't like "timbres" or rolled variations? Are those bad notes? Of course they are not bad passages at all, on the contrary, evolved versions of those became the main feature of Rollers. But the raisers of the "floreado" lineage argued that rolls are to Roller and watery turns to Malinois what discontinuos tours ("floreos") should be to Timbrado, the main reference of the race and, actually, at that time there was an ancient stock of Spanish birds almost without "timbres"

But isn't it possible a Timbrado with the best of both lines, the greatest discontinuos notes of a "floreado" and the "timbres" of a "classic" at the same time? It seems that it is not,  because (and happen the same with Roller and Malinois) our birds, and specially their throat, have their limits. For instance, if we decide to breed a watery lineage we must know that their metallic or hollow passages will not be as good as the ones from pure hollow or metallic stock. In the same logic if we want to get the best of a "floreado" (discontinuous) line, we will have to remove the continuous ("timbres") tours; if we decide to preserve some "timbres" and rolled variations, we should know that the quality of "floreos" will be less, decreasing proportionally. So what birds should we breed, which are the best? This is the most beautiful part of the story, because there is no way to say, it's up entirely to you, you decide the kind of birds that you like, the balance of all these possibilities. The truth is that the three lineages ("classic", "floreado", intermediate) are developing excellent birds. But you'll be able to decide your own way just if you work with the FOCDE-COM (Worlwide Ornitological Confederation) standard and form; if you work with the FOE one, the path is already chosen, and it's pretty narrow.

POSSIBLE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE SPANISH TIMBRADO TOURS AND EQUIVALENCES IN  FOCDE (COM) AND FOE STANDARD (with maximum points in brackets)

ENGLISH FOCDE (COM) FOE
RINGS / DOOR BELL TIMBRES (9) TIMBRE METALICO (9)
ROLLED VARIATIONS VARIACIONES RODADAS (18) TIMBRE INTERMEDIO (6)
TIMBRE PROFUNDO (13)
WATERY   BELL TIMBRE DE AGUA (9) NOTA BATIDA (6)
JINGLE BELL CASCABELEO (9) CASCABELEO (12)
FLOURISHES FLOREOS (27) CHAU (6), PIAU (6)
SLOW FLOURISHES FLOREOS
LENTOS (27)
FLOREOS
DE ADORNO (18)
CHURCH BELL CAMPANA (9) CAMPANA (6)
CLUCKS CLOQUEOS (18) CLOQUEOS (16)
CASTANET CASTANUELA (9) CASTANUELA (9)
JOINT VARIATIONS VARIACIONES
CONJUNTAS (27)
DUOS (14)
SLOW WATER AGUA LENTA (18)  
SEMICONNECTED WATER AGUA SEMILIGADA (9)  

TIMBRADO FOR AMERICA 3

In my previous mail I transcribed the two forms currently used in Spanish contests of Timbrado; the FOCDE one is recognized by the COM (Worldwide Ornitological Confederation) for international championships. A form is more important that seems, it's not just a tool used in contest in order to award prizes to some birds, it's a reflection of the ideal standard towards the selective breeding must be directed. In this sense FOE's standard excludes completely the "floreado" lineage, with just 24 points (18 "floreos de adorno" + 6 church bell) to discontinuous tours; from FOE's point of view, "floreado" and intermediate birds are 2nd or 3rd class and should dissapear or create another race. Can anybody seriously say that some of the birds from TIMBRADO.COM are bad birds?. So if the birds are all right isn't it logic to think that maybe is FOE's standard the one which is wrong?                                                     

In strict sense CHAU and PIAU are, as well, discontinuous tours, but have been removed in almost every "floreado" and intermediate strain and good part of "classics" because are very problematic. Most of CHAUS and PIAUS are sung in a raucuos way, are "estridencias", typical of "chopper" or "balcony birds" More rarely you can find softer CHAUS in some young birds, but, in most of the cases, they become harsh notes when the breeding period approaches. However "CH" sound never has a great musical value, so most of Spanish breeders decided, time ago, that the best thing to do was to get rid of these bad tours and others with "CH" sound (piercing "chi-chi-chi" or harsh castanets in chas-chas/ chac-chac) and to try to replace them with more pleasant and musically better passages. This has been done successfully, so there's no sense in the stubbornness of FOE promoting these bad tours, and it's out of all logic that the points of two bad floreos (CHAU - PIAU) and "campana" (church bell) add the same that the infinite discontinuos passages that our bird is able to perform.

TIMBRADO FOR AMERICA 4

As I tried to explain in my previous mail, the main critic that can be done to FOE's Timbrado standard is that leaves out a great number of good birds, in Spain almost half of the canaries bred yearly. But should be pointed out, as well, the ilogic promotion of two bad "floreos" as are "CHAU" and "PIAU" (similar tours are heavily punished in Roller and Malinois), the disregard of the watery lineage or the shortage in the total amount of points.

FOCDE's (COM) form was carefully (and difficulty) developed with the aim to judge impartially all the lineages of Timbrado, and it's useful too for good birds from FOE standard (some world champions, judged so with FOCDE form, belong to FOE breeders). In this standard you can choose if you want more or less "timbres" , more or less "floreos"; you can specialize your birds or breed a strain which fills up most part of the form

I started with Timbrado in a FOE group, breeding "classic" birds for several years. I had problems with "CHAUS" (I never liked the tour and most of my birds didn't have it) but when I discovered  the new rich in "floreos" birds and managed to get a cock and two hens, I realized that FOE's standard couldn't cope with those birds, so I had to change to a FOCDE association. I have a great respect for most of the people working in FOE, great fanciers and good fellows, but I belive that their Timbrado world is too narrow, too dogmatic. And I've always preferred birds than dogmas about birds.

I've been breeding, for some years now, intermediate birds, some of them with quite a lot of "timbres" and rolled variations, but, of course, I still enjoy a good "classic" of "floreado" and probably I'll breed these tendencies again. I hate to get bored with my bird's song and FOCDE's Timbrado allows me to change or transform my birds without changing to another race; in other case I would probably be breeding Roller o Malinois at this moment.

You are in America starting to build a new world for Spanish Timbrado, and the future will be great if you take the proper steps. Learn from Spanish mistakes and try to establish just one standard (and this DOESN'T mean just one association) wide enough for all the tendencies. On the contrary you'll be in Spanish case, a world of fights, quarrells, insults. But in Spain we've got consolidate associations, a lot of fanciers and ,somehow, we learnt how to deal whith all this mess. I don't know if you'll be able to do the same.

With my best wishes for the upcoming contests, sincerely

© Luis Sanchez