As described under the section for Yellow Canaries; Yellow is not a generic term meaning all shades of yellow but a specific term to define the hard feathered bright yellow Canary.A Buff Canary refers to the Frosted or Buff Yellow.
The term Buff or Frosted is used for birds whose colour is a pale yellow, which occurs because each yellow feather has a fine/small band around the outer edge of white. This gives the appearance of a softer yellow hence Buff or Frosted.
It is most usual to breed [ Yellow/Intensive ] X [ Buff/Frosted ] so as to retain a good quality of feather.
Too much [ Yellow/Intensive ] X [ Yellow/intensive ] creates a very narrow hard feather, which makes the bird look much thinner.
Too much [ Buff/Frosted ] X [ Buff/Frosted ], also known as double-buffing, creates a very soft feather which is prone to creating Feather Lumps an unsightly growth that should be avoided.
Author: James Hart - Published 06/06/2009