I kept several song birds, mostly finches, when I was a kid. You have to clean out the crap every few days by sliding out and replacing the paper mat. Refill the water bottle and food every few days. Canary likes to eat green leafy vegetable, so clip one for a treat from time to time. Bird likes to be clean so you have to give it a spray water bath every few weeks. So the maintenance is simpler and easier than keeping fish.
Canary makes soothing song, but can be bothering and wake people up if it sings at the wrong time. If you keep a lonely canary, over time it will stop singing because it needs competition to continue to sing. A solution is to keep two so they can compete, or play recorded song to excite the bird.
I don't keep bird, dog or cat anymore, only fish because I can go away for a month without asking anyone to take care of my fish, but not bird, dog and cat.
