Each of the seven members of the Bird Fanciers' club of the village of Little Wool is the namesake of the bird owned by one of the others. Three of them have birds which are darker than their owners' feathered namesakes.
Mr. Crow's bird's human namesake is married; indeed, Mr. Dove and Mr. Canary are the only bachelors.
The raven's owner is Mr. Gull's wife's sister's husband.
The crow is detested by his master's fiancee.
Mr. Raven's bird's human namesake is the owner of the canary.
The parrot's owner's feathered namesake is owned by the human namesake of Mr. Crow's bird.
Who owns the starling?
The raven is owned by one of Dove, Canary, Gull or Parrot. Its owner is married, which rules out Dove and Canary. Assuming Mr. Gull is not a bigamist this means that Mr. Parrot owns the raven.
Mr. Crow owns one of the gull or parrot, since he is married and owns a light-coloured bird. If his bird is the parrot, that means that the crow would be owned by Parrot. This cannot be the case, so Mr. Crow owns the gull.
Mr. Raven owns one of the dove, parrot or canary. It can't be the canary (for then both Raven and Canary would own it). Nor can it be the parrot, for then Parrot would own two birds. So Mr. Raven owns the dove, and Mr. Dove therefore owns the canary.
There remain two unplaced dark birds and two owners with light-coloured names; consequently Mr. Starling must own the parrot. This means that the starling is owned by Mr. Gull. This leaves Mr. Canary as the owner of the crow.
First correct solution came from Ruth, who wins the pint, a million XP and a jade falchion.
Fullest explanation came from Spike, who outlined a step-by-step method using a tradition logic-puzzle-magazine style grid.
The most innovative solution came from James, who supplied an Excel spreadsheet which brute-forces a solution. This was directly in response to my challenge (for the first supplier of a correct solution calculated using Excel) and as such deserves a special "Yech, that's horrid" award. Nice.