My point is that while we keep hearing about the ability of animals to make drastic evolutionary leaps between species, we have yet to see any evidence of it.
That's exactly what the fossil record shows us, transitions between species such as the hominid transitional fossils.
As the Brothers Winn point out, we've been watching bacteria since the invention of the microscope, and while they have adapted as bacteria, they've never become a new, higher form of life.
Why would they need to change into a "higher life form"? Bacteria are the most successful type of life on Earth. Single celled organisms make up the vast majority of the biomass on Earth.
Same with canaries. They may adapt within an apparent parent species, but do not become an entirely new line.
Evolution does not produce entirely new lines. Evolution produces species that are modifications of their ancestors. You are what your ancestors were, plus modifications. Humans are still apes, as was our common ancestor with apes. Humans are still primates as was our common ancestor with other primates. Humans are still mammals, as was our common ancestor with other mammals.
This is why Creationists always differ between microevolution and macroevolution. We can observe natural selection and adaptation right now. However it is faith by which one relies upon interspeciary evolution, which appears more a philosophy of Darwin's that all had a common ancestor, than one of his more solidly supported facts.
Is it by faith that we observe transitional fossils? Is it by faith that we observe humans and chimps sharing the same genetic markers that are indicative of common ancestry (e.g. shared psuedogenes, orthologous ERV's)? Is it by faith that we find agreement between the differences between the human and chimp genome and the observed mutation rate?
Common ancestry is supported by solid facts, despite your protestations.
Evolutionists will say that it takes so long to occur we can't see this type of evolution, that it takes so long we won't be able to see it happening.
We can see it in the genomes of living species and in the fossil record.
The news has had major press received that the human family tree is now instead a 'bush' with dead ends everywhere.
These fossils still demonstrate transitional features which is exactly what we should see if humans and chimps share a common ancestor.
Again, not only is there a complete lack of proof for this interspeciary change,
That is completely false. Genetics alone is enough to establish human and chimp common ancestry as a fact. The theory of evolution explains why we are different.