Aussie Finch Forum

I recently contacted a well known finch expert in regards to choc parsons and he stated that the large dark parsons seen in the 70s and 80s were line bred from a hand full of dark birds they orginally obtained,not all southern parsons were really dark birds.two well known aviculturists of that time line bred the dark parsons for the show bench in nth nsw finch shows.these birds were the darkest and biggest ever seen,apparently a couple of people still have the line of dark parsons still going.

jaytt wrote:I recently contacted a well known finch expert in regards to choc parsons and he stated that the large dark parsons seen in the 70s and 80s were line bred from a hand full of dark birds they orginally obtained,not all southern parsons were really dark birds.two well known aviculturists of that time line bred the dark parsons for the show bench in nth nsw finch shows.these birds were the darkest and biggest ever seen,apparently a couple of people still have the line of dark parsons still going.

The birds 'originally obtained' by those breeders (both very good friends, & both dead, one died on the day of the others funeral) were from the Inverell area, & were not line bred from a selected few, they were the NSW variant of the Parson, & have been gone from the wild since about '94, and very much doubt there would be any pure left in our aviaries either.

The darkest ones I saw were from the big aviary. Line bred by nature.

They're the ones

I was quoting what I was told by well known nsw finch man who has written a lot of articles,he and his mate are still breeding the original line ,but by the way he was explaining ,the birds are not like they once were.

I am pretty sure I know who you are talking about.
There may be a little original blood in their birds but what has happened in the past is they have out crossed these birds
to a normal bird that had slightly darker plumage. This line breeding has produced darker birds but I would be staggered
if anyone had any where near the original birds.
These birds were a location variation and the few birds evolved to be a dark phase. Their numbers were always very limited
hence being cleaned out in the wild so quickly.
I am sure the older breeders who actually saw these birds will agree with what I am saying

Not admitting to being an older breeder but I do mostly agree.

Now now Tiaris face facts

I found out last night with the birds I was told were Fawns are actually Chocolates. Guess you could say they look nothing like Fawns I guess.

Hi Rich

I also live in Perth and have bred chocolate parsons for about 20 years now. A few years back I got some new blood from NSW and bred 4 or 5 fawn parsons from those bloodlines. I was trying to get them established as they were quite an attratcive bird, but a nasty rat got into my birds and decided that my breeding birds were very tasty, hence I lost all my fawn birds. Unfortunately I did not get any photos of them. I have also bred cream parsons in the past but do not have them anymore.
A few years ago I bought a really dark chocolate parson from a dealer. A year later this bird moulted out a few shades lighter.
I am going to try and attach a couple of photos.

Neil