Gouldian with unusually intense colour and iridescence

02 Jan 2014, 16:52

I am really pleased with my Gouldians bred this past year, but one black-headed male in particular stands out. He has a depth of colour in the chest that's notably stronger than the others; I'd say it's a good half shade deeper and more vibrant, though not 'dark factor' or anything like that. He also has this striking iridescent quality all over - his purple, blue and green feathering in particular. What do you make of this? Does it mean anything?! Is it a genetic feather structure thing, or what else could explain it?

It's strange because he was raised in the exact same enclosure as his brothers and several other males, who are all very handsome birds too, but he is this little glowing jewel among them!

I know, a photo is needed. I will see if I can get to that, but in the meantime I wonder if anyone else has encountered these more intense and glowy Gouldians in their colonies? (As if they needed to get any prettier!?!)

02 Jan 2014, 21:07

I have noticed one of my black headed cock birds colour better than the others. It seems like the alpha male of the new generation gets an edge. ..well that's what I have noticed in my colony.

02 Jan 2014, 21:25

Interesting. I hadn't thought of that. I'll watch and see what happens this coming season - whether there's a behavioural/breeding difference.

(Will try to get that photo...)

02 Jan 2014, 21:54

Finchy wrote:Interesting. I hadn't thought of that. I'll watch and see what happens this coming season - whether there's a behavioural/breeding difference.

(Will try to get that photo...)

Hi Finchy,every now and then breeders not very often breed a superior bird to what they are used to breeding.If you like the quality/colour or size of the bird then that's the one you keep to breed on those quality points and cull out the inferior birds even though the inferior ones are top quality to someone else,it's the name of the game.
I do agree with others that the pics you put up of your birds for sale are top quality looking birds so to have one with superior quality to them is a bonus. Craig

03 Jan 2014, 06:23

Even within the progeny from each pair I also notice significant variation in colour intensity. Much of it I feel results from different feather structure which applies to all birds (ie frosted & non-frosted feather, "yellow" & buff, etc). But even within each feather structure there is variation which I just put down to typical genetic variation (even among siblings). The challenge to breeding a higher proportion of these standout individuals is to identify them among your young, retain them for future breeding, then pair them with unrelated standout birds of the opposite sex. The non-frosted or intensive feather structure birds will generally be those which exhibit the stronger colour intensity so you need to be mindful that selecting for colour intensity alone will tend to maximise non-frosted pairings in both sexes which may have adverse consequences on other physical features such as body size & some attributes of good type which largely stem from buff-feathered birds.

04 Jan 2014, 10:39

Here he is. By the time my camera and YouTube have done their thing I'm not sure how obvious the colour difference is, but he's the black-headed bird that turns up on a branch to the right, pecks at a bit of millet spray for a while, then hops across in front of the feed dish and hangs about on a rock to the left.

http://youtu.be/J0W3GQdOg7g

04 Jan 2014, 12:41

I think the white breasted cock bird looks pretty good imo

04 Jan 2014, 19:45

I think they all look good but Finchy i do think you are using too much high definition with your camera and need to back it off a bit,i'm not being narky. Craig

04 Jan 2014, 20:20

Too much HD? What do you mean - how does it look/replay for you? It was recorded at 720p.

YouTube has been doing very weird things lately with video quality on replay in IE 11, so I wonder if it has to do with that? I have to use compatibility mode in IE on my PC to get normal replay at 360p. Otherwise videos stop and start or their resolution drops extremely low.

I do think the camera has exaggerated the contrast a bit as well. The birds look as if they are in the sun but actually that was just bright shade. Is that what you mean? I'll have to look at why it might be doing that.

04 Jan 2014, 20:41

Finchy wrote:Too much HD? What do you mean - how does it look/replay for you? It was recorded at 720p.

YouTube has been doing very weird things lately with video quality on replay in IE 11, so I wonder if it has to do with that? I have to use compatibility mode in IE on my PC to get normal replay at 360p. Otherwise videos stop and start or their resolution drops extremely low.

I do think the camera has exaggerated the contrast a bit as well. The birds look as if they are in the sun but actually that was just bright shade. Is that what you mean? I'll have to look at why it might be doing that.

Yes to your last paragraph,the colours seem to intermingle as the birds move,especially the blue.I once had a chap come here and photograph my crimsons and he emailed me the pics,they were darn terrible.He reshot them on the normal setting and they came back perfect,his original pics were taken on HD and the colour difference to the norm was totally abnormal. Anyhow just a thought. Craig