Does anyone have Photos of the Sth Australian strain?

[Danny]

Going of the first pic, those two look like a pair. As to what a mcgillvrayi should look like, who would know as there is no published image to go off.

[vettepilot_6]

Vette..Just reading more..South Aust strain is Mt Lofti...mt lofti & kangaroo island SA....Macgillivrayi is from Claudie river in QLD.(near Lockhart River)
Chris

So does that mean there is a possibilty of 4 different types? making my head spin

[desertbirds]

Yes thats correct four . Russel Kingstons book "The Finch" has a pic of Macgillvrayi on page 318.Unfortunatley i would say the pics in the post are a hybrid.

[Fireback]

Chris those redbrows look similar in colour to the birds i have observed around Innisfail and Cooktown in the wild.I lived in townsville for 14 years,until moveing to Brisbane 5 years ago.I kept lessers and the so called Macgillivray in Townsville .I have observed similar birds in an elderly breeders collection in Ingham and Innisfail.The gentleman in ingham had 5 pair of red brows freighted up from Melbourne,with a number of other birds,these were placed in the aviary ajoining.The birds he had were alot more intense. Eg eye stripe colour, silver to white under the throat and belly, smoky grey to darker under the tail. Similiar to lessers,but not as intence.I have also observed lesser red brows as far north as Horne island on the tip of cape york and south around Iron range national park. Cheers

[Danny]

Yes thats correct four . Russel Kingstons book "The Finch" has a pic of Macgillvrayi on page 318.Unfortunatley i would say the pics in the post are a hybrid.

Yes, but the pic in Russell'sl book is of one of his QLD hybrids that he sells as mcgillvrayi so as a reference it's particularly useless unless you are trying to sell hybrid red brows.

[chris66]

Hi Guys,
Firstly thank you for you comments & opinions.Its nice to have so much knowledge on a site like this.
Since posting the pics I have had a few respected people actually inspect the birds hands on.The general opinion is that they are not Mcgillvrayi as the underparts are not light enough & there is no yellow on the wings when folded out,only green.
This is leading us to believe they are normals.
I also think Fireback is onto something as these birds came from central QLD coast & the seller did say he got his stock from North Qld years ago so they me be decendants of the birds your talking about.
Living in Bundaberg I am amazed that noone here keeps any redborws at all.A few of us are trying to start a breeding programme for some of the harder to get finches & these were going to be used for that which is why I was trying to make sure of what they are.
If we get these going we will be looking for some unrelated blood down the track.Other finches we are trying are Tri Nuns (almost zero around our area) & aberdeens & normal ruddies & a few others.We are not really interested in mutations or pieds but more the dwindling pure strains of finches.Its not about $ its about trying to keep some as close to pure strains as we can.
Again ,thanks everyone for your input.
Chris

[desertbirds]

Yes thats correct four . Russel Kingstons book "The Finch" has a pic of Macgillvrayi on page 318.Unfortunatley i would say the pics in the post are a hybrid.

Yes, but the pic in Russell'sl book is of one of his QLD hybrids that he sells as mcgillvrayi so as a reference it's particularly useless unless you are trying to sell hybrid red brows.

Thanks Danny because i had thought that pic in Russels book was a bit ? If there is a more vivid sub-species available at some stage i would dearly love to be involved. Russels description of Lessers also states a really vivd bird with bleeding eyestripes. I havent seen lessers like that so maybe he was describing Mcgiivrayi, if thats the case i dont htink there are any true examples of this sub species around these days. Im happy with Lessers.

[vettepilot_6]

Hi Chris...The Aberdeens...did you find out if they were pure as well? Cheers Dave.....I have seen one of our members ones they look pure

[chris66]

Hi Dave..The same knowledgable people looked at them too.Yes they agreed they are pure.They are birds owned by someone in Bundy already.He is at the bris bird sale right now to see if he can get a few more.
See ya at Jan meeting?
Chris