Pied Parrot Finches

[finchingit]

Hi All,

Can anybody shed some light on the yellow beak colour in the pied Parrot finches? I have pied birds with only a small portion of yellow on one mandible, I have others with a complete mandible coloured and others with completely yellow beaks. And some of those completely yellow beaked birds don't have a yellow feather on them, whereas some birds with only a small amount of yellow in their beak are showing good pied colour. Is the beak colour random? Or, is it a precursor to how much colour the birds might throw?

I haven't been breeding the pieds long enough to know, but any info will surely help for future pairings.

Regards

[Tiaris]

Can't explain why some have just the lower mandible yellow & others both apart from the random nature of the pied mutation. However, any bird showing yellow mandible (either or both) at maturity is a pied genetically. They may only have a single pale feather under the wing where it can't be seen or may even not show any paleness but are still pied mutation birds.

[bleeding green]

Any explanation as to why some pied will have a black (normal) beak, and some will have yellow? Is it just a matter of the pied colour showing through where it choses as it does with the feathers? If that is the case would it mean that a heavily pied bird is more likley to have a yellow beak? (from my own observations I don't believe that last bit is correct).

[Tiaris]

All I can say to try to shed light on this is that the Pied mutation is totally variable & apparently random in its physical expression and can be anything from the smallest and virtually undetectable to the eye one-feather variation to a virtual full body transformation. I have found pieds in several species to be the most difficult mutation to intentionally produce a desired quality young bird in. I guess the variation in yellowness of the beak or lack thereof in certain pied PFs is also an indicator of the pot-luck expression of this mutation. I have seen some birds which have a fully yellow beak with virtually no distinguishing pied feather markings & others, as you've mentioned, nearly all yellow-bodied with virtually black bills but usually these ones have at least some pale-ish colour at the base of the lower mandible on close inspection.
My main query with this mutation is the existence or otherwise of double-factor pieds (which seems necessary for any dominant mutation) and how to physically detect them?? I suspect only test mating to normals can do this but would be very interested to hear of any experiences with visual detection methods.

[Sezza]

Would love to see pictures of ppls pied parrot finches