Tiaris wrote:My guess is the young bird is a white-breasted SF yellow back male. For the body to be that pale he must be a WB, which means the mother is split to WB as well. Either the one you think is the father is also a split WB or the "spare" one is the dad.
I wasn't going to comment as there is two pr and too many if's. Craig
Yes, there a few Craig.
The over-riding if to me though is, if there is only one YB bird in the aviary & it is a hen, then the young bird must be male. Then another - if the young bird is a male it must be white-breasted to be that pale. Then another - if it is WB its mother must also be split to WB. Then this if implies the mother is split to............., ..........
The messy quagmire of unknown mutation genes out there in huge numbers of birds depresses me.
Spare male does not need to go anywhere near the nest, just very near the hen. He can fertalize her then ignore her and leave the other guy to do all the work.
LML
So the spare one is a bad father? I still hope this is photo of the whole family. It looks yellow one may have black head. Is that something to be excited about?
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iva wrote:So the spare one is a bad father? I still hope this is photo of the whole family. It looks yellow one may have black head. Is that something to be excited about?
That is the expected head colour for a young hen from a black-headed father. Black is sex-linked recessive.
Just remembered the yellow one is likely a male if the RH yellow hen is its mother. Could I just bump the earlier question - Is the "spare" male green or dilute (SF) backed?
I would say that is the "spare" male half behind the canary in the pic and he looks to have black round his face, so normal not SF. And if he fertalized the hen then left her to her hubby that does not make him a bad father. It may just be that the hubby chased him off.
LML
Craig
He can fertalize her then ignore her and leave the other guy to do all the work. 
