Aussie Finch Forum

Painteds are still a bit young to sex with any confidence. Possibly 2 cocks.

Am I right to say the two Gouldians are cocks as well? And that Lachie is a dilute?

No the Gouldians are a pair & Lachie is a single factor yellow-back (pastel).

Tiaris wrote:Painteds are still a bit young to sex with any confidence. Possibly 2 cocks.

Everyone else was very confident in their sexing, so I'm glad there's someone else who agrees it's too early to be 100% sure.

Am I right to say the two Gouldians are cocks as well? And that Lachie is a dilute?

Nope. The cockbird is a pastel.

The male gouldian is a dilute right? Plus you stole one of my birds names Zippy

I would be buying the 2 Painted as two cock birds, once you see red any where near the lower mandible
you can be pretty sure that it is not a female

Tiaris wrote:No the Gouldians are a pair & Lachie is a single factor yellow-back (pastel).

Yes... Dilute...
http://www.finchinfo.com/genetics/lady_ ... colors.php

"Dilute is the phenomenon of combining a 'yellow' Z (sex-linked) chromosome with a 'green' Z (sex-linked) chromosome in a purple-breasted bird. (Obviously since two Z chromosomes are required for this to occur, dilute birds can only be cocks.) Hens can never be dilute. The single yellow body gene "battles" with the green body gene for expression, and so a little of each gene is expressed making the bird not green nor yellow but a shade in between. This is the hallmark of incomplete dominance. Dilute will never occur in a white breasted cock (since then the bird who is SFYB will appear yellow), but dilute birds can be split for white breasted. Because the yellow gene suppresses the expression of black coloration and because the green gene mutes the effects of the yellow gene, any normally black area on the bird will appear grey (as opposed to white), so black headed birds will have grey heads."

Pastel is a more light blue/grey colour?

This an Australian Finch forum. In Australia "dilute" refers to the autosomal recessive dilute mutation which is a completely different mutation in appearance and inheritance to the one you are referring to. In Australia, the one you are referring to, and the one in this pic, is regarded as a pastel, which is actually the single factor form of the sex-linked dominant European yellow-backed mutation of which only double-factor males and single-factor females have a pale yellow back.

The pastel you are referring to is a pastel blue (combination of pastel/single factor yellow-back and the blue mutation in the same bird).

E Orix wrote:I would be buying the 2 Painted as two cock birds, once you see red any where near the lower mandible
you can be pretty sure that it is not a female

I only see red under the bill on bird 1 not on bird 2, who wants to lay bets as a pr or not. Still going as a pr. Craig