Aussie Finch Forum

Just found a brief report on wild yellow Diamonds in an old 'Emu'.

E.L.Hyem of Barrington, NSW reports on 22/2/53 that "I was riding home one evening when I saw what appeared to be a canary feeding on a hillside with a flock of forty or fifty Diamond Firetails (Spotted-sided Finches) and Red-browed Finches. [....] I waited until it flew to the ground again, and then crawled on hands and knees to a log about ten yards behind which it was feeding. It was a Diamond Firetail, uniform bright yellow except for red beak, eyes and rump, and a faint band across the chest greyish-yellow instead of black as in the normal birds. [...] I was interested to note that it was accepted by the normal birds of its species, because some years ago there was a yellow individual of the Eastern Rosella here, which was always solitary and was never seen to associate with the normal-coloured birds of its species"

This sounds like a very different bird to the 'yellow firetail' discussed in other threads, and seen occassionally in captivity here and overseas. Has anyone ever seen/heard of this kind of yellow Diamond elsewhere?

Seen Yellow Diamond Firetail in Germany

finches247 wrote:Seen Yellow Diamond Firetail in Germany

Was it like a normal Diamond except with orange where the red usually is, or was it a predominantly yellow bird, like the one described above?

Was dope around in them days.
It could have been a lutino,as we have in grey birds such as cockatiels in lutino cheers Craig

crocnshas wrote:Was dope around in them days.

Why, yes, I do believe that dope was around in them days, but unfortunately iPhone cameras weren't or we might have gotten a shot.

It is often hard to believe these one-off reports, which is why I was hoping to track down another report of a similar bird.
I can't think of any other kind of bird that might meet that description.

Lutino is a good thought, especially with the mention of red eyes in the report, but I couldn't decide if (s)he meant red eye-ring (as in the normal Diamond) or actually red-eyed, which would point to lutino.

mattymeischke wrote:Just found a brief report on wild yellow Diamonds in an old 'Emu'.

E.L.Hyem of Barrington, NSW reports on 22/2/53 that "I was riding home one evening when I saw what appeared to be a canary feeding on a hillside with a flock of forty or fifty Diamond Firetails (Spotted-sided Finches) and Red-browed Finches. [....] I waited until it flew to the ground again, and then crawled on hands and knees to a log about ten yards behind which it was feeding. It was a Diamond Firetail, uniform bright yellow except for red beak, eyes and rump, and a faint band across the chest greyish-yellow instead of black as in the normal birds. [...] I was interested to note that it was accepted by the normal birds of its species, because some years ago there was a yellow individual of the Eastern Rosella here, which was always solitary and was never seen to associate with the normal-coloured birds of its species"

This sounds like a very different bird to the 'yellow firetail' discussed in other threads, and seen occassionally in captivity here and overseas. Has anyone ever seen/heard of this kind of yellow Diamond elsewhere?

Same birds as you have description as you have described above
They are not lutinos

Henry if there not lutino s then what are they What other factor could make them canary yellow as most other yellow birds have derived from green or yellow already in the bird which diamonds don't have.Help me out here Cheers craig

Hi
only seen black eyed yellow ones but wouldnt say its that you could get a lutino.I am not much of an expert on mutations and ones i saw in Germany were ressecessive and he also breed recessive yellow mutation crimsons.The Yellow mutations seems to pop out of many of estrildid finch species worldwide from what i have seen.
Cheers
Henry

Henry hi, did you get any pics of those birds

Hello Al

Going to lots of show's over here and in Germany.But never seen a Yellow Diamond.
Yellow tails yes but the rest off the bird no,it's no possebill,while they have only Red and Yelow carantiene in the taill and Beak who can be evenso Yellow.
The rest off the body off a DF is only Black and Pheo or Braun Euomeline,on this pigment you will find the mutations,until you have white,whit a black eye,or albino,totally white whit the red eye.
Rubino is evenso a bird what you can breed,white red eyes red tail ,Lutino is even to breed yellow tail and red eyes,the bird must be white.
But I have not seen them on this moment in Europe.

Regards Ger.