Aussie Finch Forum

http://www.publish.csiro.au.ezproxy.une ... U02015.pdf

There is a some interesting stuff in this article including a distribution map.

iaos wrote:http://www.publish.csiro.au.ezproxy.une ... U02015.pdf

There is a some interesting stuff in this article including a distribution map.

Sorry iaos, can't access that.

Apologies for that. Here is the abstract for the article. http://www.publish.csiro.au/?paper=MU02015
Map from Todd et al. 2003

Here are some pictures that I took this morning
These are the two young cock birds that have only ever undergone the one moult. From a distance of around 2m away the grey (after catching them up is more brown - not dissimilar to that shown by all crimsons both BB and WB) is not noticeable - it is realisticaly 1 to 2mm wide, but I think is shown wider in the pictures because holding the birds in the hand seems to disturb the natural feather position.

From my perspective a think better conclusion on my own birds can only be drawn once the birds have gone through another moult.

I can comment however that the calls of my white-bellieds are very different to the black bellieds that I have. In addition the body colour is closer to red on the white bellieds than that of the black bellied which are more crimson. The WB's are also a tad smaller.

I haven't tried to trangress to WB versus BB hens as yet - didn't really want to be catching them out this morning, but will try an get onto them in the next week or two

Gary thanks for the pics,in all those young pics,you have nothing to worry about as that colour edge to me looks like juvenile plumage and will moult out white.
When i received my birds,8prs,four of the cocks had dark grey edge to the white and the other four cocks had little if any and these were the birds i kept and the others sold off.
The problem was,as it is very hard to distinguish? between white bellied hens and black hens,the person before me who had them may have accidently or most likey intentionly placed BB hen with a WB cock.
I did source new blood from a friend of mine in the way of a hen,this hen was snow white in the belly area and has since died but her progenary has improved in the belly colour of both cocks and hens.
Out 14 young i bred late last year,3 were cocks,one snow white belly,one snow white belly with a 2mm grey outer edge and one totally dove grey belly,which looks white in the sun.The latter has produced 8 young this year so far and it looks like 6 are cocks so it will be very interesting to see how they turn out regarding belly colour as white is starting to appear now.
Gotta learn how to put pics up,my daughter did the first lot and showed me how,but i've got a brain like a sieve. Craig

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=449&p=2978&hilit=browse#p2978
This topic has step by step instructions but if anyone has any problems they can always send the pics to me via [email protected]
Just say which topic you want them in and I will make the post with the pics and change it to your name so that you can add any wording you want.

Thanks Di, pm sent

Gary,forgot to mention regarding hens.The only real way is to check their under tail covert feathers and down the under side of the tail.In the white belly they should be light grey with a little red wash in cocks and light grey in hens. The black bellies are solid black in cocks and grey black in hens. Craig