Aussie Finch Forum

Not sure where this guy came from ie have had the same breeding stock for the past four years and all of a sudden this guy appeared.
Without searching other posts is he unusual ?

Yes! He's adorable. I have one currently that looks like he will turn out very similar.

If you are able to take a photo of his entire body I'm sure someone can name the mutation for you. Or is he normal grey other than his cheeks?..he looks like he might be, though I presume his flank markings are also this peachy colour rather than the usual chestnut??

Off to check his flanks cant say I paid any attention

He is only a young bird but his flanks look like they will be light also

Dilute Blue ?

He is a Very Attractive looking Zeb.

Definately dilute blood to my eye. Though darker than the average dilute. But I have seen them in degrees of dilute before, usually lighter rather than darker however.
LML

Would there be an ideal mate colour to reproduce this result ??

To dark for Dilute Blue i would think. You would want to put it back to a Grey i reckon. The flanks match the cheek patches which is interesting.

Cheek patches and flank markings almost always match. There's no named mutation other than Dilute Blue that this bird is close to, so I would use that as a working theory for now, but more in a moment...

The interesting thing is that Dilute Blue is a dominant mutation, meaning that you would have seen it before in your flock and quite frequently. Even recessive genes would be expected to show up more than you've seen. So I wonder if it's a truly spontaneous mutation - the starting point for all mutations. Maybe.

Also unusual is how dark the grey is, and that the lines between the black lines on its chest are white like a normal Grey, rather than blue-grey like a Dilute Blue's chest markings. That's another reason to wonder if it's actually some kind of one-off 'Normal Grey with Peach Cheek Patches' mutation!

If you pair it with a normal Grey (new blood/not from your flock) you will know whether the mutation behaves like Dilute Blue because some of the offspring will show the same colouring. If only normal Greys are produced then you know it's some kind of recessive gene.