Nutmeg Mannikin mutation?

[Nrg800]

I've been meaning to post this for a while (infact since they coloured up) but hadn't gotten around to it.
I have a pair of Nutmeg Mannikins, last year they popped out another pair, and when they started colouring up they were colouring up like this:

small.jpg

This photo is about 3 months old and they've just gotten more and more dark. I assume it'll leave them on the first moult, but I also have no idea what it is.
So yeah, any ideas would be appreciated.
Also, I super imposed the dad in.

Thank you!
~Nathan

[TomDeGraaff]

Would love to see a more recent photo, Nrg800. Possibly a fawn or cinnamon mutation. Do you know their sexes?

The other possibility as I see it is that they have some self fawn Bengalese blood in their ancestry and the two parents were split thus producing these chicks.

I have always loved spices. They have such subtle gentle colour patterns.

[Tiaris]

I'd be more interested to see what else was sharing the aviary with them. Any other munias?

[Nrg800]

I have a pair of White-headed Munais now. But I only got them after these two were bred.
I didn't want to put another Lonchura in if I wasn't sure of the pairs.

[Tiaris]

Cutthroats perhaps? Did they colour up normally?

[Nrg800]

Nope and this is them colouring up. I get home at lunch on Thursday so I'll take more pictures then at the latest. But the dark pattern has simply spread further down so that it is as full as the scalloped pattern in the parents.

[TomDeGraaff]

Never post/ text/ email at 2.00 am !!
On better ( and more lucid!) examinaion, there is chestnut colouring extra to the normal colouring of the species. I wonder therefore if the Bengalese theory might still be possible (?)

[finches247]

I think there showing towards a variation/Subspecies.There is some lighter Subspecies of The Nutmegs.There are many variations of Nutmegs with the Subspecies.

[Craig52]

The out of focus bird in the back ground tends to have a very dark chestnutty head,are you sure its not a hybrid? Craig

[Nrg800]

Very possibly, definitely not a hybrid from my aviary, but could be a throwback.