Non-established mutations in Australia

[iaos]

Hi all,

After the thread on yellow black-eyed tri coloured parrot-finches, it got me thinking on to other mutations in Australia that have failed to establish or were once available and have become "extinct".

Ones that possibility come to mind are grizzled blue faced parrot-finch, black cheeked zeb, yellow/golden crimson, yellow red-browed.

What else has been out there and what are the back stories to these mutations?

Cheers Ian

[Danny]

As soon as I catch them up I'll have a few pied Blue faced parrot finches to go. I don't have the space to set them up separately and they'll be lost (or at least their genes will be) if they stay in the big colony long term. My greatest disappointment was the night a brown tree snake cleaned up all three pairs of yellow cheeked cordons.

[iaos]

Cheers Danny. Very interesting.

[Craig52]

Pied and grizzle pied cordons are another one that hasn't really taken off in Australia.Both mutations are fertile but the pied in particular throw out their young not long after hatching for some reason even though they get every thing they need to feed their young.
Diamond Firetails are a success story with pieds and cinnamons that i feel will ruin the normal geno type and will become a zebra finch like cocktail in the very near future imo. Craig

[iaos]

Hi Craig, I would have thought pied cordon's were moderately common, maybe the birds that become available are more an accidental breeding rather than people focusing on breeding the mutation?

Yes, without a lot care the diamond gene pool is about to become a cesspool.

Cheers Ian

[Craig52]

The yellow redbrow you mentioned,imo will never be established.All the yellow birds i have had tried to breed,5 in total, were out of the wild and for some strange reason were all hens and were all infertile.Not one fertile egg and with many different normal males and i have never seen or heard of anyone with a yellow cock bird.

Fawn doublebars,fawn hens are fertile,split cocks are fertile and fawn cocks are infertile.This mutation is sexlinked so they are really cinnamon and they are usually sold as coloured prs but coloured cocks are infertile so nothing is produced from them.To keep this mutation going you need a split cock to a coloured hen to produce young and you end up with a holding aviary full of beautiful cinnamon males that are just that but infertile.
Myself and a few others got burnt for big dollars but this infertility wasn't known by the seller at the time so it's not his fault as he was breeding them in a huge aviary thinking the coloured cocks were fertile.

Cheers Craig

[Tiaris]

I saw some beautiful cream-backed Cordons years ago in the aviaries of an old bloke in Newcastle which never became established. All blue & red same as normal but with very pale cream backs. Must have been autosomal recessive as they were in both sexes from normal parents. One of the most striking finch mutations I've ever seen.

[Craig52]

Heavy pied blue face PF,Many years ago i went to one of the first Melbourne bird sales,as i was selling birds i was able to see what was for sale before the buyers were allowed in.To my surprise,in a fruit box with wire tacked on top was two really heavy pied BFPF's among 10 other bf so i pre bought these 2 pied birds,(i know no pre buying but i just had to have them).
They happened to be a pr,so i would say pretty much related. The seller said they just very well coloured birds but i thought he must be blind ,the cocks body was over 50% yellow with white wing feathers and a pink tail, his blue face mask was white and looked a very stunning bird.The hen was similar with a lot less yellow pied.
Being absolutely stoked with these birds i paired them up together hoping to get a few pieds on the perch before out crossing,to no avail as nest after nest of infertile eggs.
I placed these birds with respective normal partners but they had the same result with multiple nests.
I lost the the hen with in a couple of years,she was well and truely burnt out.I continually placed the cock bird with normal BF hens hoping for some fertile eggs but nothing eventuated.
This bird lived for another 3 years in my holding cage because i couldn't part with him but i eventually gave him to the late Allan Foot who let him fly around in a huge aviary and he he lasted another 2 years.
I believe there are grizzled pieds around but they are few and far between and imo they will never become establish as heavy pieds. Craig

[garymc]

Not a finch but I did breed a number of fawn red-chested button quail. Got out of these and the progeny ended up in a number of aviaries in Queensland.

Have seen heavy pied plumheads (allbeit in a freezer), a heavy pied painted and of course the yellow diamond firetail