RED CHEEK CORDON BLUE, WITH NO RED

[Spitfire]

Is this possible, A male Cordon Blue with no Red Cheeks??
Sorry for the quality of the photo, But I still cannot afford a camera like Branchez.
This is a 2 year old cockbird who was in a large aviary with another pair of Cordons.

[Craig52]

Hi Guy,i have never seen that before maybe it's a throwback from the blue breasteds that were here many years ago. Craig

[Tiaris]

Is he pied? I can see pale toenails & a white spot near the shoulder, but hard to tell for sure from the pics. There is a subspecies of Cordon with no cheek patches but they don't even have any blue on the head at all & I've never heard of them being in Oz.

[finchbreeder]

Are the 3 birds related? Do you know anything about his breeding?
LML

[Spitfire]

All I know is that he had red cheeks when I put him in a 10m aviary as a second pair. All I can deduce is that the other cockbird must have been Dominant and Vicous and this
cockbird dropped the red patches out of cowardice. He has the outline of were the patches should be but no red. The dominant male has died about a month ago and I am hoping
that chicken gets his red feathers back in due course. I shall keep you posted.

[vettepilot_6]

All I know is that he had red cheeks when I put him in a 10m aviary as a second pair. All I can deduce is that the other cockbird must have been Dominant and Vicous and this
cockbird dropped the red patches out of cowardice. He has the outline of were the patches should be but no red. The dominant male has died about a month ago and I am hoping
that chicken gets his red feathers back in due course. I shall keep you posted.

I wonder if its possible (like some other animals) he is changing sex

[E Orix]

I am sure that we have Blue Breasted Waxbill blood in our Red C Cordons.
A few years ago I put some normal looking Cordons into my breeding stock and they threw some non Red C Cordon cock birds
I wouldn't know about the difference of the hens(marginal diff). These birds came from N Qld
As far as I know the R C Cordon is far rarer than the Blue Breasted and Blue Cap in the wild.
Isolate and line breed you never know.

[Tiaris]

Blue-breasted is more common in the south of Africa, Blue-capped in the north, & Red-cheeked have a much larger range than both the others.
The bird in the photo doesn't look to have blue-breasted features to me. Blue-breasted are nowhere near as pink in the bill & are rather dumpy in shape in comparison to RC or BC Cordons. This bird is quite pink in the bill & appears very lean in shape. The fact that he originally had red cheek patches & they disappeared is rather strange.

[Tiaris]

Again, its hard to tell from these pics, but his plumage overall does look very worn/rough.