Different back colour in young hen Gouldian

[Tiaris]

Just wanted to show a young hen which has just coloured with a different shade of green in the back to all my others. No mutation blood I know of for many generations with these birds. Also a pic of her father - just wanted to show him off as I really think he's a beauty.

[finchbreeder]

Both very nice looking birds T. She is a little bluer than most normals.
LML

[Tiaris]

Yes she has an almost sea-green look about her. I don't particularly like the colour of her as it has dulled the purple & yellow on the front which colour-wise are the highlight of a good Gouldian to me.

[Craig52]

I think these colour variations pop up every now and again out of normals Tiaris. If you don't like it cull it so the chance of producing more is less and keep an eye what the parents produce next year if they are paired singularly. But have to agree,that cock bird is exceptional and love the head shape and his pins.

Also, i have pics of wild birds with varying coloured backs that range from sea green/blue to a creamy green to just the normal green.

[Tiaris]

Yes, I will be culling her. I'll be keeping the father and one of her brothers for next season's breeders though.
Below is the brother. Nice bird too I reckon.

[Tiaris]

I have also seen pics of wild birds with different bluish shades but these are usually taken at the time of the bird counts at the end of the season when adult plumage is very worn. This bird though is fresh through the moult.

[finchbreeder]

To me it seems logical that shadings will vary. Depends if the bird gets two light genes, two dark genes or one of each. A bit like human Blondes and Brunetes. Though it is even more complicated in both birds and humans than just light and dark as I suspect there are varing degrees beyond just that.
LML

[Finchy]

Lovely birds - very similar to the look I aim for in my own Gouldian flock.

Mutations all start somewhere, and especially in domestic aviaries I think that enough generations of even mild inbreeding (cousins) tends to result in mutations eventually popping up, seemingly out of the blue. This hen does look like something more than normal variation in shading to me. I thought she might be expressing Dilute, but that only affects back colour...and it's usually a brighter lime green rather than seagreen.

All very interesting! Perhaps it's worth making a point of adding new blood to the line, in case the cousins thing is an issue.

[Tiaris]

I have plenty of different blood there. Not mating cousins just yet. I've added 3 new sources of Gouldian blood in the past 5 years so all unrelated pairs.

[vettepilot_6]

Just wanted to show a young hen which has just coloured with a different shade of green in the back to all my others. No mutation blood I know of for many generations with these birds. Also a pic of her father - just wanted to show him off as I really think he's a beauty.

Yep agree Dad is a cracker....