Aussie Finch Forum

Has anyone heard if this? My babies are coloring up black all over the faces and bothe the parent have red? I'm so confused! Lol help!!

Your RH cock must be split to black, you will find the BH are hens and they should be regarded as normal BHs

I have the same thing happening and bb is right. The cock is split for black head which is a sex-linked gene. I have 2 pesky red-head males who are throwing nothing but black head hens. I can't get many red-heads out of them. Out of 10 youngsters they have raised this year, 7 or 8 are black head. I think the other 2 are red heads but not sure of sex. I have another 15 in the nest so I'm waiting anxiously to see how these turn out.

And let's not forget infidelity if they aren't kept as an isolated pair.

cranberry wrote:I have 2 pesky red-head males who are throwing nothing but black head hens

Ill take the hens
I might have some RH to swap later on if you are interested.

To further extend the information about the youngsters from the RH parents
The cock must be RH/bh to produce BH youngsters
paired with a RH hen
This pairing can give you
RH/bh cocks
RH cocks
BH hens
RH hens

Wrap your head around this one! I only ever started with populations of RH and BH gouldians, kept in separate populations. From the RH colony several OH birds of good colour were produced. these were kept in a separate colony and over the last few years have produced not only OH but RH and YT BH as well. Reds are the most dominant gene with Blacks being second and Orange being recessive, so I can understand the OH coming from RH and I can see how YT BH can come from all OH parents but how did the RH come from all OH parents?

bluebutterfly213 wrote:I have 2 pesky red-head males who are throwing nothing but black head hens
Ill take the hens
I might have some RH to swap later on if you are interested.

No worries Diane. This season looks like being a beauty so there should be heaps to choose from.