Aussie Finch Forum

Spotted this lutino galah in flock near home the other day. was able to get a few photos today . sorry for the out of focus . will try for better shots over the next few days .

We have one that visits that is much lighter in colour than the others . It is silver /white where the others are grey .
Haven't been close enough to see the eye colour so dont know what to make of it .

Do you think your one is a wild natural mutation or an escapee ? It certainly is nice .

When I was a kid we called them rose galahs. They do occur naturally in the wild and seem to survive OK. Of course they are not a lutino, a lutino is an albino green, neither are they albino as they have pink still. The closes mutation I know of is the budgie clearwing. From memory it's autosomal recessive which also counts out it being albino, albinism is usually sex linked.

wasn't sure what the mutation was called . checked some sites on internet which came up as lutino . funny how once branded the name sticks even if incorrect.

natamambo wrote:When I was a kid we called them rose galahs. They do occur naturally in the wild and seem to survive OK. Of course they are not a lutino, a lutino is an albino green, neither are they albino as they have pink still. The closes mutation I know of is the budgie clearwing. From memory it's autosomal recessive which also counts out it being albino, albinism is usually sex linked.

According to the article in ABK vol 23, issue 4 they are a true sex linked Lutino.

As Natambo says, they are not Lutino. But Albino is not correct either. Believe that Rosa like in Bourkes parrotts would be more accurate. Lutino = Yellow. Albino = White. Rosa = red based. But they certainly resemble the Clearwing Budgie in markings.
LML

Lutino can only convert green to yellow. If the ground colour contains no green it cannot show yellow. In effect the lutino mutation takes all blue pigment out of the green leaving just yellow. If the ground colour contains no green, yellow or blue as in the grey back of the Galah, it is not possible for this mutation to result in a yellow pigment.
The yellow appearance of all lutino mutations you are thinking of would all be from green normal colour.

They are sex-linked lutino . . but are not yellow because their 'ground' colour is not green

Just as "blue" galahs (A-S recessive) are not blue because their g-c is not green

Martin's book on colour-breeding should be compulsory reading for aviculturists, no matter what bird species they hold

Dictionary (Quote)
Search Results Web definitions
Lutino - Xanthochromism (also called xanthochroism or xanthism) is a term that may be applied to birds, fish and other animals whose colouration is unusually yellow through an excess of yellow pigment, or possibly a loss of darker pigments that allows yellow pigment to be unusually dominant. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutino


I don't know who coined the name "Lutino" for this Galah mutation, but I would love to know the scientific, or otherwise, reasoning for their decision. As can be seen from the above ,"Yellow" must be involved, as the term itself comes from the Latin word "Lutea" meaning yellow ad can be found in many descriptive Latin names of plants and some of the animal kingdom as well. Eg. pachystachys lutea (The Shrimp Plant) or Geocrinia lutea (The Saffron Frog). To my way of thinking, I could not even be called an albino and especially not lutino, as the other body colours remain the same so Clear-wing or White-wing would be a more appropriate description. I'm always open to learning, so as I said earlier i would like to know the reasoning for calling it Lutino.

The reasoning is simply to maintain consistency in the naming of mutations

Same manner of inheritance same name

Proof that said galah is in fact a lutino, would be to combine 'lutino' and 'blue'. This would result in an 'albino' galah . .

Just as would combining a 'lutino' and a 'blue' in any of the 'green' birds . . . parrots, finches, or strutting ducks