Understanding Budgerigar Genetics

The Budgerigar is one of the most commonly kept birds in aviculture and many people start bird keeping with a budgie or two.  They come in a vast range of colours representing different mutations and when it comes to breeding a specific one, understanding the different genetics involved can be important to getting the result you want.  So here is a basic introduction to understanding genetics.

Genetics 101

Now I am not trained in genetics so my understanding is only as good as my understanding of what I have read.  However, here goes.

The wild type budgie is the bright green colour that is actually called Light green.  This is a bird whose feathers have three pigments in them eumelanin, psittacin and advanced psittacin.  Eumelanin is a black type of melanin while psittacin is the yellow pigment.  The advanced psittacin is an unusual pigment that parrot produce that allows them some of their more fantastical colours such as red, oranges, peaches and pinks.  When the feathers are exposed to sunlight, only the blue part is reflected by the eumelanin resulting in blue light passing through the yellow pigment layer and creating feathers that appear green.

From this light green form of the budgie have been bed 32 different mutations and many hundreds of variations within them.  These 32 fall into four basic groups; albinism, dilution, Leucism and Melanism.  Albinism, or albinos, are the white birds with red eyes and skin and this is where eumelanin is either partly or totally absent.  Dilution is where eumelanin is reduced and Leucism is where it is reduced in areas.  Finally Melanism is where eumelanin in increased.

The other basic of genetics is the most complicated part; dominance relationships.  This has to do with the parts of gene called the alleles that form into pairs to make chromosomes.  Chromosomes in birds are the same as in humans; there are two types.  There are sex chromosomes that define gender and then there are all the rest.  An allele can be dominant to the other allele, which means whatever it brings out will be the dominant factor in the bird but there are also other degrees of relationships.  There are also sex-linked inheritances where the alleles on the sex chromosomes are the one that define the colour.  Hopefully this will make more sense when applied to the colours and mutations!

Blue series

Skyblue Male

There are two main sets of budgie colours; the greens and the blues.  In a blue bird, the green feathers turn to sky blue while the mask area on the face turns from yellow to white.  Blue birds show this colour because they lack the yellow pigmentation that creates the green feathers in the wild type bird.  Blue mutation birds have been recorded in aviculture dating back to 1878 in Brussels, Belgium.  It was first seen in England in 1910 and remained rare until the 1930s when they could fetch £100 per pair, around the same price as a car.

Genetically, the blue mutation is recessive compared to the wild type allele so when a bird has one blue allele, it will appear as a wild type bird.  Only if the bird has two blue alleles will it look like a blue bird.  When combined with the Dark mutation, the body feathers become a deeper blue.  A blue bird with a single Dark factor is a Cobalt while one with two dark factors is a Mauve.

Dark mutation

The Dark mutation is one that affects the colour of both green and blue birds.  When a budgie has a dark factor, the green bird appears much the same as the wild type but has darker body and tail feathers.  These are darker still in Olives and Mauves but all of the birds have the normal violet cheek patches.

The Dark Green had a body colour the shade of forest green while Cobalt is a deep blue that is like an azure shade.  Olive green is a richer shade of olive, similar to Grey-green but differentiated by the violet cheek patches.  Mauve is a purplish grey that is more muted than the Violet or Cobalt colours.  Violet Cobalt is a composition of blue, dark and violet and is a bright shape of violet.

The dark mutation has an incompletely dominance relationship with the wild type allele.  This means that the dark green has one dark and one wild type while the olive has two dark alleles.  In the blue series, the Cobalt has one dark and one wild type while the Mauve has two dark alleles.  The dark factor is always visibly expressed so no bird is ever split for dark.

Yellowface

There are two varieties of yellowface mutation.  Yellowface I is where the bird appears as a normal Sky blue but the face, where it is normally white, is yellow.  There are also yellow tints to the wing markings and sometimes down the breast a degree.  It can also be found in Cobalt and Mauve variations where the yellow markings remain much the same.

Yellowface I

Yellowface II is the other yellowface mutation and can be combined with blue, opaline or clearwing birds to create the mutation known as rainbow.  A single factor Yellowface II has a bright body colour that is often called sea green or turquoise while those on a Cobalt bird is bottle green and in the Mauve variation are a mixture of mauve and olive.  A double factor Yellowface II is similar to yellowface I but the yellow tends to be brighter.

The genetics are a little confused but it is believed that the mutation doesn’t create a yellow face but reduce the colouring in it and are believed to be part of the blue series of mutations.

Grey

Grey, or dominant grey, is sometimes called the Australian Grey and is the basis for the grey-green and grey standard varieties.  In a dominant grey bird, the light green variety becomes grey green, which is a dull, mustard green, and the blue becomes a light grey, a uniform battleship grey colour.  In both the green and blue birds, the flight and longest tail feathers are black while the cheek patches are a lilac-grey colour.  When combined with the dark mutation, both colours become darker.

This mutation is a dominant one so even over the wild-type bird any bird with one allele of grey will be grey coloured.  It also means that a double factor grey will look no different from a single factor grey.

Anthracite is another grey mutation but this is one is much rarer.  It is similar to the violet mutation but the birds have black or very dark grey feathers with differing degrees of white feathers.  It developed in Germany and most all of the birds are found in the same area but it is also possible that it is related to the now absent English Grey mutation.  Anthracite has an incomplete dominant relationship with the wild type so a different effect presents between single and double factor birds.  In green series Anthracites, the body colour is deeper than a Dark Green while in the blues, the colour is similar to a deep Cobalt.

Slate is another grey shade mutation which in the blue series birds makes a light grey colour with a bluish tone while in green birds is a shade between light green and light grey green.  Dark factor has more an effect with slate than with grey birds where they become very dark.  It is a sex-linked mutation that is carried on the X chromosome and is recessive to the wild type.  This means hens cannot be split for slate and in cocks, the slate allele much be present on both X chromosomes to be the phenotype.

Violet

In any bird with the violet factor, there is a visual effect on their feather colour.  It depends on whether they carry a single or a double factor and other mutation present but there are around 18 different combinations.  Single factor violet light green lack the ribbing on the feathers normally found to give a satin-like appearance while the tail feathers are paler.  Single factor sky blues have a colour between dark sky blue and medium cobalt with navy blue tail feathers.

Dilute

Dilute is one of the main categories of mutations in budgies and comes in several varieties such as light, dark, olive, grey, suffused yellows and grey and suffused whites.  In the wild type bird, the dilute mutation makes the body colour change from green to yellow while the black spots on the wings, head and neck are pale grey.  Cheek patches become a pale lavender and the tail feathers are a pale bluish-grey.  Dilute light greens are often known as light yellows.

In the blue series birds, the yellow turns to white but often suffused with blue to varying degrees.  Dilute sky blues are known as whites or suffused whites when blue is present.  Dilute cobalts and mauves are known as suffused whites also.

Dilute is a recessive mutation to the wild type so if a bird has a single allele of dilute, it will appear as a normal wild-type bird and will be classed as split for dilute. 

Clearwing

Clearwing is a mutation in its own right and also the underlying variety of a number of other mutations such as the yellowwings (combined with green series) and whitewings (combined with blue series).  It combines with the greywing variety to make full-bodied greywings and with yellowface II and opaline to make rainbow.

A clearwing light green has only slightly lighter colours than a normal light green bird but with highly contrasting yellow wings.  Similarly, with a sky blue bird, the colour is similar but the wings are whiter.  There are pale grey shadows on the normal markings while the tail feathers are a smoky-grey colour in the blues and grey-green in the green.  Clearwings split for dilute are slightly paler.

Greywing

Greywing budgies have a body colour that is around half the intensity of a normal variety with wing, neck and head markings reduced from black to mid-grey while the cheek patches are pale violet.  The tail feathers are shades of grey with a bluish tinge.  When combined with the clearwing mutation, the birds are known as full-bodied greywings, which have a darker colour to the body and markings.

Pied

Recessive Pied

There is a range of different pied mutations in budgerigars and here are a few of the more common ones.  Pied budgies all have irregular patches of clear feathers that can show up in random places around the body.  These patches are lacking in melanin pigment so just show the ground colour, which is yellow in green birds and white in blue birds.  The remainder of the feathers are normal coloured.

The recessive pied mutation is the underlying mutation of the Danish pied variety that is also known as the Harlequin.  With recessive pieds, the areas of pied feathers are very extensive and can result in birds that are almost clear, with small patches of pigment.  These patches of colour are often brighter and more vivid in shade than normal.

The Australian pied mutation is the underlying mutation for the Banded pied variety.  These birds have a nape spot, areas on the wings and breast that are clear and pink feet. 

Cinnamon

The cinnamon variety of budgies is one of the 30 or so mutations as well as the underlying mutation, with Ino, for the Lacewing variety.  On a cinnamon bird, all the markings that are normally black appear brown and these are darkest on the male birds.  Body colour and cheek patches tend to be paler by around half and their feathers have a silky appearance.  Their eyes of dark brown with a white iris.  It is a sex-linked mutation that is carried on the X-chromosome and is recessive to the wild type of budgie.

Ino

The ino mutation is the underlying mutation for variations such as the Albino and Lutino as well as a constituent part of the Lacewing variation with cinnamon.  Green series ino birds are known as Lutino and have pale yellow contour feathers along with white or pale yellow flight and tail feathers.  Their cheek patches are silvery-white.  In the blue series, ino become Albino, birds that are pure white with slightly silvery cheek patches.  All ino birds have red eyes and pink legs and feet with the cere on the male bird being grey-purple rather than the normal blue.

Albino (left) and Lutino (right)

Ino mutations are sex linked recessive on the X chromosome and it works by inhibiting the melanin pigment in the feathers.

Opaline

Opaline mutation budgies are known for a range of characteristics that can be present in varying intensity.  These include striations on the top of the head that extend down to the between the wings being much reduced or even absent.  Another sign is that the dark markings on the wings are often absent; being the same colour as the body and giving it the opalescent effect that gives the mutation its name.

Opaline combines with yellowface II and clearwing mutations to produce the rainbow variation.  Opaline is a sex-linked mutation carried on the X chromosome and is recessive to the wild type.

Conclusion

To know what you will get out when you breed a pair of budgies, you need to know exactly what you are putting in and this can take a few generations to achieve.  However once you know the makeup of your birds, there are various calculators out there that will tell you what pairings will produce what type of chicks and allow you to plan going forward.  Alternatively, you can go for blind luck and get a pleasant surprise from each egg.

Bird Profile: Red browed Finch

The Red browed Finch (Neochmia temporalis) is a member of the same family as the Star Finch and the Plum Headed Finch.  In captivity, it is more commonly known as the Sydney Waxbill or the Red Headed Waxbill, even though it isn’t a waxbill as such. 

In the wild, these birds live in Australia and tend to call the wetter parts of the country home.  They live in vegetation such as mangrove belts and forests beside open country as well as scrubland and even in gardens near the cities.  Its range covers New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and parts of coastal eastern South Australia.  The species has also been introduced to French Polynesia.

Description

These little birds probably are called waxbills due to their bright red beak, red rump feathers and red eye stripe that is similar to some of the waxbill species.  They are colourful in a muted way with the head being a bluish-grey, the back and wings olive and the belly grey.  They are typically around 11-12cm in length.

In the wild, they are found in mini flocks of around 10-20 birds that either live in one place or roam around a small area of about 10km. 

In Captivity

Generally, they live well with others though can become a little aggressive if they are over crowded.  There is also an outside change of cross breeding with Stars and Plum headed due to close family relations.

Source: Wikipedia

They live seeds, particularly grass and sedge seeds but will also make use of any non-native grasses that present themselves.  In an aviary, this translates to a good foreign finch seed diet including millet, canary seed, pancium and Niger seed.  When they are breeding, mealworms or other live food will be important and offer a range of greens and fruit for them to try.  Birds are like people; some things they like and some they don’t so it can be trial and error to get their favourites but their health will thank for you the efforts.

They have been found to appreciate better a planted aviary than a breeding cage as this gives them more room and less chance of feeling crowded.  Also due to their preference for nest building in shrubs, a planted aviary will help them feel at home to do this, as they often don’t use a nest box when offered.

Breeding

The Red Browed Finch is classed as a weaver finch because it builds a large nest that is domed with a side entrance and uses grass and little twigs to do this.  In the wild, the nest is built 2-3 metres above the ground in dense shrubbery and nests are built in colonies. 

Four to six eggs are laid and both parents take their turn at incubating the eggs.  Incubation is usually around 13 days and the chicks fledge at two weeks old.  By the age of one month, they are weaned and self-supporting.  They typically nest from October to April in the wild and can have two or three clutches per breeding season.

Bird Profile: Plum Headed Finch

The Plum Headed Finch (Neochmia modesta) is more commonly known as the Cherry Finch in aviculture and is a common estrildid finch from Australia.  It is of the same finch family as the Star Finch. 

Cherry Finch sunbathing with a Zebra Finch

Natural Environment

In the wild, these little birds live in the dry savannah and dry shrubland areas of Australia, where it is a species of Least Concern.  It lives across Northern Queensland south to the interior areas of eastern Australia and New South Wales.

The Plum Headed finch generally is a bit nomadic and travels around searching for food and water.  Residents of the areas have often reported them being around in large numbers then vanishing for a period before abruptly reappearing.

Their natural diet are the seeds of the plants they live amongst and in captivity, this translates to a good foreign finch seed mixture.  They will appreciate live food such as mealworms and will also relish a range of fresh food such as greens like kale or spinach, fruit and vegetables.  Plum headed finches enjoy bathing so as well as having access to fresh drinking water, they should have somewhere to enjoy a good, clean bath every day.

Getting to know

Sexing can be easier than with some finches as the male has a dark spot below the beak that is not on the female’s throat.  Sometimes, the plum headed patch is larger on the males than females.  There are three main colours; the normal bird where the head is plum coloured, the back and wings are brown with white flecks and the breast and belly are white and brown striped.  The tail has brown and white barring a little like a zebra finch.  The other two mutations are the fawn, where all colours are dilute and the Isabel, which is lighter again and the breast barring is almost dark cream.

Keeping Plum Headed finches in a mixed aviary is probably an ideal environment.  While genetically they can cross with Star Finches, I don’t know anyone who this has happened to but they do live happily with them.  I have four Plums in my mixed collection with six Star Finches as well as other Australian and African finches.  They are sociable, often preening other nearby birds when preening themselves and share the feed stations well with others.

While no finch ever becomes truly tame, Plums are one of the finches that can get a level of trust in their human keepers and befriend you.  One of my birds in particular will come each morning for the first grab of food from my hand and is hard to dislodge so I can feed the others!  He even comes to the door on an evening if he feels a little extra food should be provided or flies at me to prompt me.

That is not to say that they cannot be kept in an indoor aviary, a large cage or even a breeding cage.  Much of their adaptability will come from what they have been raised in – if in a cage then a cage is nothing new to them.  But if raised in an aviary, then a cage may be a bit of a shock.

Nesting

In the wild, these finches build a small domed nest that tends to be slightly taller than wider and it made with grasses.  It doesn’t have an entrance tunnel and is often lined with feathers.  They choose a nesting spot that is near the ground, often amongst dense shrubbery and near live grasses to construct with.

A typical clutch is between 4-6 eggs and both parents share in the incubation duties during the day, both sleeping in the nest on a night.  They hatched around 12-14 days and are ready to fledge at around 21 days.  While not as nervous on the nest as some of their Star Finch cousins, it is best to avoid disturbing them.

In captivity, they will easily use a nesting box and fill it with nesting materials such as jute, coconut fibre, sisal and such.  They will also build their own nests as they would in the wild when the right conditions are present.

Bird Profile: Diamond Firetail

The Diamond Firetail (Stagonopleura guttata) is a member of a family of three species of firetails and is the most commonly found in aviculture.  It is a native of Australia that is found from the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia to southeast Queensland.  It lives in eucalyptus forests as well as mallee country, farmland and grassland.

Source: Wikipedia

In the wild, the Diamond Firetail is currently rated as Near Threatened.  This is due to loss of habitat caused by the alteration of the landscape due to over grazing by livestock as well as in the invasion of weeds.  This also causes a loss of food sources and means there are more predators around to attack the little finches.

Description

Diamonds can’t really be sexed by the eye, only by the song, as the males are the singers.  These are startling looking little birds with a bright red beak and eyes as well as a large splash of red feathers on the rump.  There is a black band under the throat that connects up with the tops of both wings and a white spotted black band on either side of the chest parallel to the wings.  The wings and back are grey with the top of the head being a slate grey and the tail feathers are black.

There are also some really attractive mutations easily available in these birds.  The most common are the Isabel, fawn or brown and pastel.  In the brown bird, all the grey areas are brown and all the black areas are dark brown while on the Isabel bird, these shadings are lighter again.  The pastel is the lightest with all the grey areas being creamy and the black areas a light silvery grey.  However all mutations still have the startling red beak and rump.  There is also an orange beaked mutation that changes the red to orange but other colours remain as normal.

Pastel pair

The call of the diamond firetail can best be described as weird.  If they had been named in more recent times I would say their name comes from their imitation of a fire alarm but since this isn’t the case, it’s a real coincidence.  The hens have little to say but the cocks will sing to her as well as bouncing up and down on the branch while holding a piece of nesting material as a mating ritual.

In the Aviary

Diamonds have the reputation of being a bit troublesome to house with other birds around breeding season because they fiercely defend their nest.  However, in my opinion, this depends on how they have been bred.  If they haven’t come into contact with other birds, then this is their natural reaction but if they have been raised in a mixed environment, this may be less so. 

Firetail being sociable

Also, it depends on the personality of the individual birds – I have two pairs at the moment.  The pastel pair are quite laid back and have lived in the mixed flight with no problems, apart from occasionally chasing others from the doorstep of their nest.  The older pair in the breeding cage are a little edgier and I am not sure if I would trust them in with smaller finches.

Some of these birds manage better as a single pair while others prefer the safety of a colony.  I am currently trying my two pairs in a breeder together as neither are producing to see if they might like to swap mates or simply feel safer as a four than a two.

Keeping Diamonds

Apart from temperament, Diamond Firetails are very much a normal Australian finch.  They will be happy with a good quality foreign finch mix, will often take treat seeds such as hemp, Niger, sunflower and paddy rice.  They don’t seem to be big egg food eaters but it is best to offer any bird and the same with grit or bird sand. 

I have recently been offering my finches in the flight mini mealworms for the protein benefit and also because some of the species use this as a breeding trigger.  I have noticed that the Diamonds will take up the offer of live food as keenly as species more renowned for their live food diet, though whether this is simply copying behaviour or not is uncertain.

Two other typical finch behaviours are exhibited by Diamond Firetails: they love to bathe and they sleep in a nest even when not breeding.  So fresh water and a roosting spot should always be provided to them.

Breeding

As mentioned, around breeding season some pairs can become aggressive, especially in defence of their nest.  A fellow birds keeper once witnessed a firetail cock knock and cockatiel out of the air and leave it stunned on the ground because it had come to close to their nest.  Yet the same bird never bothered any of the other finches in the enclosure.  Clearly, they were a threat but the cockatiel was.

If you buy an established breeding pair, then skip the next part.  These birds like to pick their mates so if you are buying young birds, pick at least two of each sex then they can make their own pairings.  It is for this reason I have put my four in together, in case they are not breeding pairs as I was told and to see if they want to swap mates.

Once a pair are established, they will use a half-open nesting box or occasionally build a freestanding nest if a suitable space is available.  They can be quite the architect in this case, building a large nest complete with a tunnel entrance.  Both the birds take part in the incubation of the 4-7 eggs that are laid and they hatch at around 12-14 days. 

While feeding their young, they will often appreciate live food being offered, but this can depend on their own upbringing.  The young fledge at 3-4 weeks and are fed by the male outside the nest for a week or so longer.  By 5-6 weeks old, they are weaned and have their full adult plumage at around 12 weeks of age.  A good breeding pair can produce several clutches per season.

Bird Profile: Star Finch

The Star finch (Neochmia ruficauda) is one of the Estrildid species of finch that is found across the dry grassland and savannah in Australia.  It is sometimes known as the Red-faced Finch but mostly as the Star Finch in aviculture.

In the wild, these little finches are Near Threatened due to loss of habitat.  This is because of the removal of the grassland they need to survive, overgrazing by castle and their food and water sources disappearing.  Burning of grasslands during the dry season is another major problem as this reduces the amount of seeds that can germinate in the wet season and leaves the birds with less supply food.  However, despite their struggle in the wild, they are relatively common in captivity, a fact that may prove crucial if their decline continues.

Eye catchers

Male bird (left) and two females

In my opinion, Star Finches in all their mutations are real eye catchers.  The wild form is a bright red face and beak, green breast with white spots, green across the back and wings and a yellow belly.  The top of the tail features light red feathers then green along the length.  This means that they stand out even in a well-planted aviary.

Since being bred in captivity, the Star Finch has also developed some beautiful mutations to the original wild colour.  One of the most common of these is the Yellow mutation.  This is where the red face is replaced by dark yellow and the tale is golden yellow while the back is an olive green with an almost golden tint.  It is a recessive inheritance (see Finch Genetics) but still seems to come out strongly amongst mixed nests.

Other mutations include the Fawn and Cinnamon, which are similar enough to cause confusion.  In both cases, the body colour become lighter while the head colour retains its brightness.  The cinnamon variation tends to have a yellowish hue to the back and wing feathers and the upper tail colour is a distinctive pink, rather than normal red.

With all mutations of the birds, they can generally be sexed visually as the male’s face colour will stretch further back than that of the hen – see above picture where the bird on the left is the cock bird and the other two are hens.

Breeding Star Finches

Star Finches have a reputation as being difficult to breed but a lot of this comes from what they have been raised with themselves.  As a general rule, they don’t tolerate nest inspections and will abandon the nest or even chicks if they are interfered with.  However, this isn’t an absolute as I know a breeder who checks the nests at least daily or whenever else he feels like it and produces any amount of young successfully.  It is worth noting though, he always has Bengalese finches running the same breeding schedule as the Stars just in case.

Enthusiastic male's nesting building efforts

For the actually breeding process, Star Finches are relatively average finches.  The male will build a nest, which can be quite elaborate and use a lot of material to what is actually needed and then will display to the hen with a piece of nesting material.  This involved singing and bouncing up and down on a perch in front of her, his head lowered a bit, offering her the nesting material.  The pair will then finish building the nest together and both birds take turns in incubating the eggs.

The normal clutch is 4-5 eggs that are incubated for 12-13 days.  When the young hatch both parents will feed them and they fledge at around three weeks of age.  They will be parent fed for another two or three weeks but it can take around six months to get their full adult plumage – before that they are a dull beige and white colour and are almost unrecognisable as a Star Finch!

Most experienced breeders recommend waiting to breed the birds until they are around twelve months old, as by this time they are mentally more able to deal with the breeding process and are less likely to abandon the nest.

Options for keeping Stars

Again, this depends a lot on how they have been bred so if they are used to living in a breeding cage, then this won’t be an issue for them.  But if they have been raised in an aviary flight, they may find it frightening to be constricted into a cage.  I have six Stars in my flight with a host of other finches, canaries, British birds and a few parakeets without any problem.  They are proving slow to go to nest but this is due to having not had them together for that long. 

These little birds mix well with others so could be kept in a good-sized indoor aviary cage if you wanted them in the house.  They can be a little susceptible to cold temperatures, due to the delicate feathering, so if living outside, protection is advisable.

Star Finches are generally busy little birds who often hang around in a little group along with Cherry Finches who they are closely related to (watch out for the chance of cross breeding!).  Their song is a typical finch song, vaguely mechanical but very pleasant and the males are enthusiastic little singers.  They will often have singing competitions with each other but there is no aggression involved.

Feeding Star Finches is simple enough – a good Foreign Finch mix will do the job and they enjoy a host of other seeds occasionally.  I have given them sunflower hearts, hemp, paddy rice, Niger seed, blue maw and linseed as treat seeds, all of which have been taken, along with egg food and bird grit.  I have recently been providing mini mealworms for some of the more insectivores finches but have noticed the Stars will have a few as well.

Difficulty level

If you are keeping them for the pleasure and are happy if they breed but not worried if they don’t, they are relatively easy to keep.  If you are planning to breed, a little more care and caution is involved, making them more difficult.  However, their overall personality means that they are uncomplicated to keep with others and feeding them is easy.

Genetics of Bengalese Finch Breeding

I’ve recently acquired some new Bengalese finches and among them are some crested and some Pearls.  This made me curious to know a little more about the genetics of the Bengalese and what pairings might produce what type of young. Of course, this is not a hard and fast rule because you don’t know what is in the background of a bird – a friend recently bred two fawn and whites and they produced a  fawn and white but with a crest when neither of the parents were.

There are lots of great sources of information out there and this is just a snapshot of some of the facts I have put together.  Long term, my aim is to breed a Greyino that is done using a black grey and a cremino – everyone’s got to have ambitions right?

Chocolate Bengalese

My first breeding pair of Bengies were a chocolate and white and a fawn and white.  They produced two chicks, both chocolate and white males.  I know understand though that my two boys may appear to be chocolates but will actually be split for fawn, so therefore the fawn could resurface later in the line.  A table of chocolate pairings would look a little like this:

Cock	Hen	Offspring
Chocolate	Chocolate	100% Chocolate
Chocolate	Chestnut	100% Chocolate Split Chestnut
Chocolate	Fawn	100% Chocolate Split Fawn

So this bottom line are my two boys from the first breeding pair.  Now I have mated one of the chocolates and whites to a red grey hen.  They produced two chicks, one chocolate and white male bird and one chestnut female!  Now if my understanding is correct, these birds are now split for grey and the fawn from their grandmother may still surface.  Time will tell.

Chestnut Bengalese

Chestnut Bengalese are the lighter brown colour between chocolate and fawn.  When breeding with a chocolate bird, the chicks will be visually chocolate but split for chestnut, while when breeding with fawn, they will be chestnut split for fawn.  So in a way, chestnut is the second strongest of the Bengalese common colours.

Fawn Bengalese

My original dilute fawn and white hen

The fawn Bengalese is also sometimes known as the cinnamon and is common in a dilute colour that is a more delicate shade again.  When breeding with chestnut or chocolate, the birds will normally favour the darker colours but will be split for fawn so this colour may come out again in their chicks depending on matches.

Pearl Bengalese

Pearl Bengalese

The Pearl Bengalese is a newer colour mutation and is said to have two background colours: chocolate pearls or chestnut pearls.  The breeding of a normal bird as above and a pearl are shown below:

Cock	Hen	Chicks
Normal	Pearl	Split cocks / normal hens
Pearl	Normal	Split cocks / pearl hens
Split	Pearl	Pearl & Split cocks / pearl & normal hens
Pearl	Pearl	Pearl

The results are due to the pearl gene being a recessive sex-linked mutation.  What this means is that the male birds carry the pearl gene while females can be pearl or normal but cannot be a split pear bird. 

Grey Bengalese

Chocolate on the left, Black Grey on the right

Grey Bengalese come in three main colour types: Black Grey, Chestnut Grey and Red Grey.  This is another recessive mutation so when they are paired to a normal bird, all offspring will be split for the grey colour.  For example:

Cock	Hen	Chicks
Grey	Grey	Grey
Normal	Grey	100% Split Grey
Normal	Split Grey	Split Grey
Chocolate	Black Grey	Chocolate Split Black Grey
Fawn	Red Grey	Fawn Split Red Grey

Light Bengalese

There are two types of white Bengalese: black eyes whites and albinos that have pink eyes.  There are also two other ‘inos’ the Cremino and the Greyino.  The Cremino is the coloration that is known as a cinnamon ino in other types of birds and results from the brown melanin in the feathers being almost erased and is a sex-linked colouration.  The Greyino is bred from the combination of a Cremino and a grey factor bird such as a Black Grey.

Cock	Hen	Chicks
White	White	White
White	Chocolate & White	100% chocolate split white
Chocolate & white split white	Chocolate & White split white	25% white 50% chocolate & white split white 25% chocolate & white
White	Chocolate & White split white	50% chocolate & white split white 50% white
Normal	Cremino	Split cock / normal hen
Cremino	Normal	Split cock / cremino hen
Cremino	Split	Cremino & split cocks / cremino hens / normal hens
Cremino	Cremino	Cremino
Normal	Albino	100% split albino
Cremino	Black Grey	Cremino hens split Grey / Chocolate Cocks split grey & Ino
Black Grey	Cremino	Chocolate cocks split grey & ino / Chocolate hens split grey
Black Grey	Cremino split grey	Black Grey cocks split Ino
Chocolate split grey & ino	Black Grey	Greyino hens
Black grey split ino	Black Grey	Greyino hens
Black grey split ino	Greyino	Greyino cocks & hens

What are Clearwing Bengalese?

The clearwing mutation arrived in the UK from the Continent and seems to have originated from Holland Belgium.  The variation from Belgium has lacing on the underside of the belly while the one from Holland has an almost white belly.

Clearwings are available in chestnut, fawn and grey with varying shades in these colours from very dark right down to dilutes.  The ideal clearwing should have a normal head colour as well as chin, throat, upper breast, rump and tail.  The wings and mantel should be either white or as light as possible.

This information is based on information from the National Bengalese Fanciers Association and other sources.  See their website at: http://www.nbfa.co.uk/index.htm

Are Brood Parasites the Worst Birds in the World?

Before I started keeping birds, I had only heard of one brood parasite without even really knowing the term – the cuckoo.  I remember hearing stories of murdered chicks and destroyed eggs and a giant offspring which could never belong to the parent, taking over their lives.  It seemed tragic and unfair, but that’s nature.

Since becoming a bird-keeping, I have learned a little more about the subject.  There are quite a few different types of brood parasites like cuckoos, but not all of them are as destructive to the host nest.  And some are.

Lesser Honeyguide

Honeyguides

The gentle sounding Honeyguides are African birds who are often followed by locals to find bee colonies, as they feed on the wax and the bee larvae, hence their name.  However, they are not as sweet as they sound because they lay their eggs in other birds nests.  Not only that, but they throw host eggs out of the nest or even puncture the eggs with their thin, sharp beak to kill the chicks.  The bird they parasite depends on the exact species of Honeyguide but can be anything from a woodpecker to a warbler.

Whydahs

My (hopefully) hands on experience with parasitic birds will come from a finch called a Pin tailed Whydah which I have recently purchased.  These beautiful little birds are black and brown when out of breeding condition, but when ready to breed, the male moults into a stunning little black and white bird with a tail that is easily twice the length of his body.

My Pin-tailed Whydah cock

Pin-tailed Whydahs parasite the nests of a little waxbill called the Common Waxbill or the St Helena Waxbill.  But the good thing about this relationship is that the Whydahs don’t destroy the waxbill eggs and the waxbills rear both sets of chick together.  The Whydahs have evolved that they can mimic the calls of their host species and are judged by the female based on how good they are at this.  The chicks also resemble waxbill chicks when they are born so their foster parents readily accept them. 

There are various species of Whydah, some of which are known as Indigobirds, many of which aren’t kept in the UK. All of them parasite one of the smaller finch species that are native to their local areas.  For example, the Village Indigobird lays in the nests of the Red-billed Firefinch and the Quailfinch Indigobird lays in the Quailfinch nest.

Ducks

The Common Goldeneye is a parasitic duck, well technically.  These ducks live in the US and Canada as well as across Russia, and the Scandinavian countries and the female lays her eggs in the nest of other species, and they will be raised with the foster parents family. 

Common Goldeneye

Similarly, the Black headed Duck from South America, also lays in other birds nests and use them as a feathered incubator.  They lay the eggs in nests of all sorts of birds including even gulls and birds of prey and when the chicks hatch, they are out of the nest in no time at all and are able to fend for themselves within a few hours.

Conclusion

So it was nice to know that not all brood parasites are as destructive to the host species as the cuckoo and meant I was happy to have a pair of Whydahs in my aviary.  Here’s hoping they breed!