Some new babies

scarlet chested grass parakeet

pearl grey society finch

Recent youngsters

scarlet chested parakeet babies ready to be banded

Various mutation gouldian babies



just hatched gouldian babies

young scarlet chested parakeet male coloring up



shaft tail babies - isabels and ?fawn



red fronted opaline turquoisine babies and their mom



normal and creamino shaft tails



pied black grey and pied fawn grey societies



chiyoda society

I finally had time to take pictures of some of the recent young birds that have weaned and are coloring up or have already colored up.

Opaline fallow bourke grass parakeets

Understanding genetics of mutations, in this case, for bourkes is one thing, but putting it into practice can sometimes be a little tricky.  One of the more confusing mutations in grasskeets is the fallow mutations of the bourkes.  It's been said there may be at least 3 different fallow mutations - all of which are autosomal recessive (both males and females need 2 copies of the to show the mutation and so both genders can be splits).  Dun fallow is suppose to be the darkest with dark grey nails.  Bronze fallow is a bit lighter in coloration with pale fallow being the lightest.  When the fallow mutation is combined with the opaline, it can be very difficult to tell what kind of fallow the "pink" or opaline fallow bird is. 

opaline fallows: male on left, hen on right

Case and point: I put together a pair of pink bourkes - both are opaline fallows.  Both having pretty light faces and clear nails, I thought perhaps both are pale fallow opalines.  However, all their 4 babies are dark eyed rosies or appear to be regular opalines.  This means they are all opaline split to 2 different kinds of fallows because the father and mother must be 2 different kinds of fallows.  Some more expert breeders feels perhaps the male is a bronze fallow opaline but due to the effect of the opaline gene, the nail color became completely clear.

male opaline fallow - ?bronze fallow

hen opaline fallow - probably pale fallow

4 opaline split to bronze and pale fallows

Gouldian chicks

After a period of somewhat austere diet during late summer, most of my gouldians have gone into breeding mode together this fall.  My attempt to colony breeding several pairs in a large flight cage did not go so well.  The adults were too busy fighting to do their parental duties well.  Multiple hens laid in the same nest and chicks were tossed or killed.  So now, they are separated into individual pairs in their own breeding cages again.  I did end up putting some remaining fertile eggs from the colony breeding nestboxes under societies and 5 chicks have fledged - parentage unclear.


before fledging - 4 normals and 1 yellow




one chick with odd head color - reddish feathers already showing

Sorting through last season's babies and new babies

I have been sorting through last season's society babies to see which ones to keep and which to sell.  Quite a few nice mutations, but can't keep them all.  A few new scarlet and bourk babies are still weaning.

marked white chocolate and ultra dilute fawn crested society

red brown society

black brown society chicks

par blue scarlet chested parakeet chicks

normal scarlet chested parakeet chick

cinnamon scarlet chested parakeet mother with her chicks

New fledglings



par blue scarlet chested parakeet baby

Newly fledged young keets!

lutino elegant baby

opaline aka rosy bourke baby

Changes...

Some changes are occuring in my aviary.  Due to the enormous amount of time required for the upkeep of my birds, I've decided to downsize some to make caring for them more manageable.  I am decreasing in the number of species as well as the number of birds I will be keeping.  The lovely purple grenadiers and strawberries went to a friend who has been concentrating on trying to increase their domestic bred numbers.  Most of my owls went to another friend who is working with them.  I've also sold my cordon blues to someone interested in breeding them, though I may consider getting another pair as pets.  Now the task is to sort through the significant number of societies I've accumulated and bred over the past couple of years and letting a lot of them go.  Some gouldians and stars as well as some number of grasskeets will also have to be sold as well.  This way, I hope the bird keeping will become more enjoyable and less of a chore again.

That being said, I'm certainly not done with breeding :)

extra fat baby gouldian I had to handfeed - he is fully weaned and molting out to be a beautiful red headed normal male

nestful of baby gouldians - from left to right: normal, yellow, normal x 2, and dilute

another nestful of parent raised gouldian babies - from left to right: normal, blue on top, and 3 silvers

New baby and bird pictures

red legged honeycreeper pair

red legged honeycreeper male

spotted tanager

scarlet chested parakeet baby

gray white fronted blue male scarlet chested parakeet

lutino and pale fallow bourkes

baby normal gouldian finch

pastel and yellow baby gouldian finches

red brown society finch babies

star finches and cordon blue male

male strawberry finch

yellow faced star hen and male forbes parrot finch

male forbes parrot finch

melanistic red headed purple breasted normal male and red headed white breasted normal backed hen gouldian finches

gouldian babies from the above pair

orange headed yellow gouldian pair

black headed silver male and black headed yellow male gouldians - babies from last year

black and white mannikin

heavily pied red faced parrot finch

dominant pied blue canary male