New fledgelings...

various gouldians

scarlet chested grasskeet babies - white front blue and cinnamon

 

Some new babies and a few bird portraits...

cinnamon hen & white front blue male scarlet chested parakeets

white front blue male scarlet

white front blue male scarlet

aqua scarlet chest male

turquoise blue male scarlet

normal split to silver and fawn java babies

Several of my flock of bourkes are finally breeding after a few years of keeping them.  Now if only the turquoisines will get in on the act as well :).  Breeding season has started for the fall and a few babies are already growing well.  Hoping to get more scarlet babies as well.

opaline split to fallow and ino young male bourke





normal split to fallow and opaline and ino male and opaline split to fallow hen young bourkes

A Profile of Scarlet Chested Grasskeets aka Scarlet Chested Parakeet - Neophema splendida

Scarlet chested grasskeet aka splendid grasskeet is a popular species of parakeet from Australia. They are quiet birds in general but males will sing a quiet song to entice his mate.  They are peaceful and mixes well with non-aggressive finches and other grasskeets in general, but would avoid mixing with aggressive species or larger hookbills.  They enjoy larger flights - minimum 30"x30" per pair, and do well with a standard parakeet diet of seed mix, greens, and eggfood.  Given the right conditions, they readily breed.  Health wise, they are considered a bit more delicate than other grasskeets like turquoisines and bourkes - warmer and dryer conditions are appreciated.  I started keeping scarlets in 2008 after seeing pictures of them online.  After doing some intense research, I just knew I had to start keeping them.  Although the normal scarlet is probably one of the most beautiful birds in aviculture, another reason for their popularity is the availability of many mutations.  Now, I will try to give a brief description of the more commonly available mutations although a lot of the mutations and better examples of the mutations are much more readily available in Europe than the USA.

NORMAL:


mature adult normal male

young normal hen

LUTINO: like most lutino mutations, it is sex-linked recessive


lutino male
http://grassparrots.free.fr/scarletchest/splmalut%20001n%20copie_jpg_view.htm

lutino hen

CINNAMON: sex-linked recessive

cinnamon male - photo A.C. / J .Gruson
http://grassparrots.free.fr/scarletchest/gmcin%20023_jpg_view.htm
 

cinnamon hen (with red belly)

PALLID: sex-linked recessive


normal male on left, pallid male on right
http://grassparrots.free.fr/scarletchest/Copie%20de%20A%20normal%20et%20pallid_jpg_view.htm

BLUE: autosomal recessive.  This is probably the most complicated and confusing since there are several blue mutations that are incompletely dominant to each other.  Overall, there is seagreen aka aqua, turquoise, and white front blue.  Sometimes aqua and turquoise are referred to as par-blue.  I've read that white front blue is a combination of seagreen and turquoise.  With a lot of interbreeding of the different blue mutations, sometimes it can be a challenge to know exactly what a bird is.


seagreen/aqua male

seagreen/aqua hen
http://grassparrots.free.fr/scarletchest/g033_jpg_view.htm

turquoise male
http://grassparrots.free.fr/scarletchest/AMsyturquoise_jpg_view.htm

young tuquoise hen



white front blue male



white front blue hen - photo A.C. / J. Gruson
http://grassparrots.free.fr/scarletchest/ajgfbl%20052_jpg_view.htm

















GREY: autosomal dominant.  The grey can be combined with any normal or mutation scarlets.

grey white front blue male

grey green male - photo A.C / D. Moyer
http://grassparrots.free.fr/scarletchest/M039gvm_jpg_view.htm

VIOLET: autosomal dominant.  Can be combined with any normal or mutation scarlet, but since it affects the blue color, will show up best in the blue series.  Double factor will be a more intense effect than single factor.

double factor violet white front blue male - bred by H. Köster
http://grassparrots.free.fr/scarletchest/Copie%20de%20Violet%20cock_jpg_view.htm
 

PIED: autosomal dominant.  Can apply to any normal or mutation scarlet.

pied normal male - photo Colin O'Hara
http://grassparrots.free.fr/scarletchest/YF%20NORMAL%20PIED350_jpg_view.htm

RED FRONT: modification that can be improved with selective breeding

red front normal male - photo J.Suikerbuik
http://grassparrots.free.fr/scarletchest/svr_jpg_view.htm

 There can also be more lovely colors made by combining the various mutations and modifications.  Some of the results can be found at: http://grassparrots.free.fr/scarletchest/scarletmutcomb.htm
 

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

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