Beware of hybridization

Some birds are close enough genetically to hybridize.  Some folks to this deliberately, but in general, it is a good idea to avoid hybridization in order to keep a species' genes pure.  Accidents can still happen though.  I have learned that sometimes young males are able to breed earlier than expected.  My grey full red fronted opaline male turquoisine was able to fertilize the eggs of a cinnamon scarlet chested hen even before he finished his juvenile molt.  Fortunately, there has been no fertile turquoisine and scarlet hybrid, so these babies are not going to potentially be bred back to pure stock.  They are pretty though.

male hybrid

one hybrid hen

second hybrid hen

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

The power of selective breeding and mutations...

Was taking a few pictures of my birds today and caught my normal male turquoisine sitting next to my full red fronted opaline dilute (yellow) male turquoisine - same species, but looks completely different due to mutation and selective breeding to increase the amount of red.

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

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

Baby updates

creamino shaft tails - fledged but not weaned yet - "FEED ME!"

normal split fallow, opaline, and lutino male baby

opaline (rosey) split fallow hen baby

lutino mom

A few more babies...

A few more babies growing up...

creamino shafttail babies - being handfed since sometimes the parents will reject the more unusual looking mutation babies especially white mutations

normal split to lutino bourke baby - should be a male based on parent genetics

oops, got some gunk on his face

rosey (opaline) sister to the normal

second rosey (opaline) sister