upatsix.com - Your Source For Pet Bird Information

Hello to all,

I just thought I would share with you some pictures of our gorgeous tiels that I mentioned in my last post.
These photos are a couple of months old, he has grown a bit more and has put on some weight since we bought Zoran.

Byrdie

Sitting on top of the T.V. - always centre of attention =D

Zoran

Posing like he's always been here. Minus the creepy red eyes he's really quite adorable!


That's a bit better!!

I have some more photos on a disc somewhere but have to find then, and have some new ones to upload from their outdoor aviary which I take them out to play in during the day in nice weather.

Thanks for sharing. What pretty birds

They are stunning!!!

May I be so bold to make a suggestion.......... I see you use a lot of dowel perches, may I suggest some natural tree branches instead?
Far better for their feet especially if you give them some of various sizes and they're fun to chew for the birds (make sure it's a non toxic tree of course I believe you are also from Oz? Bottlebrush, Grevillea, Gumtree branches are all great )

Hi Claudia,

In my original post I did not mention that his cage was fairly bare at the time the photos were taken as he was still settling in. I have removed one of the dowel perches since then and he has a natural gum branch aswell. I also have a calcium perch and a strong rope swing that is two interlooped circles. He also gets time in the outdoor cage which has so many branches of different sizes going everywhere. I'll update soon with pictures.

Thank you for your suggestions though. I gave them these branches hoping it would keep them interested and give them something to play with as well as different textures and sizes. Having you suggest it just confirmed this so that's a good thing I guess =D.

Just a quick question to all... my partner and I are in disagreement as to Byrdie's colour and sex. From what i've been reading I believe she has a pearl mutation at the very least due to the crescent shapes on her wings and banding on her tail. As to the rest i'm still fairly unsure... Any help??? Muchly appreciated. Also I say female because she is about 3 and maintains the pearled markings... is this correct?

I'm assuming your birds are over a year old, I missed the post when you got them and how old you think they are.

Here is what I can tell from the photos you posted:

Byrdie - Cinnamon pearl pied. As long as the bird is over a year old, the pearls and barring on the tail would confirm that it is female.

Zoran - Whiteface Pied. You will need to go on behavior or a good blacklight to check for barring on that beautiful white tail. You can also do DNA testing to check if this bird is male or female.

I agree with Christie, although a black light wont work on pied feathers, nor a bird who has not gone through his/her first 1-2 molts since Zoran is still quite young.

Females usually only have 1-2 chirps that they do constantly... they don't normally sing or chatter away. On the other hand, males tend to be very vocal with a variety of chirps that they do. They love to sing and whistle. Not only that, but they also do "heart wings" that is, where they lift the top of their wing (when held against their body) away from their body while not moving much of their flights... as you can see in the below image
http://flickr.com/photos/24530005@N02/2733211561/

Introductory post is here...
introductions-f52/topic100351.html

Darn, I was hoping the light would work on the pied feathers. Thanks for letting us know Monica!

I had hoped to but I double checked on both of my pieds.... both females. The pied gene wipes out all traces! But it can still be seen in lutinos! I'm not entirely sure about albinos however... the spots would still be there on an albino as I've heard, but haven't had anyone confirm that with a black light.

Byrdie looks lutino to me but I guess there is no such thing as a Cinnamon Pearl Lutino is there She sure is pretty though

Thanks everyone!

Claudia, I tend to agree with you that she has lutino there as she is mostly a pale yellow with white patches, and her silver wings with the pearl marking.

She really doesnt have any brown colouring or tinges at all. I thought this was typical of a cinnamon but perhaps I am mistaken?

She only has one or two chirps. Although she can and does talk also, but only when she feels like it! Her reportiore includes "Scratch", "Dad" and "No".

Zoran on the other hand has learnt a car alarm, a pitiful wolf whistle, a few (3 or 4) different tunes and can say "scratch", "zoran" and "hello". But like Byrdie, he speaks very rarely and mostly only when he is trying to get my attention. He's difinately a singer! Loves to whistle and chirp for hours on end. But speak, no.

He's only about 4 months old though, so he doesnt do 'heart wings' very often. I caught him doing it a few times last night when we let him out for a few hours. He was sitting on top of a wall unit singing (car alarms!) to empty bottles and doing his heart wings. I couldnt help but laugh at Byrdie on the tv chirping back to him but him ignoring her. Those bottles must be dead sexy!!

All of his behaviour is male, and his voice is far more musical than hers. However, he has some dark grey feathers underneath his tail which have banding across them. This confuses me a little? Is it just part of the colour mutation?

Sorry, but she cannot be lutino with any grey, silver, or brownish feathers. Lutino is the absence of the dark melanin production in feathers and eyes. Hence she is a Cinn, Pearl Pied.

Pied birds can be all yellow/white with one dark feather and still be pied. There are also clear pied birds, but I have a hard time telling those from photos, they will look like a lutino with dark eyes.

All of his behaviour is male, and his voice is far more musical than hers. However, he has some dark grey feathers underneath his tail which have banding across them. This confuses me a little? Is it just part of the colour mutation?

No, it is because of his age. ALL cockatiels look female until their first molt. After the first molt, males will have lost the wing spots and banding on the tail feathers.

Claudia wrote:Byrdie looks lutino to me but I guess there is no such thing as a Cinnamon Pearl Lutino is there She sure is pretty though

I already addressed this in the other post, but no, there is no lutino bird that can be cinnamon. Cinnamon is a lighter version of the dark grey feathers that most tiels have. Lutino birds CANNOT produce the grey feathers, in any form.

Cinnamon birds can be brownish, to a light silver from what I've seen.

Here is another cinnamon pearl pied off of the NACS site


Here is a place you can look up photos of the different mutations, not all are viewable or correct descriptions:
http://www.parrotpages.com/tielMutations.htm

NACS mutation site with photos:
http://www.cockatiel.org/mutations/index.html

ummmmmm
Googling at the moment and found a few sites where cinnamon lutino pearls ARE mentioned

Monica has even done a genetic calculation for someone on a different bird site where we have a female whiteface split to pied and male pied cinnamon pearl split to whiteface x2 Lutino and there was 13% chance of a female cinnamon lutino pearl, a whiteface cinnamon lutino pearl, a pied cinnamon lutino pearl and a pied whiteface cinnamon lutino pearl (I so want one of those!!! )

That just doesn't make sense then since a lutino bird cannot produce feathers that are silver, they can only produce yellow, orange cheeks and white.

The Lutino Cockatiel mutation is sex-linked recessive and is one that seems to stand out from the crowd. It's bright yellow colour devoid of all dark contrast except for the orange cheekpatch make them a striking looking bird. Also the presence of the red eye instead of the normal dark colour give it a unique look. Lutino can be combined readily with the pearl, pied, cinnamon and whiteface mutations to further enhance the beauty of this colour. Lutino Cockatiels are a colour that makes visual sexing of the bird very difficult and the subtle differences between the sexes can often be nigh on impossible to distinguish.

One negative trait of lutino cockatiels has been a bald patch which is apparent behind the crest area on the head. Fortunately with successful selective breeding practices this trait is being reduced. There are some magnificent specimens around now that have total feather coverage of the head.


The lutino gene is called a sex-linked recessive gene. It is one that affects the grey family of pigments in birds and is one of the easiest to recognise. Basically this gene successfully prevents the production of grey colours or 'melanin'. So if you imagine a normal grey cockatiel that has all the grey washed out or taken away then you will see a lutino.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~geoffwatts1/Lutino_Cockatiels.html

sorry, I just edited my post, have another look at the outcome
Huh
So..............the genetics calculator is wrong here?
Am I correct to assume it calculates on given facts BUT the outcome might not necessarily be a true possibility?