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I heard years ago that someone was working on developing a BLACK cockatiel. Anyone hear of that? Anyone ever see one? Or know of the progress in that direction?

I've seen pictures of a rather dark cockatiel, and I've also seed, in person, a rather dark colored cockatiel. It's hard to say if the one in pics was actually black but both cockatiels appeared to be rather dark grey (charcoal grey?), not actually black.

I don't have pics of the male tiel, but here's the pics of other tiel (taken with a phone so bad quality)




Now some say it could be either a silver mutation or an olive mutation... yet another says it could be due to selection. The point that was made was that it would be impossible to have a truly black cockatiel due to the feather structure (but I don't necessarily agree with that).

Other than that there really isn't much information out there....

I've actually seen one!! Saw it at a bird fair in Chattanooga TN, no color on it at all, no masking, nothing. Unfortunately this bird had a badly damaged beak(parent bit it off) and had to be handfed every day of it's life, it was over 3 years old when I saw it. I've never seen another one like it, and not sure how to even go about breeding one, what genetics would factor in, I just am clueless, but it was a unique looking 'tiel' and I'd love to find one!