A Glance at Genetics

I received a telephone call from a person who had recently joined the hobby and was trying to get information on genetics so he could have some ideas on what he could breed. He was interested in Spangles but the results were not what he had read in his books.

I think part of the fun of keeping Budgerigars is that often what a bird is carrying is completely different to what can be visually seen. I remember buying a Dark Green cock. Unknown to me this bird was split blue, redeye and cinnamon. With this mixture I ended up with a Light . Green Cinnamon, a Cobalt, an Albino, a Lutino and a Sky in the first round. Quite a shock but most interesting.

A syndicate I was involved bought in 4 birds from England. These have been bred for 4 seasons now and within the 3 aviaries that were in the syndicate we have probably bred: almost 600 birds. These birds are all line-bred and in one aviary this year a Greywing has appeared. This means that. one of the original birds was split Greywing and has passed it on to some of the progeny until two birds carrying Greywing have been paired up and thrown a Greywing. It will be interesting to see if and when other greywings turn up.

How many pairings?

I am not sure how many matings are taken into account to work out what A paired with B will give you. I often does not work like that. Use as Lutino cock with a Normal hen and you should get 50% Lutino hens 50% Normal/Lutino cocks. But you could just as easily get all of one and none of the other.

I was told that the new Dominant Pieds bred better than 50% Pied. My first round saw one Pied and 4 Normals, the second round 5 Pieds and 1 Normal, so over the two rounds I made better than 50%.

So how does one know is a bird is carrying something more than meets the eye? Bt breeding mainly. Basically, there are three ways colours can be carried: visual, recessive and sex-linked. Visual or dominant means that at least one of the breeding pairs must be a bird of the type you want to breed.

For recessive birds both birds must carry either visually or split for the colour or type you want to breed. To breed blues you can use 2 visual blues, one visual blue and one split blue or two split blues and both sexes can be split for the colour. If you only have one recessive in the pair you will get some splits and the visual colour will not show up unless that bird is bred with another Carrying that recessive feature.

Sex-linked rules

Sex-linked birds sees only the Cocks being able to be split for the colour, and the hen has to be visual. Cinnamon's, Redoes and Opalines are all versions of sex-linkage. If a Cinnamon cock is bred with a Normal hen, Cinnamon hens and Normal cocks, which are split Cinnamon, are the result. Using a split Cock instead of the Cinnamon will see Cinnamon and Normal hens, and split and Normal cocks. If you use a Normal cock and a Cinnamon hen you will get split cocks and Normal hens but nothing visual.

The spangles are a dominant variety, but they decide to be different. If you breed Spangle to Spangle and end up with a double factor, Spangle markings disappear and you end up with a clear coloured bird which will breed 100% Spangles when paired with a Normal bird.

Two yellow-face blues paired together can do a similar thing, with the double factor bird looking like a Normal blue with the yellow-face features hidden, but, when paired with another blue Normal, will throw all yellow faces. The yellow-face can also confuse people when paired with a green series bird. The green can carry the yellow-face but the only way you call tell is through breeding. The unusual thing with this is that there is no loss in the yellow colour in these green birds so you cannot end up with a lemon-face green.

This is only scratching the surface on genetics without going into depth, and while it is fun to play around, there are still some recommendations regarding varieties of birds which should not be bred together. The late Harry Bryan, in his book The Bird Man, lists a lot of his recommended pairings and pairings you should not consider.

Original text Copyright 1998, Keith Flockhart.

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