Since the Grey gene is dominant, the phenotype in a blue series bird will be visually grey in colour, there can be both heterozygous and homozygous Greys - the homozygous Grey is a darker colour than the heterozygous. The Colour of a Grey can also be affected by the possession of the Dark gene - heterozygous Cobalt or homozygous Mauve. So in fact there are six different Greys! The phenotypic effect of the superimposition of the violet gene on an otherwise Grey bird is that it produces a colour which is somewhat difficult to describe but it is darker and duller than the typical Visual Violet (Violet Cobalt) and I think of it as plum-coloured: obviously this colour is subject to tremendous shade variation bearing in mind the six possible shades of Grey in budgerigars
Editors' note: I regret that Dr Pilkington is unable to answer any further questions.
Original text Copyright © 1998, Dr John Pilkington
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