The Dominant Pieds

Tom Ormerod

One of the most popular types of Budgerigar among the so-called specialist varieties is the Dominant Pied. Why then have I deliberately titled this article in the plural. You may be forgiven for believing there is only one type of Dominant Pied. Everything within the Budgerigar hobby seems designed to foster this impression. The BS Colour Standard 1994 gives one interpretation only, of the variety.

The Dominant Pied has been popular ever since the introduction of the Australian "banded" Pied into the UK in 1958. It is not necessary to have many of this variety of bird within a stud as, due to the nature of its inheritance, no split birds can be produced from any mating, so closer control can be kept on the numbers of Pieds produced. The Pied parent can be either the cock or the hen and, theoretically, half of the youngsters produced will be Pied. Therefore a Dominant Pied could be a useful addition to a stud of, say, normals without introducing any hidden factors. They are either Pieds or do not carry the factor. Dominant Pieds are regularly in the line-up at major shows sometimes taking leading awards including Best in Show. The normals which are bred from the same pairings are of the same standard as the Pieds - or can be - and apart from the touch of colour, extra interest is brought into the breeding season waiting to see how the Pieds develop as regards their markings.

Original Pieds were Dutch

Prior to 1958 the Dominant Pied in the UK was the Dutch, but it always seemed to be difficult to actually improve the Pieds produced, especially in size, although for some unknown reason this did not apply to the same degree with the non-Pieds. When the Australian "banded" Pied arrived it was quickly realized that this factor was capable of being improved by selective breeding. Not surprisingly, this advantage led to increased Australian Pieds, to the detriment of the earlier Dutch form. So much so, that the numbers of Dutch Pieds declined to the point that it is doubtful if any true examples exist in the UK today.

One additional form of Pied that was around at the time was the Continental Clearflight. More of the Clearflight later, as this type still exists. The Dutch Pied had the head spot or patch and, immediateiy below the mask, had a small clear area of yellow or white similar to Recessive Pieds. The rest of the body had variegated patches of clear colour on a normal body ground colour. The wings were approximately 50% dark, 50% ground colour (white or yellow). The dark markings were usually polka-dotted or grizzled. Flight feathers were a mixture of clear and dark, and the long tail feathers could be the same. An attractive and colourful Budgerigar, it is a pity if the Dutch Pied truly has gone.

Australian "Banded" Pied

The original "banded" Pieds which were introduced and bred from had, as the name implies, a band of clear colour across the body. This was roughly a half to three-quarters of an inch wide in the upper stomach region. These bands were never really always level and straight-Iined, and after a few years' breeding them, the band factor was found not to be true-breeding. The first Pied I obtained in 1961 had only a band on the right-hand side of its body. Bands could be broken or narrower or wider at various points of the body. Birds with virtually no clear area on the body could produce youngsters with almost perfect band and the reverse was also true.

Pieds did have, and I believe should still have, normal body colour above and below the clear area. With the increasing popularity of the variety some fanciers began pairing Pied to Pied. This increased the number of Pieds bred, but was also found to increase the clear area on both the body and wings. The original wings had all clear flights and secondaries with a narrow, clear leading edge from the secondaries to the wing butt. Most of today's Pieds tend to have more clear area on the wings although I, personally, have not seen variegated patches of clear colour as described in the present Budgerigar Society standard. Odd dark flight feathers or one or both long tail feathers being dark was, as now, permissible but should be penalised.

Missing Spots

One unfortunate aspect which occurred at the same time as the increase in the clear body area was that "blanking out" started to encroach on the mask area. This had the effect of visibly removing one or more spots. Whilst the full complement of spots should be present some judges do tend to penalise a missing spot, much more than others, as if it was something which does not occur naturally. The Pieds with missing spots can, and do, breed young with a full set of spots. The only birds that I have found not to do so are those with silver feathers in the cheek patch area. There is always an exception and no doubt someone will let me know!

The Clearflight

This bird had all the flights, both tail feathers, and the head spot or patch all white or yellow. There were no clear areas on the body or wings. On occasion there could be a slight "bleeding" of the mask colour just into the extreme upper breast giving a blurred effect. Dark flights or tail feathers are definite faults to be penalised. How then does one tell the difference between a badly-marked Clearflight and a Dominant Pied? Possibly the main way is by the colour of the cere. In the Clearflight the cock's cere is the blue of a normal, non-Pied, bird. The Dominant Pied cere will be a bluish- and/or a fleshy-pink. Not a hard and fast guide and certainly no guide to identifying any doubtful hens! The only differences between the Continental and Australian Clearflights was the lack of a head spot on the former, which also had long dark tail feathers though sometimes these could

Why Only One Dominant Pied Standard?

The present BS standard for the Dominant Pied is one which, in my opinion, contains aspects of more of than one variety of the Dominant Pied. It tries to cover all the possibilities which could conceivably confront a judge. When the Colour Standards committee was revising all the standards, the Variegated Budgerigar Club submitted proposed standards for all the Pied varieties: the Australian Banded, the Australian Dominant, the Dutch Dominant, Australian Clearflight and Continental Clearflight, as well as the Recessive (Danish) Pied and the Dark Eyed Clear. Surely if there can be three standards for the Crested Budgerigar, there is merit in acknowledging that more than one Dominant Pied exists. The Australian National Budgerigar Council does differentiate between the banded and variegated Dominant Pieds. They stress that within the banded form there should be unbroken normal body-colour above and below the clear areas. One other point made by the VBC regarding the Dominant Pied colour standard was that five points be deducted from mask and spot and added to those for wing markings, to emphasise the importance of correct wing markings. The present scale of points establishes no difference between Normal varieties and Pieds with regard to wing markings. Have you ever seen a Light Green penalised for poor wing markings?

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