Silver Gouldians

Abstract

N ow that the many mysteries of the Gouldian Finch are well on their way to being solved, the bird continues to further tantalize us with mutations of extraordinary colors and with patterns rivaling a colorby-the-numbers painting.

The Silver Gouldian is the most recent of these to become established and available in the U.S.

The Silver color is the result of crossing the recessive blue mutation with the

 

yellow mutation. - the yellow being codominant sex linked (A guide to Gouldian Finches, Sammut & Marshall, The Australian bird Keeper, 1991).

The Silver mutation produced then apparently becomes sex linked codominant also, with single and double factor birds being produced. Single factor birds will he purple-breasted silver colored females, or pastel blue (blue dilute) males, or white-breasted silver males and females.

Purple-breasted males are double factor, and some white-breasted male Silvers may also he double factor.

Color mutations are often misnamed and this may well he the case here since "silver" would indicate a gray hue. While there is some variation in the predominant color of the silver bird, the overall effect is white with a slight suffusion of blue, primarily in older birds.

 

of beauty.

At hatching, Silver babies exhibit a pale whitish skin color. Just hatched dilute hlue males are darker skinned, hut still lighter than the recessive blue.

Silver Gouldians, if bred responsibly, seem to be a mutation of good health and extreme vigor. As with any mutation, closely related birds should not be paired together.

While there can be little doubt that the original colors of the Gouldian Finch are stunning, and there should be much effort to propagate a healthy and hearty strain of the normal Gouldian, the mutation varieties are a new challenge from a bird that has always been an avicultural fascination. ~

 

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