Yellow Red-Fronted Kakariki with Red cape

southy · Member Joined: May 12, 2007 Posts: 6

Hi, Just wondering if anyone out there can tell me what you would call a kakariki that is a red-fronted kakariki, which is yellow (buttercup or lutino?) and has roughly 40 percent red feathers - primarily on it's back. A friend has one, and having seen it, its spectacular - any idea what this mutation would be called? Anyone else have a similar bird? Any idea what they would be worth? Thanks to anyone who can shed any light!
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Peter · Foundation Member Joined: Oct 15, 2004 Posts: 599

Hi Southy,

Here in Europe, it seems there are 2 types of these. I have noticed they are always pied. Pied mutations always cause an increase of Psittacin pigments(red and yellow). Maybe this plays a part in.

The first type displays red randomly over the body(feathers only). The red disappears after the first moult.

The second type always displays red on the same places like the cheeks, tail, socks and anus. Look into the forum at 'Red hue'. There I attached a picture of one of mine.

There is also a pic of a red in the galery in 'Kaka-riki's birds'(Australia). Maybe this is a 3th type. The red appears random and stayed after the first moult. If I'm not mistaking it even increased.

More then a century ago, there were repports of these red's in the wild. Here is a quote of Walter Buller at that time. The mentioned birds seemed to be pieds as well.
A specimen brought to me by a native, in the Kaipara district, many years ago, had the whole of the plumage of a brilliant scarlet-red. Another, obtained in the woods in the neighbourhood of Wellington, had the green plumage thickly studded all over with spots of red; this handsome bird was caged, and at the first moult the whole of the spots disappeared. An example of this species in the British Museum has the abdomen and under tail-coverts bright yellow mixed with green; the thigh-spots very large and bright; the rump stained, and the tail obscurely banded on the upper surface, with dull yellow.

A Southland paper thus describes a specimen which was shot in the Seaward Bush :—“One of the most beautifully plumaged native birds we have ever seen was shown us yesterday by Mr. James Morton, a taxidermist, to whom it had been handed to be stuffed. It is a variety of Platycercus novæ zealandiæ, and proved to be a male. Instead of the usual green hue, the feathers of the one in question are tipped and edged with green on a beautiful lemon-yellow ground—the small feathers of the wing showing a steel-blue tint at the edges, or mixed bronze and yellow. The large pinion-feathers are yellow and green, merging into bronze at the tips—the tail-feathers being similarly coloured. The beak is surmounted by a crescentshaped patch of blood-red, and there are two others on the back.”

Source: http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-BulBird-t1-g1-t1-body-d0-d41.html

southy · Member Joined: May 12, 2007 Posts: 6

thanks for your time and information. Look forward to breeding one soon!