Mutation question

Steve · Member Joined: Sep 30, 2007 Posts: 10

I have a nest of 10 young pied RF kakariki just fledging now, Some extremely well marked pied.. Probably 90% Yellow... When the last of the young came out of the nest, there were 2 of them with Yellow fronts.. no red feathers at all.. This pair has had three clutches before and never anything like this with them, the parents dont even looked to be hybrid. All the other siblings have FULL red crowns. except these two, they have fully yellow/pale crowns.. Suggestions? I thought if they were hybrid all the other birds would show atleast SOME sign of being mixed.

Steve

Peter · Foundation Member Joined: Oct 15, 2004 Posts: 599

Hi Steve,

Although they seem to have a pure red crown, I find it difficult to judge the crown of a heavy pied. Especially when the crown is surrounded by pied(yellow). Hybrid yellow feathers on the edge of the red crown can easily be seen as a part of the surrounding pied.

Look at the winking normal above. Do you notice the faint yellow edge on the crown? Well, this is a hybrid. There is no more needed to produce offspring ranging from redcrowns to some with yellow crowns.

There was a similar topic about this phenomenon. http://www.kakariki.sytes.net/ftopict-1572.html&sid=20376bee5617efeb5f6ee7b9c57f16c7