I think we all have personal preferences, even when we protest that all we want is a good budgie – preferably one that will win the Club Show.

But despite our wildest pipe dreams, we don’t usually get that far. So I would suggest that it would be a good idea for most fanciers to focus on one or two particular colours or varieties, where, with care and persistence, a degree of success can be achieved.

I have made the mistake of liking Greywings.

The original source of this preference was that my first pair, purchased in 1951, was a Greywing Skyblue cock and a Yellow hen.

I bought them from a local fancier, Wilf Hacker, whose family fruit farm, and veritable menagerie of birds and small animals, was situated next to the Cambridge Crematorium. This was an easy, and in those days safe, two mile bike ride from my home. These days no-one in their right senses would attempt to ride a push bike on that stretch of the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon!

They were put into a breeding cage in June and, by the time of my return to school, in September there were five chicks in the nest.

None, to my intense disappointment, was a Greywing, nor was there one in the next round. All were either Yellows or Albinos.

What is more, the four Albinos were all hens and only one of the five Yellows a cock bird. This was a minor disaster for a young lad hoping to be able to supply the Christmas market for pets and recoup a bit of seed money.

Introduction to the Complexities

I tried pairing the Yellow cock bird with a Skyblue, with the resultant expected mix of Skyblues and Albinos, but not another Greywing in sight.

The experience was, however, a good introduction to the complexities of breeding recessive and sex-linked colour varieties, and I enthusiastically studied basic Mendelian genetics, buying a copy of the then current edition of “Budgerigar Matings and Colour Expectations”.

However, I never did breed a Greywing in my first period as a fancier up to 1960.

Then in 2007, having restarted in budgies in 2001, without even trying, I bred three from two separate and seemingly unrelated pairs. Since then I have been trying once more to breed them, with almost no success to date.

Why should it be so difficult?

Years ago Greywings were relatively commonplace. You have only to look at the prominence they are given in the pairings in “Budgerigar Matings and Colour Expectations” and in “Genetics for Budgerigar Breeders” – two Budgerigar Society publications.

Firstly, there are very few birds available and when breeders produce them, usually by chance but from good stock, they seem very loath to part with them, but retain them for showing but not breeding.

Their rarity is, I believe, also a result of them being superseded by the Clearwings, which have a more intense body colour, but which, in the European version, have wing markings which are not dissimilar to the Greywing.

In my view, the Greywing is an honest colour and has the colour of markings which its name implies.

I understand that they are also used by Clearwing breeders, resulting in birds called full bodied Greywings. These are too intense in the body colour for the BS standard for Greywings and too grey in the wing markings to be good Clearwings, with ensuing confusion in both Clearwing and AOC classes, sometimes giving rise to their being wrong classed in either category.

Shown in the Same Class

Secondly, there is the complication of the Cinnamon factor.

In an article prepared by Steve Amos some twenty years ago, he mentions that in the past the two colours were often shown in the same class. Indeed, it was not until 1958 that a separate class for Greywings was introduced at the Club Show.

Despite the common appeal of the muted subtlety of the body colour of the two varieties, the cinnamon, having a sex linked dominance and also seeming to impart a desirable quality of feather, seems to have squeezed out the Greywing.

A two pronged attack on the position of the Greywing.

A breeder of Greywings has also to contend with another hidden genetic gremlin, the dilute factor.

Greywing being dominant to Dilutes, Dilutes can be and are used to produce Greywings.

Recounting my personal experience since 2007 may help to illustrate the problem.

In one nest I bred a visual Greywing Skyblue cock from a Dark Green / Blue / Opaline type 2 cock and a Cinnamon Skyblue hen.

The chances of doing this were remote.

To start with a Skyblue would be one of the exceptions from a type 2 Dark Green / Blue whose sire was a Light Green and mother an Opaline Cobalt. From where did the Greywing come in as there was no evidence of Greywings in the studs where I had purchased my initial birds?

In the other nest I bred two Greywing Grey cocks.

The sire was a Cinnamon Grey Green / Opaline and the dam a normal Skyblue.

When the chicks started to feather up I assumed that they were Cinnamon hens and was more than a little pleased to have bred two hens with what seemed to me very promising head qualities.

They turned out to be cocks.

In this case the stud where I had bought the sire said that occasionally they had bred Greywings in the past. All three birds were split Cinnamon and proved also to be split Opaline.

I started the season late next year having shown the better Grey at the Club Show coming second in the Any Age AOC line-up. I gave the other Grey to Steve Amos.

Neither of the birds did much for me in the breeding shed other than producing a small number of Opaline Cinnamon hens and poor ones at that.

The Cinnamon Factor Interfered

The Skyblue was placed fifth in the Novice Any Age line-up at the Club Show the following year, beating the Grey which has subsequently won a couple of CCs.

I had hoped to at least breed from each Greywing some normal split Greywing hens that I could pair back to the other Greywing, but the Cinnamon factor interfered.

Steve Amos was not able to help as the bird I had given him had either passed on or been passed on.

I did eventually breed a Light Green hen, a “WYSIWYG”^*, free of Opaline or Cinnamon factors from the Skyblue at the end of 2010.

Full of hope, I paired her up to the Grey only to find that they were to put it mildly “not compatible”.

In the meantime, I had done some research on the background of my birds and came to a common factor on the dam’s side of each of them.

They came from a common line which has since then once more produced in the original stud a Greywing.

Accordingly I let Ghalib Al-Nasser have a cousin of the Skyblue in the hope that it might be split Greywing.

Ghalib paired this to a Greywing Light Green. They produced two Light Green cocks and the perhaps inevitable Cinnamon hen. Ghalib let me have a Light Green cock back which, once again full of hope, I paired to the Light Green hen in the expectation that two normals with a Greywing parent each would be split Greywing and produce at least some Greywing chicks.

They produced six chicks, none a Greywing but one was a Grey Yellow.

Time for more research. I started looking into the dilute background, the genetic gremlin.

The problem lies in the fact that a normal coloured bird cannot be split for both Greywing and Dilute.

I came to the conclusion that both my Greywing Skyblue and Ghalib’s Greywing Light Green were split for dilute. My bird’s dilute factor would have originated on the side of his sire, part of which came from the stud of Alec and David Woan who have produced some good dilutes in the past.

The Added Twist

For the genetic colour background of my bird there is a 6.25% chance of a cock bird, which is reduced massively with the added twist that the bird should have been a Cobalt – the normal colour that I had set out to breed with that particular pairing.

When my Skyblue Greywing was paired with a Light Green, half of the visuals would be split Dilute and half split Greywing – and the one that I had bred was split dilute.

Ghalib’s bird with the parents’ colours reversed must be the same. That is a visual Light Green masking a dilute factor and not the Greywing factor.

Whether this is a correct analysis may be shown in the Skyblue’s current pairing, to his daughter the Light Green hen referred to above. This assumes that he breeds successfully and that the picture will not be overwhelmed by the Opaline and Cinnamon factors lurking in his background.

The Light Green cock is now paired to a Grey Yellow dilute.

The picture as regards the Grey is still obscure because of his reluctance to breed, but I have a number of birds related to his dam which may mean that the Greywing factor carries on in its subterranean manner and pops out in the future.

The effect of this dilute factor goes some way to explain my original experience in 1951, though then I was unlucky not to produce any Greywings even allowing for interference by the Albino factor.

I am now having to work with birds that are all probably split Dilute which will make the process that much slower.

We bring trouble on ourselves because of our personal preferences but at the same time indulging those preferences, is what makes our lives worthwhile.

Note: ^* WYSIWYG – “What You See Is What You Get”

I would estimate the interview to be some ten to twelve thousand words in length and I thought it would be such a waste to let it sit gathering dust.

So with this in mind I have collated the interview into segments.

This is part one – part two may be read here.

I hope you enjoy it.

The Differences Between Breeding Budgerigars In Africa And The UK

By Fred Sherman (deceased)

I grew up on a farm in Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe). My father was a tobacco farmer and also a breeder of livestock – he bred pedigree Jersey cows and pedigree Ayrshire cattle. He also kept African love birds and budgerigars and colony bred them. I suppose as a young boy I used to help him with these birds and that started my interest.

I was very interested in genetics – probably from school – and the very first book I bought on budgies was not how to feed, breed or keep them, but “Budgerigar Matings and Colour Expectations”. The second book I bought was “Genetics for Budgerigar Breeders” and so my interest was more in the genetics. I saw in budgies a good opportunity to experiment with genetics and the principles of Mendelism. Consequently for many years I fooled around with colours. In fact I never bred Budgerigars in small boxes, I used to breed them in small flights, similar to Doug Sadler but not as elaborate. I was only interested in colours and in fact, I didn’t even know what a show budgie was.

I joined the Budgerigar Society in South Africa merely to get rings and this was known as the Central African Avicultural Society. I had no interest in exhibition birds and I never went to any meetings. In fact, as mentioned I grew up on a farm and while I was still at school I was a member of the club. So I had joined very young.

Coerced Into Show Birds

In the late sixties I moved to Salisbury which was then the capital of Rhodesia and I was coerced I think, into getting involved with show birds. I still had these pet types, and I got interested in showing birds. I think that was in 1968 or 1969 and so I started breeding for show purposes.

When I decided to go all out to do well as a breeder of exhibition budgerigars, I was then spending a lot of time in the United Kingdom. Those of you who remember history, it was at the time that sanctions were applied against Rhodesia and I was running around a lot trying to find products and selling things, so my business travels brought me to England. I realised if I wanted to improve my birds I would have to buy birds in England and strangely enough the first pair of birds I bought were a pair of clearwings from Tom North.

I think it was the colour that interested me, and the fact that I was breeding colours. I saw a Whitewing mauve and I couldn’t believe there was anything like it could exist. So I bought a pair and took them back to Rhodesia and I bred with them and showed them. I did that for a few years and then I finally I met Brian Byles and he was good enough to let me have some birds which was the foundation of my budgerigars. I bought five birds from Brian, two of them were brothers, and the other two were related to the two brothers – they were all cocks.

I then went to South Africa and Dr Robertson, with whom I had got quite friendly. He put me on to a fellow by the name of John van Niekerk who had some birds from Alf Ormerod. I managed to get some hens from John Anitas. One hen was bred from an Ormerod pair which, having become friendly with Brian and looking at the records I discovered I had a hen that was related to one of the birds I had from Brian. This got my mind thinking about in-breeding and breeding closely together, and I took the decision then, having had a chat with my Dad, who was a stockman breeding cattle.

I decided with him that we would apply the in-breeding technique. I will be quite honest with you since then and that was 1972 or 1973, other than those five birds from Brian and a few hens from South Africa, I have had another cock bird from Brian, a Yellowface hen from Ernie Sigston, a Skyblue from Reg Crossman and some birds from Gerald Binks and those are the only birds I have bought in and all my birds today are totally inbred.

I Had No Option

I started with those five cocks and I have had a few from Gerald – maybe six – but that is it over all these years. I had to inbreed, I had no option and I found it interesting to listen to fanciers in the UK during my visits, who would say: “I don’t like to go too close” or “I wonder if it’s practical to line breed with budgies?”

My interpretation of in-breeding and line breeding I liken to what my Dad did with cattle. He had a foundation sire and he put lots of cows to that bull and he developed a strain. With birds of course that is difficult and I really doubt whether it is practical to line breed in a true sense with budgerigars, but I stand to be corrected. Also with line breeding you can go close, very often, the good thing with cattle is you have records that you work on, not like with budgies that somebody judges you have two judges and they don’t both see the bird alike, but with cattle there is the butter fat content of the milk, the quantity of the milk, all these things are recorded and they are all facts that you can work on.

I remember on the farm where we had a particularly good cow and the bull would be put back to the cows calves and granddaughters and so to say “Don’t go too close in line breeding”, don’t believe it. You go father to daughter, father to granddaughter in line breeding the same as you do with in-breeding. Really it is a little controversial, but that is the way I see it. So I have been inbreeding very closely. I do admit that some pairings are better than others. I don’t think it is anything to do with being close, or not being close. I was talking to Jeff Attwood and he was concerned about fertility when you inbreed, but I don’t believe I could have bred all those birds if fertility is a problem.

I can tell you a little story about a grey hen I bred. I have never seen such a big hen, she really was magnificent. It wasn’t a show bird, just a great big stock hen but one, almost from the time she moulted out, you think is going to be a problem. A big buff hen and I paired her to a cock – I don’t even remember how close it was related, and I have a habit of marking my eggs with a felt pen, because I think you get better results, you throw out the clear ones and make them keep laying, and on the first round the eighth eggs was fertile and she laid ten eggs in total. The eighth egg hatched – I was actually at the time breeding some Lacewings, so I put some fertile lacewing eggs with them, so I could identify the chicks, the chick finally hatched and survived, and fortunately for me it was a cock.

Paired To His Mother

The second round, the same thing, the eighth egg was fertile, she laid ten eggs, but that chick died, so I had one chick out of that hen which was a cock and I only had one option which was to pair the cock to his mother. She laid ten eggs, every egg was full. The second round she laid another ten eggs, and I put five of those eggs under the Yellowface Skyblue and she smashed them so there it was I got twenty full eggs out of that hen when I paired her back to her son. I don’t think that fertility is only a problem. I believe that our fertility problems are with the buff birds, the big ones.

If you take pet budgerigars and put father to daughter and inbreed them continually they would all be fertile. I have actually seen that happen where these fellows breed with these little birds, and they just keep on being fertile. I don’t think anybody can prove or disprove it, but I believe that fertility is a fault that you should breed out with inbreeding. I think with inbreeding you can only put together the good things, you can’t breed good budgies out of rubbish. So if you start with good stock and you inbreed and you weed out the bad features then you must weed out infertility as a bad feature, just like you weed out a bird that has some other physical feature you don’t like.

I was forced into inbreeding because I didn’t have access to birds. I would go on record as saying that the only way you can improve your stock is by in-breeding – unless you have a bit of money and access to good birds so that you can buy outcrosses. Now in a country like Rhodesia or South Africa, even if you have money, it doesn’t matter because you can’t find the birds, but if you are in a country like England where there are a lot of birds available, I believe you could be very successful outcrossing all the time if you can buy the right bird.

There was a very famous fancier in England who said he never inbred but also admitted that he bought birds. He said to me once if you see a good one, buy it, no matter what it costs, so if you have that policy you must breed good birds. If you are skilful, and he was very skilful, and you can buy a cock bird and pair it to a good hen, you will breed good birds, but if you are isolated and you haven’t got that ability there is no way you can improve your stock without in-breeding.

Generally these are harmful and are the result of a pair of genes which have become altered from different effects so that the genes have changed.

These could be deformities such as by overdosing from radiation, but in our cases the classic mutations concern colour changes and the Feather Dusters.

The Blackface

In the 1990′s in The Netherlands, I saw a few strange birds in the stud of a Mr Van Dijk.

They had black faces and he had named them as such.

They were very fertile and the parents were split for blackface. For beginners, split means they were carrying the blackface feature, but not visibly.

I noticed that many of these split blackfaces were recessive pieds.

Naturally, I asked if I could buy a few, but this was refused even though they were very small birds and badly confined into cages that prevented them flying properly.

On my return home, it crossed my mind what would happen if any disease were to affect these birds?

Regrettably this is what did happen and all were to die. I wrote to Mr Van Dijk, but he did not reply.

What I did know was the genetic background was recessive. He had started with two blue blackface cocks that he spotted in a market stall which he bought immediately. He paired them to two normal grey hens which resulted in chicks that were all greys and blues in appearance.

The following breeding season the next round of breeding revealed all normals again but with black faces and striped bodies.

Sadly this line was lost, never to re-appear.

Today, I wish I could have had a few with which to experiment and take further, but it was not to be.

Please click on an image to enlarge it.

 

Blackface

Blackface

 

The Misty

A few years ago fanciers began to discuss a new mutation that had appeared in one aviary. I contacted the breeder, but he was unable to give me any accurate details about these birds and their genetic background from his “records”.

However, he did give me some photographs. Looking at them, it was difficult at first to understand what we were dealing with? Was it a mutation or not?

The fancier concerned was a Mr De Geest, so I bought a few of these birds this time to test breed with them.

Basically these birds possessed a 25% colour reduction on their feathering, so they were named “Mistys” from the start. This terminology is already used in some species of parrots.

I established that the Misty mutation is what is called an “incomplete-dominant factor” and shows itself in single and double factor forms.

It is difficult to see the difference between the single factor Mistys and the normal birds, but the cheek patch of the Misty variety is far darker.

Combined with cinnamon, the legs are also darker from a normal cinnamon. In the case of the Double Factor Misty, the body colour also lightens.

In conclusion, I believe that only the Double Factor Misty would be considered for the show bench – as we do with the Anthracite Budgerigars (also a mutation).

From the wing photograph below (click to enlarge it), we can see clearly the difference between a Misty Skyblue (left) and a Normal Skyblue (right). The wing feathers are darker in the Normal variety.

In the other photographs, we can see the differences between the Normal, Single Factor and Double Factor Misty examples. Such Misty birds can be paired in all colours but it is not advised that the cinnamon factor is involved.

Blue Misty

Dominant Pied Grey Misty

A normal Blue (left) with 3 Blue Misty DF (right)

Misty Pairings

SF = Single Factor; DF = Double Factor

1. Misty SF x Normal = 50% Normal + 50% Misty
2. Misty SF x Misty SF = 25% Normal + 50% SF + 25% DF
3. Misty DF x Normal = 100% Misty SF
4. Misty DF x Misty SF = 50% Misty SF + 50% DF
5. Misty DF x Misty DF =100% Misty DF

Budgerigar.co.uk has received the following request from Dr Marc A. Noakes. Marc is an experienced geneticist who is researching the yellowfaced factor – and would like your help!

Here is his appeal – please help him if you can.

Dear All,

I am a friend of Ron Hunt (Australian national budgerigar judge) in Sydney, and an honorary member of the Australian Pied Budgerigar Society. I am also a molecular geneticist turned school teacher with a PhD in genetics. I have resumed breding budgerigars and zebra finches after several years absence in America (Washington State University) doing postdoctoral research on multiallelic, immunological and sex genes in salmon and trout.

I grew up in the Macarthur budgerigar club with Ron and have been involved in budgerigar breeding for about 30 years now. I breed birds to satisfy personal and research interests in the conservation of antique mutations and varieties, as well as to help my fellow breeders of budgerigars and zebra finches better understand the mechanisms of inheritance and small population management, including conservation.

The Budgerigar Society of NSW (BSNSW) has approached me to help clarify the present confusion in yellowface inheritance. I understand Peter Bergman’s 5 allele model and I am very familiar with multidomain proteins including heterodimers. However, Peter’s description of that model is incomplete and thus confusing. I am trying to simplify/clarify the model with the aim of making it more accessible to the general enthusiast who has a basic understanding of inheritance. This includes clarifying the relationship between the lemon/cream face mutation and the yellow/golden face mutation.

I am seeking clubs or individuals who are willing to provide information in the form of photographs, descriptions, annotations and breeding results.

If you are able to help, please download and read the “How to Help” PDF document. Then, e-mail me at the address below, or consider joining my Yahoo! group as this will make communication easier. Also, if you know someone (or another club/society) who would be interested in helping out can you please forward this message to them. In return I am happy to provide participants with copies of the survey findings.

I look forward your reply.

Sincerely

Dr Marc A. Noakes
Science Department
John Therry Catholic High School

If you can help, please read the “How To Help” document and contact Marc as follows: