Hobbyist bird breeding farm in Liege Province, Belgium
Birds
A breeding bird descended from a paternal line of animals having very intensely colored redbreasts.
I prefer using the term brown instead of “cinnamon” because those brown birds have recessive heredity. Real cinnamons, as far as I can get some of them because I know there exists … have pink eyes the 1st week of life and the mutation is sex-linked.
The photos below are of a female (golden) pearl Fallow born in my aviaries in 2020.
She is a carrier of the US Red-Breasted mutation.
Ancestry:
Her father was a wild colored pearl, carrier of Fallow
Her mother was a US Red-breasted silver, carrier of Fallow.
I got two young Fallow birds from this mating, this one, and her sister, with identical phenotype. Both of them will be put into reproduction in 2021.
In winter, we sometimes have such cold days illuminated with a light that lends itself perfectly to photography.
I took advantage of the beautiful rays of February 13th, 2021 to take some pictures of subjects that are really worth it.
I have the pleasure of sharing with you some pictures of a very beautiful breeding male.
To use the name coined years ago by Mr. Jeff BRIDGES from Colorado, it’s a US Red-breasted ‘Darth Vader’.
This denomination indicates the males having a completely black head, without a collar on the bib. Enjoy!
Another example of a female Chinese painted quail changing feathers colouration:
This golden pearl female is becoming (outwardly) … a male!
The bird was born normal, and the transformation started in his first year of life.
I isolated her, and she never produced any egg.
Have a closer look at the two birds pictured below.
They were two US Red-breasted females from my strain of “black-headed” birds.
I mean pale US Red-breasted birds having with a particularly dark head.
I wrote they “were” because after their male died, one starter to get other colours.
A few weeks after, the second female began the same modification…
On the pictures take I toke on February 11th, 2021 we clearly notice that one of the two birds is more advanced in his “transformation”.
I will keep this post updated in a few months.
The under-reported pictures show a female Chinese painted quail (Coturnix chinensis) bred in my aviaries at the end of breeding season 2018.
This bird was born with male feathers: blue feathers on the breast and red-feathers near the cloacal region what normally only are present on males birds.
This female never produced any egg.
The pictures ware taken on January 29th, 2019.
February 11th, 2021: the same bird, practically one year after the first photo-shoot.
You can see that on those new pictures that the abnormal colouration is still present!
Still the same bird but pictured in the hand and with another background.
The colouration of the breast feathers is more visible this way.
The under-reported pictures are from some young Chinese painted quail bred during the breeding season 2014.
This is the combination of the dominant mutation “blue-face” with the recessive “Fallow” dilution gene.
They maybe were my first produced chicks of the colour-combination.
Nice to see how the Fallow gene works diluting all the feathers producing this pale and delicate phenotype.
I hope you like it!
I share with you a few pictures I just found back on my computer of a male of European quail acquired by my good friend, the Belgian judge of ornithology Jean-Paul DAMOISEAU, in November 2015.
This birds was one of my very first animals of this wonderful species and significantly contributed to the developing of the nice bloodlines I now have.
Already at that time, it was not very easy to find and to obtain good animals: pure and small-sized. It is certainly a blessing to have had this friend, this great connoisseur, to give me birds of his breeding which allowed me to move forward.
This male was pictured on November 02th, 2015. Enjoy!
One of the selective projects that will be carried out during the breeding season of the year 2021 is the black-bib phenotype.
This phenomenon appeared to me on a bird I saw in a pet shop, near to my house.
I directly noticed that something was different in his bib-markings.
After a quick check from pictures contained in my mobile phone, I thought that it should be interesting to buy this bird and see if this “characteristic” could eventually be transmitted to his offspring.
The above-reported pictures I made after my return at home shows you the difference with a genetically pure wild bird of my stock.
The “special” bird is pearl and, in my opinion, he should also be carrier of two recessive mutations :
1) Silver (because of the colouration of his eyes)
2) US Red-breasted (because his breast show too many red feathers)
The bird is not from remarkable quality.
It is a young from 2020, I ignore exactly when he is born but I think he is too small and also lacks breast width.
The blue feathers are a little bit too pale in my opinion and the red feathers also are not especially “shiny”.
This “abnormal” bib may be only the result of a bad quality lineage but … from what I learned of my lessons of genetics in the time where I was breeding canaries, new varieties many times were obtained by years of selection of bad birds. (or following opposite selection to the standard)
The most recent achievement that way is the “mogno” mutation in colour canaries.
So, I will try something, and we will see…
After his quarantine period, he will be paired with a female I still have not chosen but that should more probably be a solid wild-coloured one.
I will keep this post updated about the reproductive results…
Through the years, I selected a strain of US Red-breasted cinnamon Chinese painted quails (Coturnix chinensis) producing particularly high qualitative males, displaying a very large and intense red coloured breast.
The above-pictured specimen is probably one of the best male bird I produced during the season 2020.
He was pictured on November 22th, 2020. Enjoy!
