Ten years after having discovered the first three specimens of Black-breasted males, I am proud to announce that after all those years, I still have the bloodline and, exactly ten years after that finding, I am still producing birds showing this unusual phenotype. The male you may see in the pictures above was born in my aviaries during the breeding season of 2024, and I photographed it in January 2025. I still have no idea of the exact transmission of this abnormality and I am still investigating. Enjoy!
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For more information about the black-breasted phenotype, see the first post: HERE
A nice US Red-breasted Fallow hen bred in my aviaries in 2022 from a silver Red-Breasted Fallow father and a normal US Red-breasted hen, carrier for the Fallow gene.
An interesting Chinese painted male bird bred in my aviaries in 2022 from the following pairing: Father: US Red-breasted silver Fallow Mother: US Red-breasted split Fallow (carrier for the gene) This young bird is US Red-breasted silver Tuxedo Fallow, so 4 mutations on the same phenotype! Pretty pink eyes and total dilution of the colours. I let you enjoy the picture
Another very strange bird born in my aviaries during the breeding season of 2021. We can see those unusual blue feathers on the back and the red feathers near the tail. I am very anxious to see if this female bird will lay eggs in the near future and if I will be able to reproduce with her. She stay from now in a single cage.
Another picture of a young female of Chinese painted quail (Coturnix chinensis) born in my aviaries in 2021 and slightly getting typical “blue” male feathers. on the back.
Another very interesting young female bird, born in my aviaries in 2021. Firstly grown with normal coloration until adulthood this female has progressively changed to a male coloration. Those pictures clearly show us the apparition of the typical “blue” male feathers and the bib drawing on remaining female background colors.
Because this rare phenomenon tends to be repeated on a very regular basis in my breeding for at least three years, I am busy looking for an explanation for it.
Double factor blue face brown, male. From my aviaries. A nice dark “chocolate-brown” bird without white patches. This bird was pictured on April 9th, 2014
I wanted to share with you on this Website a few pictures of the first “qualitative” ivory males bred in my aviaries. It was in 2013, from a bloodline obtained by a well-known breeder from ‘s Hertogenbosch, in the Netherlands. We clearly notice the mix of both silver and brown recessive mutations producing this very delicate ground coloration. A particularity of the ivory phenotype, only visible on males birds, is those darker anthracite patches on the breast. The pictures below were taken on October 24th, 2013.
This intensive, short-feathered US Red-breasted male is now very old. I took those pictures on February 13th, 2021. He is more than 5 years old… Often very older males start to develop white feathers when they never had any before. It starts with the cheeks (a bit like old dogs) and then white feathers appear a bit randomly on the body, more often on the back. From him, I produced many sons of exceptional quality (and without any white spots of course!) It is with such males, mated to brown females with soft feathers that I have built my best US Red-breasted strain.
Ps: I really liked this male at the time because of his red iris eyes. Wild, genetically pure birds also display this characteristic.
The bird I am now reporting some pictures below is a female and its coloring is quite exceptional insofar as I have never seen or produced similar before. Initially, it was a rather pale brown US-Redbreasted bird. As the most expert among us know it well: the palette of shades of brown is rather wide in the Chinese painted quail species. This is undoubtedly less known, but there are also brown birds that are referred to as the ‘grey form’. This is reported by a well-known American specialist, but I can’t remember exactly if it is from Jody Mc Donald’s pen or that from Garrie J. Landry.
What I noticed, is that this bird has evolved after its first moult, and besides the development of red feathers at the base of the tail (which is generally an attribute specific to males) the coloring of its back has changed, turning to silver. For now, I don’t know if this should be the expression of the ‘grey form’ of the brown on a US Red-breasted phenotype. The impression I have is of an opal-bird like in the Common chaffinch, or an ivory bird (brown + silver) where the hues would not have mixed together well but rather assembled. We can see brown areas and gray areas, it does not look at all like a classic ivory female like those dozens I produce every year.
Personally, I find this aesthetically beautiful female. I just hope that it is not (yet) a female that is changing color and that she will stay like that because this color change phenomenon occurs more and more frequently in my breeding!
