# Help me figure out his genetic factors



## loonecho (Feb 25, 2010)

I would like some input on this 2011 cockbird. His sire is a Dominant opal pied and his dam is Indigo velvet with dirty. I will post pictures of them shortly.

Now, I first thought this bird had 2 doses of Indigo and was therefore an ash-red mimic. He is lighter than other **** indigos so I assumed he was also domimant opal. However, I paired him with an ash red bar hen and they produce two offspring. One is simply a dirty blue bar (hen). No sign of Indigo. The other I think is another hen but with buff bars probably caused by indigo, or Dominant opal or a combination of the two. So it seems to me, that this cockbird must be just a variation of indigo + Od + dirty. It looks much lighter than any other such birds I have bred. The others have deep blue tails and flights compared to the ash colored flights and tail on this bird. I would welcome any suggestions or speculation on what is at work here. Thanks.

Jim


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## horseart4u (Jun 16, 2011)

very pretty...


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## loonecho (Feb 25, 2010)

*Here are his parents*

Indigo velvet hen and Dominant opal pied cock.


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## loonecho (Feb 25, 2010)

*Here are the offspring of the cock in question.*

These are the offspring of the cockbird in the first two photos when paired with an ash red bar hen with no other known genetic modifiers.


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## almondman (Aug 22, 2009)

Beautiful birds!


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Indigo dom opal in my opinion. I think the t-pattern is what is making the flights and tail so light. Just like spread would make it a silvery bird.


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## loonecho (Feb 25, 2010)

MaryOfExeter said:


> Indigo dom opal in my opinion. I think the t-pattern is what is making the flights and tail so light. Just like spread would make it a silvery bird.


Thanks for the reply Becky. I thought about that as well. However, his nestmate (a hen) was also Indigo and Dom. Opal t-pattern, and she has the darker blue flights an tail you would expect in and Indigo. I also raised out of this same pair, another t-pattern indigo + Od that had the very light colored wing covers like this cock bird but the tail and flights were deep indigo with a white tail bar. She was stunning but unfortunately I lost her to a hawk.

Jim


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Something to keep in mind is that dominant opal can vary a LOT. Perhaps this one isn't indigo at all? His offspring with the brownish bars....the base color looks more indigo to me BUT the bars look more opal than indigo in my opinion.


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## rudolph.est (May 14, 2009)

MaryOfExeter said:


> Something to keep in mind is that dominant opal can vary a LOT. Perhaps this one isn't indigo at all? His offspring with the brownish bars....the base color looks more indigo to me BUT the bars look more opal than indigo in my opinion.


I agree with Becky here. Dominant opal can vary a lot, on blue bar dominant opal can cause anything from a slight lighening of the bars and tail bar, to completely white bar. 

Similarly the dominant opals indigo T-patterns you speak of should then differ in phenotype quite effectively. Maybe a sinlge or double dose of dirty or smoky could cause it.

As I always say, if you are unsure, mate to a blue bar and figure out the genes. There is a lot to learn about the opals still. A couple of years ago, no one could figure out why recessive opals were sometimes blue-ish and at other times reddish. And then some determined people figured out there was a second allele at the recessive opal locus. There might very well be a gene that causes the differences in dominant opal phenotype too.


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## loonecho (Feb 25, 2010)

Thanks for the input. Further test breeding should help make things clearer.

Jim


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## spence (Dec 15, 2011)

Mercy! Those are some pretty interesting pigeons! That first one looks like it carries the barring factor, faintly expressed in the tail, always interesting to see.


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