# Colors Explained



## GerrickH

Hello. I am very new to this forum but I did do a search before asking this question. I am wondering if there was a thread that had a list of all the names of the color variations in homing pigeons. I am very new and there are a lot of descriptions I see that I do not quite follow and I know it would help me and maybe a lot of new fanciers if we could see several pictures of the color variations with title and description of the color.


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## Chuck K

*Basic Colors*

Gerrick,

There are three basic colors in all pigeons. In order of dominance they are ash red, blue, and brown. There are four patterns, T-Pattern check, check, bar, and barless. Some people list a few between these like dark check or light check but I believe these are just expressions of a bird carrying other pattern genes. There are a number of modifiers that will cover the basic colors and the patterns. I will post a series of pictures of the ones I have and the common names among the homer folks when I know them. Maybe someone can post up those that I am missing.

Chuck


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## Chuck K

*Ash Red*

This cock bird is an example of ash red in homers. He carries the bar pattern.
Homer fanciers often call this bird a mealy or a silver.










This hen is an example of an ash red check.










This cock bird is also and example of ash red. He carries the T-pattern check. Homer fanciers call this bird a red velvet. The picture is not a very good example of the pattern, but it is the only one I have.


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## Chuck K

*Blue series*

This cock bird is a blue check. He is of poor check quality, and he also carries a gene called sooty which causes some of the flecking in the wing shield. Homer fanciers often call blue birds carrying this sooty factor, penciled. They sometimes call ash red birds carrying the sooty factor strawberrys. The ash red bar cock in the first series of pictures shows a poor expression of sooty on ash red.










This hen is an example of the barless pattern on a blue bird.










This frosty looking youngster is also a blue. It carries a dominant factor called Grizzle. Grizzle has a wide range of effects depending on the type of grizzle and the pattern of the bird.










This youngster is a blue check. It carries one copy of the recessive white gene. It also carries a factor for pie-bald white which is the reason for the white spots. It is a blue check, and the blue coloration is darken by a factor called dirty. The dirty factor is evident at hatching by dark feet instead of the pink/tan feet. The dirty factor darkens the blue areas of the bird. The black feet disappear with age, and in this bird they are already lightening.


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## Chuck K

*Brown*

This hen is an example of brown. Brown is at the bottom of the dominance ladder in basic colors. This one happens to also carry spread which is hard to discern from the picture. I only discovered it because of a youngster she threw when paired to an ash red cock.

She doesn't like her picture taken, and no matter what I've tried she hunkers down like she is being beaten.


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## Chuck K

*Recessive Red*

I call this poor ugly fellow the red goose. He has a neck that would make a goose proud. This was a picture of him as a youngster, and his recessive rec color has darkened (improved) as he has aged. He also grew into to that long neck a little. 

The basic color of a good recessive red cannot be seen, but many poorly colored reds will show when they are carrying blue or black. I suspect the red goose will prove to be ash red when or if I ever breed some youngsters off him. Some ash reds can come close to recessive red in appearance especially in birds with white flights and white tails. The red in ash reds fades to gray in the flights and tail. In recessive reds the red goes to the ends of the flights and tail. Very red ash reds will still usually show some edges fading to ash in the secondaries but not always and on birds carrying kite bronze and ash red can come even closer to mimicking dark recessive red.










This old hen is also an expression of recessive red. However she also carries a recessive color modifier called dilute. Dilute creates half tone copies of the color of the bird regardless of which basic color or other modifiers may be present. Dilute is sex linked. Hens need only have one copy of the gene to show it. Since it is recessive and sex linked cocks have to have two copies to show it, but any cock out of a dilute hen is carrying the factor. This hen is also carrying a factor for pie-bald or grizzle which causes the white in the bird. I am not sure which of the whitening factors she is carrying.


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## Chuck K

*Recessive White*

This hen is an example of recessive white. Recessive white birds will have the bull (dark) eye. Birds that carry two genes for grizzle can often be white or near white. The eye color is usually the best way to tell grizzle whites from recessive whites. Grizzled whites will have the colored eyes.

Recessive white like recessive red will cover all other colors and factors including recessive red, and Spread. Recessive white also covers the patterns.


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## Chuck K

*Spread*

This hen is also a blue pigeon, but she carries a gene called Spread. Spread literally spreads out the blue color pigment to the point it appears black. Spread often covers up the pattern of the bird under neath the spread. Sometimes you can see the bar pattern in poor quality blacks, and they can be hard to discern from very dark T-pattern blues. To distinguish them look for the terminal bar at the end of the tail. If that bar exists you are looking at a T-pattern not a spread, black, pigeon. Homer fanciers sometimes refer to the dark blue T-pattern birds as black velvets.











This youngster is also a spread pigeon. This one is in the ash red series. Many homer fanciers would call him a silver or lavender. Spread with ash red has many different
expressions from this light silvery ash on this youngster to very dark mahogany red on some birds. The expression of spread in ash reds is heavily dependent on the pattern
underneath the spread covering with the barless and bars being very light and the check and T-check being much darker. This youngster is a bar beneath the spread coloration.


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## Chuck K

*More colors*

Gerrick,

More color factors exist than the ones I have shown here maybe someone that owns some of those can post up some pictures. There are also a lot of examples of the T-pattern on blue birds around. I really like those birds, but I don't own any. I am keeping my eye open for some of the other factors like recessive opal, reduced, and I really want an indigo. I had one, but messed up and let it get out. I bought it at a feed store, and it took off for home where ever that might be.  The indigos are called chocolates by the homer fanciers.


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## T Kim

Thank you to Chuck for the great pics and info! I am also new and was just going to ask about colors myself. I would love to learn more about dominant and recessive genes. Thanks!


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## GerrickH

*Wow*

That was exactly what I was looking for.


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## Chuck K

*Color genetics*

Gerrick and T Kim you are welcome. I learned most of what I know about colors from two books, and my hands on experience using the information in those books in breeding my pigeons. The best of those books for beginners in my opinion is The Pigeon Breeders Notebook by Joe Quinn. The notebook is no longer in print, but a pdf copy of it has been made available to pigeon fanciers free of charge on this link along with a bio of Mr Quinn. http://www.angelfire.com/ga/huntleyloft/Joe_Quinn.html I gave my copy of the notebook to someone long ago, and I wish someone could get it back in print. It had two versions and I never got a copy of the one that delved into pigeon behavior.

I believe the other book may still be available in print. It is called *Origins and Excursions in Pigeon Genetics* by Dr. William F. Hollander. I still have a copy of this book, and for me this one was a bit harder to follow, but it expanded on the topics in Joe Quinn's notebook.

Dr. Hollander also authored a series of newsletters that can sometimes be found on the net called simply, the Pigeon Genetics Newsletters. The newsletter covered Dr. Hollander and others works in unraveling the genetic inheritance of a number of color and other factors in pigeon genetics.

Unfortunately, both of these knowledge gentlemen have passed on, but they inspired a few to keep of their work of unraveling the genome for the pigeon. If you join the yahoo group geneticsforpigeon, in the photo section you can see a lot of the other colors in homers as a well as a fantastic collection of breeds with all colors.

At least a couple of groups on the internet in the the yahoo groups are devoted to pigeon genetics.


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## V-John

Chuck, excellent job. Thanks


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## Chuck K

*Colors*

You are welcome John, but it was my pleasure. I enjoy sharing the pictures.


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## GerrickH

Thank you for the literature referral as well. Already downloaded and saved and starting to read tonight.


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## lawman

GerrickH said:


> Thank you for the literature referral as well. Already downloaded and saved and starting to read tonight.


here are some links for you to check out

pigeon genetics by Frank Mosca 

http://www.angelfire.com/ga3/pigeongenetics/

Ron Huntlys rare colors 

http://www.angelfire.com/ga3/pigeongenetics/

Tom Barnhardts genetics 

http://www.webring.org/l/rd?ring=ge...//www.angelfire.com/oh/raraavis/genetics.html


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## RogerD

I have a young bird this year which looks just like a blue bar but has brown bars. My mentor calls it a chocolate. Any experience with this color?
The chocolate young bird was produced from Chocolate cock x Blue Bar hen. From what I have read it is a sex linked trait and the chocolate young bird is a hen. Is that correct?


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## Chuck K

*Chocolate*

Roger,

I was hoping someone would post a picture of one of the chocolates. 
What is called chocolate in homer lingo is called indigo to the genetics guys. It is not sex linked so your youngster could be a cock or a hen. Indigo is a dominant gene. The indigo gene is characterized by the bronze in the wing patterns where they are normally black. Indigo pigeons also don't have the terminal tail bar like on a blue bar or blue check. The tail tends to just fade to gray.

Indigo combined with Spread and T-pattern or checker gives you the beautiful laced Andalusian expression. This color factor was the one I was referring to that I let get away the day after I bought her. That youngster is a very nice looking example of the factor, and just an all around good looking homer to boot.


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## RogerD

Thanks for educating me about chocolates and indigo. I think the young bird looks great. I just hope it is fast and stays on the race team.


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## T Kim

*Colors*

Thanks for the info! Can't wait to start reading it! I have dark brown pigeon. It's young so doesn't have a mate yet. Can't wait to see what color babies it has...


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## Chuck K

*The latest addition to the flock*

I finally located another indigo bird. This one is the adult version of the bird Roger posted below. It is an indigo bar. The difference in the indigo bar verses a bronze barred bird can be determined by the washed out terminal bar on the tail feathers.


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## Chuck K

*Two More additions*

I also found a recessive yellow cock bird, and a poor quality almond (deroy) cock bird.

I like the recessive yellow. He has good type for a homer.










I don't know if I will ever breed off the almond. He has poor homer quality with a suspect head and a very wide tail. I suspect he may be a cross so I will be keeping an eye out for a better quality almond homer.

This particular bird does not show the typical black and bronze striation of the almond because he also carries two genes for recessive red. Recessive red almonds are called deroy almonds.


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## Chuck K

*Looking*

I am looking to get a couple more color factors in the homers. I really want a reduced and a recessive opal. In case you are wondering I don't race, but I intend to fly and test a lot of these colors in the air.

I have a family of blue and ash reds that I may one day try to race. Color breeding is fun, but the real test for a homer is to home and home fast. I hope to be moving soon, and then I can start putting some youngster in the air.


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## cwebster

Chuck K, thank you for posting the photos and descriptions. Very informative. But I like the one you call ugly, the red goose.


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## RogerD

Chuck K my chocolate/indigo bird is still on the race team and we are out to 25 miles.


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## Chuck K

RogerD said:


> Chuck K my chocolate/indigo bird is still on the race team and we are out to 25 miles.


That is good news Roger. I hope it performs well for you.

I have heard of a couple of men that are supposed to have some very good indigo homers. The first indigo check that I lost was from the line of one of those fellows. His name is Ed Minvielle. I believe he owns Seigals Pigeon Supplies. 

I also see the chocolates on the iPigeon auction from a fellow named Tony something or other (can't remember his last name unless I'm looking at it) from the east coast. I think his indigos are supposed to be some very good racers, and judging from the prices they bring they should be. 
Needless to say those are out of my range. 

BTW: I have a squeaker under that indigo barred cock and one of my black hens. I had two but one died at about three days old. I think it is beginning to get to hot here. I was hoping to get an andalusian, but the one left is to young to tell what color yet.


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## Chuck K

C

He grew up, and into that long neck. He is a pretty large and robust bird now. 
He is also a very deep rich brick red color now.



cwebster said:


> Chuck K, thank you for posting the photos and descriptions. Very informative. But I like the one you call ugly, the red goose.


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