# birmingham rollers with oriental roller babies!?



## Wildmstng84 (Aug 30, 2008)

i breed birmingham rollers, so i was quite surprised when my almond male and brown female threw a grizzle oriental roller baby! this is their first clutch and the one baby that hatched has extra tail feathers like an oriental roller. has anyone else ever heard of this or had it happen? my breeders are in their own cages so i know it's not a cross with my fantails.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Well you can't just magically end up with a baby of a different breed. Some pigeons have more or less feathers. Some homers have some feathers on their feet, some birds have one less or one more flight feather, some fantails have more feathers in the tail and some don't. Regardless of the breed, it's all in the genes. Maybe somewhere along the line the birds were crossed with oriental rollers, or maybe one had just a few more feathers....and those genes didn't pop up until now.


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## jbangelfish (Mar 22, 2008)

*Sounds like a throwback*

Many Birmingham strains have been infused with Oriental Rollers, especially for the Almond gene. Sounds like you have one of these throwbacks. It can happen in practically any breed of pigeon as they are all related.

Bill


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