# Here's something 'new'



## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Or at least to me. Here's one of my young birds. It's a nestmate to my only Andalusian. It's moulting, so part of the wing bars are missing. Looks to be a plain ole pied blue check with bronze, except its two center tail feathers. One of them is missing, but I'm glad the other is there so you guys can see it. There's only a faint trace of there ever being a tail bar there.








(It's very hard to take pictures of a hyper bird, by yourself) Here are his/her wings.


















What's causing those washed out tail feathers? Poor feather production, and maybe it'll moult out? Poor genetics color-wise? Or maybe just some crazy mutation? I don't know.

Here's dad and mom, for the record.
Dad - Indigo check splash. I'm guessing the bird in question got the bronze from him? And by the way, one of those babies he's sitting on is the bird I'm asking about!  http://i41.tinypic.com/andcp1.jpg
Mom - Het. Black piebald http://i39.tinypic.com/2eyf1x5.jpg


What do you guys think?


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

Welll, you know me.........I have no clue.
I don't guess I pay THAT much attention to those sort of things. I couldn't tell you if I've ever had a bird with tail feathers like that. 
When I look at "color".....it's mostly what's on the wings I guess.


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## george simon (Feb 28, 2006)

*Hi BECKEY, Well I feel that Indigo is not bronze all the genetics books that I have all list indigo as a seprate modifier. I will quote from QUINN's notebook. "An Introduction to PIGEON SCIENCE"on page 75 in his intro of the Bronze family here is what he said quote "The redish effect of mutants such as indigo(In),dominant opal(Od),and ash red(Ba),must not be considered a part of the bronze phenomenon.We must also eliminate from our consideration those effects of recessive red,which in matings to blacks,produce offspring with some kitiness or reddish tinge on the feathers. This condition usually disappears in succeeding moults." end of quote.I will have to do some reserch on the tail question as I have the same condishion in some of my indigos.*GEORGE


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## jbangelfish (Mar 22, 2008)

*You're right George*

Indigo is not one of the bronzes and I used to wonder why not. It does often carry bronze with it but not always. If a bird is het recessive red and het indigo, it will be likely to show lots of bronze. The first andalusion that I had showed quite alot of bronze and I thought he was t pattern indigo and not spread. It turned out that he is spread indigo, split for recessive red. Probably not the case with these homers as there is not alot of recessive red in homers.

Indigo expresses in so many different ways that it can be very confusing and it will express differently with just about every modifier. Homozygous indigo can mimic ash red but it can also mimic reduced and maybe other things as well depending on what else is in the bird. It is an interesting gene and brings out many things, making some very interesting colors.

Bill


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

I figured this wasn't indigo because the majority of the tail bar is there, and of course the only 'red' on the wings is just bronze. It's just those two middle tail feathers that confuse me  The only things I thought did that was indigo and recessive opal (? I can't remember).


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## jbangelfish (Mar 22, 2008)

*Hi Becky*

Those two tail feathers look to be the last of the baby feathers and will probably moult in the same as the others, with a good bar. I'm not sure what it means on this one, to have tail feathers like this but as we know, birds can go through quite a change in a moult. Just having a couple of tail feathers without a bar probably has nothing to do with indigo. See how they come in after the moult is complete.

Bill


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## Ed (Sep 18, 2008)

I didnt even notice the bird
I was too busy trying to read your pants LOL


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

LOL. My lovely Larry the Cable Guy PJ pants


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