# Sooty blue barless saddle homer



## tmaas (May 17, 2012)

Just thought someone might be interested in seeing this color combo.


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## alby68 (Mar 18, 2013)

Is that not a check pattern, I thought barless would be solid blue?


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## tmaas (May 17, 2012)

At first glance it may appear to be a check but if you take notice that the part of the check pattern that would be barred is incomplete bars. A bar or checker pattern darkens the lower portion of the feather causing the visable portion of each feather to be dark, whereas sooty causes the center of the feather to be darkened, giving somewhat of a laced effect. Sooty is not on the pattern chromosome so it works independently from the pattern gene allowing a barless bird to somewhat mimic checker, as this bird does.

This bird is part of a project to produce opal sooty barless, which will express itself similarly to that of the diamond dove color, with the center of each feather being white.


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## red check 200 (Jul 3, 2011)

Sure looks like a check to me .


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## alby68 (Mar 18, 2013)

tmass, your bird has a light beak and eye cere, like a smokey modifier- http://www.angelfire.com/ga/huntleyloft/smokey.html in huntleys genetics. thought sooty would have a darker beak and eye cere- I am just asking-trying to learn. thanks!


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## tmaas (May 17, 2012)

alby68 said:


> tmass, your bird has a light beak and eye cere, like a smokey modifier- http://www.angelfire.com/ga/huntleyloft/smokey.html in huntleys genetics. thought sooty would have a darker beak and eye cere- I am just asking-trying to learn. thanks!


The bird has bull eyes and light beak because it's white around those parts. Go to the piebald facts on Huntleys site.


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## tmaas (May 17, 2012)

red check 200 said:


> Sure looks like a check to me .


I suspect it does to a person who is unfamiliar to the details of color genetics and the specific differences between check and sooty. Also, this bird was produced from two barred bird who were split for barless. Barred birds cannot produce checks. Give me a couple years to complete this project and you'll see the difference.


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## copper (Aug 25, 2010)

Beautiful pigeon ! thanks for posting ,learned something new !


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## alby68 (Mar 18, 2013)

tmaas, that piebald section has my head spinning! I raise alot of two color birds, and had no idea how vulnerable they are to variable genes. they seem to naturally reproduce their -pattern- quite well, except for the konigsberg moorheads, which are a complete contradiction. thanks for the direction and adventure into your project. I look forward to your updates and thankyou for your thoughts and patience......Bruce


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## earlofwood (Jul 1, 2012)

A beautiful bird tmaas! With this nudge I have been reading up on Sooty as well. I don't have sooty available in my birds but it is an interesting mutation to be sure.
Dean


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## dublin boy (Jun 4, 2011)

I have never seen this combo before tmass , Goodluck with the project .


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## tmaas (May 17, 2012)

Thanks all. I'm glad to hear that it's triggering some interest in sooty, which is normally an undesireable trait for most people. I've always been intrigued by it and a few years ago saw an extreme sooty opal blue bar pied which stimulated this pursuit.


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## dublin boy (Jun 4, 2011)

Hi Tmass , Heres a pic i had saved not sure were i got it from ,thought it might intrest you .


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## tmaas (May 17, 2012)

Wow. Very interesting. Looks like possibly, could be, sort of a combination of t-check, sooty, smoky, faded (on a hen) and maybe a dose of toy stencil. Just a guess. Thanks for sharing.


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