# Sexing birds by base color (sex-linked pairs) and Flecking



## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

*Sex-linked matings with the 3 basic colors (Ash-red, Blue, and Brown - in order of dominance).*

*Blue cock x Ash-red hen*
- All cocks will be ash-red (with blue flecks, because they’ll carry blue)
- All hens will be blue

*Brown cock x Ash-red hen*
- All cocks will be ash-red (with brown flecks, because they’ll carry brown)
- All hens will be brown

*Brown cock x Blue hen*
- All cocks will be blue (carrying brown, but that doesn’t change the appearance of blue cocks)
- All hens will be brown

So as you can see, all of these sex-linked matings are caused by putting a recessive colored cockbird with a dominant colored hen. In the offspring of these matings, the hens are colored like the sire, and the cocks are colored like their dam.


*Sexing birds by the flecking in Ash-red based birds.*

Ash-red is the most dominant of the 3 base colors, and the only color in which cocks may show blue/black or brown flecking. These flecks are caused by the additional color gene that the cock carries without expressing (only the more dominant color shows, the other is hidden in the genetics). These base colors are carried on the X chromosome. Birds are opposite to us in that the males are the ones with XX chromosomes, not the females. Instead, the hens have XY chromosomes. Because the hen only has one X chromosome available for a base color to be carried on, then they will only have one base color gene…the one that shows. So if you have a blue hen, she is blue. She cannot be carrying brown. However, if you have a blue cock, he can either be pure blue, with two blue genes, OR he can be blue but carrying brown.
Anyways, back to the flecking. Ash-red cockbirds who are carrying another color will show flecks. If he is carrying blue, he will have blue/black flecks. If he is carrying brown, he will have brown flecks. Pure ash-red cocks usually have no flecking, and are therefore hard to tell from ash-red hens, who will have no flecks.
Flecking is most commonly found in the flights and tail feathers, but they can be found anywhere on the body. You’ll often see flecking throughout the head, neck, wings, and tail in the more “silvery” colored ash-red bars and ash-red spreads (lavender).


_Flecks in Ash-red cockbirds are not to be confused with the flecks, streaks and patches of darker color in Almond birds. There is a difference in appearance so it shouldn't be hard to tell them apart, BUT I just figured I'd add this in case you get it in your head any flecked/streaked bird is a male._


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## Chilangz (Apr 3, 2008)

Nice one...........its a lot of information.......
THANKS


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## JaxRacingLofts (Apr 11, 2010)

Thank you for posting this explanation. It is greatly appreciated.


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## Albannai (Jan 21, 2001)

Thanx for the great information.


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## indigobob (Nov 12, 2008)

Some ash-red hens will have dun flecks, indigo birds will also have black flecking.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

That is true, but you don't see many hens with red flecking.


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## eyespyer (Jul 14, 2008)

Does that also work with other colors?

Like a Blue Bar Cock and a Blue check hen.

Will the baby cocks be Blue check, and the hens blue bar?

other colors?


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## dtrojcak (Aug 31, 2010)

eyespyer said:


> Does that also work with other colors?
> 
> Like a Blue Bar Cock and a Blue check hen.
> 
> ...


From what I understand, the pattern(check, bar, barless, etc) is not linked to the "sex gene". In answer to your question, no.
The blue check hen in your example could be pure check, or check carrying bar or barless. If she was pure check then ALL offspring in your example would be check. If she was carrying bar, then 50% offspring would be check, 50% bar.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

No, this is just color, not the pattern. Those patterns aren't sex-linked, so that means both the hen and the cock has two pattern genes.


So if your blue check is pure for check, then all your kids will be checks. If your check is split for bar, then you'll get 50/50 bar and check. And of course, if both your birds are split for barless, then you'll get 75% checks and 25% barless.


Then there are a lot of other genes that factor into making a bird the color that it is. The majority of them work like the pattern (bar, barless, check), but some are incomplete dominant, and dilute is also a sex-linked gene. But in this post I just focused on the three basic colors.


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