# What color is this?



## Matt Bell (May 5, 2010)

Hello all, I was cruising some pigeon sites today looking at pictures and picking up some information and I ran across the following site, was curious if somebody could tell me the proper color of this bird as I had never seen one quite like this before. The site lists it as bronze white flight, is this correct? Thanks!

http://www.kripplekreekloft.com/cinnamon.htm


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## Ross Howard (Nov 26, 2009)

*Color*

Sounds about right to me. Ross


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## Guest (Jun 20, 2010)

I agree that bird has a very nice bronze coloring to it  sweet looking bird !


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## george simon (Feb 28, 2006)

*Geneticly its a modifier that has an effect on the true color of the bird.This modifier is called INDIGO and it hides blue.Cinnamon is also a modifier that has a similar look but is caused by a different gene. * GEORGE


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

It's pied bronze. This bird doesn't really look indigo to me. Just a blue t-check with a lot of bronzing.
Reminds me of Lou Coletta's birds.


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## Matt Bell (May 5, 2010)

Good call Mary, on that site if you take the time to look at the pedigree's they are from Lou Coletta's stock.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

That is one sweet looking homer.


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## amumtaz (Jun 13, 2007)

*Indigo*



george simon said:


> *Geneticly its a modifier that has an effect on the true color of the bird.This modifier is called INDIGO and it hides blue.Cinnamon is also a modifier that has a similar look but is caused by a different gene. * GEORGE


I agree with you George. Bronz or bronzing is just a different representation of the Indigo color. Genetically, there is no color called bronz, its INDIGO. It is one of the colors where a bird carries more than one color (blue and red) and actually shows it including the females. Because indigo is non-sex-linked, both males and females may be homozygous for it. If you cross an indigo with a spread then you would get a new color where we genetically call it andalusian! (Homozygous Indigo) Furthermore, if you cross two homozygous indigos (andalusians), you get a darker head andolusions which mimics the ash red color. These are all the different stages and representations of the indigo color. Indigo is a unit where the bird shows red and blue in the phenotype. You have to have this unit to produce more indigo colors, otherwise crossing red with blue simply wont give you an indigo color.

Here is where the color indigo comes from historically: "Blue jeans!!!" Yup, thats where we get that purple-blue color in our jeans!

"Indigo dye is an organic compound with a distinctive blue color. Historically, indigo was extracted from plants, and this process was important economically because blue dyes were once rare. Nearly all indigo produced today — several thousand tons each year — is synthetic. It is the blue of blue jeans."

.


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## indigobob (Nov 12, 2008)

The bird in question is not indigo, as Mary says, it is a bronzed blue chequer, the tail and flight feathers are too blue/black and the tail feathers have a black terminal bar. Indigo flight and tail feathers are a slate blue colour.
Attached is a photograph of an indigo bar to illustrate the colour of flights and tail.

A number of different bronzes have been identified e.g. kite, brander, Modena (Ts1) Archangel/Gimpel, indigo, etc.


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## amumtaz (Jun 13, 2007)

indigobob said:


> The bird in question is not indigo, as Mary says, it is a bronzed blue chequer, the tail and flight feathers are too blue/black and the tail feathers have a black terminal bar. Indigo flight and tail feathers are a slate blue colour.
> Attached is a photograph of an indigo bar to illustrate the colour of flights and tail.
> 
> A number of different bronzes have been identified e.g. kite, brander, Modena (Ts1) Archangel/Gimpel, indigo, etc.


Are you saying that for a bird to be an indigo, there cannot be any terminal tail band that we see in the blue and brown families?


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## indigobob (Nov 12, 2008)

amumtaz said:


> Are you saying that for a bird to be an indigo, there cannot be any terminal tail band that we see in the blue and brown families?


Indigo doesn't have a dark tail bar like blue or brown, it can have a washed-out tail bar.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Indigo and bronze aren't the same gene. The tail bar in indigos is washed out, usually with no trace of a bar. Sometimes there can be very little washed out though.


Also, to make andalusian, all you need is one copy of the spread gene and one copy of the indigo gene. Heterozygous indigo spreads are darker andalusians, and homozygous indigo spreads are the light gray andalusians with darker heads.

One thing you'll notice on the bird in question, is not all of its checks are red colored. Bronze may not cover the entire pattern, but all indigos I've seen do.
With the help of a photo editing program, the picture of this bird APPEARS to have had its contrast and sharpness raised, so that can make the bronze pop out more (may be what's causing some confusion). Even still, to me, there is a difference between the brown color bronze causes, and the rusty red color indigo causes.


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