FINCHforum

I have feeling this is just my problem, but I'd like to hear from others about it:

Abbreviations make it difficult to learn about other breeds. There are many abbreviations in the Zebra world, the Gouldian world and others that are baffling to me. I'd like to learn about these breeds but I can't understand the lingo.

Since we're communicating with each other, how about making it a better conversation and spell out the words? More work for you, much better for everyone else.

Birds don't eat alphabet soup, and neither do I.

Thanks, I've wanted to say that for a long while

Dave

Can I high five you right now? ^5

I loathe acronyms. I read words, not 4 letter sentences!.

Example of how it frustrates me:

Were did you go to school?

"U.M"

What is U.M.?

"Thats the University of Michigan, dont you know that? "

Uhhh, no. UM could be Univ. of Michigan, Miami, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Memphis.......etc etc .

When people throw acronyms at me, my mind thinks of 20 other meanings those letters may represent. So you are not alone.

All you need to do is ask and any of the breeders would be more then happy to explain what they are saying. Gouldians I understand but zebra lingo I'm lost, though if I ever got into zebra's I would learn.

My ZebraCheat sheet

NG is gray (base color)

RECESSIVE

OB is orange breast

BB is Black Breast

Pied

Penguin is P

White is W (not to be confused with pied white, totally different mutation)

YB is yellow beak

BC is black cheek

RS is recessive silver

E is Eumo


DOMINANT *note ~ you only need one in a pair to produce Visual offspring Can't be split to a dominant gene, either you see it visually or they are not it.

DS is Dominant Silver

FC is fawn cheek

GC is Grey cheek

BF is Black Face

CO-Dominant *note birds can be split to these (autosomal recessive mutation)

FF is Florida Fancy

FS is Florida silver


Sex-linked

F is fawn

LB is lightback

CFW is Chestnut flanked white (light tan to gray tail barring)
CCFW is Continental Chestnut flanked white (black tail bars)

Gouldians are described by head color first then breast color then body color. I separate the areas by a "." And "/" means "split to"
So a RedHead.PurpleBreast.Green split to Blue would be RH.PB.Green/Blue

Males can be Single Factor or Double Factor which is written like this, SF or DF
So a RedHead.PurpleBreast.Single Factor Pastel split to Blue would look like this, RH.PB.SF Pastel/Blue

If there are any specific questions you have just shout.

Would be helpful to make that sticky.

If you talk waxbills then:

GB would be a Golden Breasted waxbill,
OC = orange cheeked waxbill
CB = cordon bleu waxbills - RCCB would be a red cheeked cordon bleu, BCCB would be a blue cap cordon bleu.

LOL = laugh out loud
JMO = just my opinion
BTW= by the way

The one that had me guessing > LMAO (laugh my ass off)

If one needs translations of bird abbreviations, as the breeders.
If one needs translations of daily comments, ask a teenager .

One of our former moderators decided one time she was going to make a post of all the abbreviations, but she found it to be a bigger task than she had realized. If anyone wants to come up with a post with all the bird abbreviations, I'd be happy to make it a sticky!

One more abbreviation for the Cordon Bleus:
BBCB - Blue-breasted Cordon Bleu

PG - Purple Grenadier
VE - Violet-eared Waxbill
RB Fire - Red-billed Fire finch
YBW - Yellow-bellied Waxbill
GBW - Green-backed Waxbill

I think idealy, if we all make a bit of an effort, we could just type out the actual words (at least at the beginning of each post).

I mean if we mention 'Red Head /Purple Breast /Green Back', at the begining , then go on with-' RH/PB/GB',- for the rest of the post, its fairly self explanatory.

To me you just wrote Red Head split to Purple Breast split to Green body
if you use the "/" to separate the areas what will you use for "split to"? It could look like this if you add splits, RH/YH/PB/WB/Green/Blue and that would be very confusing

Agree with Dave.
It is mostly laziness that prompts use of acronyms instead of lucid communication. The world of texting is destroying the language.


Elana has a sensible approach. Use words the first time, then go to acronyms.

paul-inAZ wrote: Agree with Dave.
It is mostly laziness that prompts use of acronyms instead of lucid communication. The world of texting is destroying the language.


Elana has a sensible approach. Use words the first time, then go to acronyms.

I agree with you when it comes to things like lol, BTW, jmo and even the names of the species of birds. I have a hard time keeping up with the thousands of acronyms.

As for genetic abbreviations I think they have their place and honestly I don't know any breeder that doesn't use them. For newbies we are all more then willing to clarify if asked till you become familiar with your species terms.

paul-inAZ
Those abbreviations are conventional lingo in finch circles.

"To me you just wrote Red Head split to Purple Breast split to Green body "

 debbie276

Maybe that's what I meant, u-hem-hemmmm.....

Seriously though, that just goes to show how confooosing all this can get.....

However, if I say: Red Head Purple Breast Green Back, Gouldian Finch, everyone understands (I hope ).