Bizarre article on gouldians

[Babs _Owner]

I found this article on gouldians in the wild about head color and chick survival. Sounds odd to me. I cut and pasted a quote here.




"Different head colours are genetically incompatible and can’t breed successfully. If this female mates with a red-headed male, her children will pay the price. Many of her chicks will die, and her daughters will do particularly badly – only one in five will survive. But to compensate, the female has evolved an amazing defence. If forced to mate with a mismatch, she’ll produce chicks that are nearly all male, which have a much higher survival rate."

Is this true? And why?

[birdman603]

I'm not sure about animals but I know it is impossible for humans to decide the sex of their offspring. I cant imagine a bird being able to decide the sex of their offspring. I think this is false

[lovezebs]

Babs

I've read this article, and others like it as well.

Apparently when given a choice, females will chose males of the same head colour as themselves, and then have larger clutches of equal numbers of male and female young.

They have even done experiments, where the male's heads were dyed to a colour to match the females head colour. The females were fooled by these dyed males, and laid larger clutches of more or less equal numbers of m/f young.

This apparently goes to show, that the females have control of the size of the clutch, and the sex of their young.

Quite fascinating really.

[Babs _Owner]

lovezebs

Yep I found this paragraph from the same study. What strikes me as odd is them saying if two different head colors mate their kids are basically doomed.........


That seems a tad bit outlandish, and almost as if they are using the study as a metaphor for something else.

hmmmm. Weird.

[lovezebs]

Babs

I don't think the kids are doomed. We know for a fact, that that's not the case.

However, on a large scale of breeding , who knows, maybe there is something to it, when you're breeding hundreds of birds. Should throw that question at our friend Wildbill who breeds large numbers of birds, to see if he's ever kept records of anything like this happening.

[Babs _Owner]

lovezebs

Hey thats a great idea! Thanks my friend

wildbill

What do you think about the statement i posted above about gouldians mixing head colors being doomed in the wild?

[lovezebs]

Babs

You're most welcome sweetie.

[paul-inAZ]

what is the source? Some internet opinion piece or an article in the guise of a scientific paper?

sounds like nonsense to me.

[Babs _Owner]

paul-inAZ

Heya Paul! I found it here.

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2589683.htm

[debbie276]

That's an article released a many years ago by Dr Sarah Pryke She does lots of studies on the gouldian finch and has publish quite a few papers.
Personally I have not found this to ring true in my flock. I have had MANY 100% survival rate on those nest with mixed head colors. Though I have to say when given a chance they will pick like color heads to mate with.

[Babs _Owner]

debbie276

Thanks Debbie. Nice to know that info. It also makes me smile knowing that. That means better survival rates in the wild.

[ac12]

Hmmm, interesting.
I don't recall that as a problem for me. But I have to go check my records. I've had duds and deaths from same color head pairs also.

[608duj]

How does a hen know what her own head color is , she can't see herself.

[wildbill]

I'm not going with any of the above and I don't care who wrote the article! my personal opinion -I thinks its weather related and probably a bit of stress thrown in too. plus I think it depends on the breeding season if its a warm season or a wet one.
plus probably what you feed them -how you look after them -if they are over crowed in the aviary or cage bred -if they pick their partner or have no choice etc . this is all aviary conditions we are talking about.
I only have black headed birds on site now so its either black to black or zero. last year I bred 78 in total and I think I actually got 36 or more pairs from them

[Babs _Owner]

wildbill


Nice! Thanks for the feedback Wildbill!