Yellow Gouldian

[BaceyBoop]

i know i'm not like an expert gouldian breeder, but why does it seem like i know more about my gouldians and their genetics than most of the breeders i talk to at bird fairs?

anywho, a few weeks ago i bought a yellow gouldian at a bird fair. according to the breeder, he/she is about seven months old. but she couldn't tell me if the bird was male or female. my baby gouldians are 8 weeks old and my males are starting to sing already. from what it looks like to me, it's a black headed (ytb), white breasted, yellow back female. her back is too dull to be male, i think. the breeder seemed to think there was a possibility that he/she could possibly be purple chested, but i think at 6+ months there would be at least 1 purple feather showing. also, the yellow tipped beak suggestion seemed to confuse her.

i'm gonna share pictures for you guys opinion on color/sex. my crappy iphone pics probably don't show it, but she has one or two tiny orange feathers right between her beak and eye on both sides of her head. so i'm pretty confused about whether she's actually black headed or not.


p.s. - i hope you guys don't think i'm trying to be mean. i just like to get as much info as possible about genetics and parents when i buy a bird and it's frustrating when the breeder can't tell me much. but as long as the bird is healthy, i can live with finding out it's genetics on my own if i need to

[kheather]

well I think white breasted and perhaps yellow head!! !! I am noooo expert either so I wont make a guess on the sex! good luck, it's beautiful~

[BaceyBoop]

really the only thing throwing me off are the few tiny orange feathers she has. there's no way i would be able to get a pic of them without my friend's super camera. i know females generally have a lot of black in their face. i believe i read somewhere that their heads can be almost totally black when they're young and as they age and molt more color comes out? perhaps she's orange headed and just has a lot of "black" in her head since she's young? or maybe i'm crazy!

[CandoAviary]

BH/YH WB YB hen from what I see on mu monitor.
The beak is flush with color, a good indicator that it is indeed a she.
Also no shading to the head.

Many times you will find some breeders that sell birds at fair not so concerned with genetics but more into producing birds to sell. Many won't even know or care what the parents genetics were, they just take the eggs and place under societies. Unfortunately there are a lot of these out there... not everyone is a serious mutation gouldian breeder

[nixity]

It doesn't look to me like she ever completed her first molt (she still looks like she has some juvenile feathers) or perhaps is stuck in the molt right now? Maybe still in the process of molting..

It's definitely a hen, but I wouldn't comment on the head color at this point. If you see yellow feathers at all in the head then you know she is YH not BH.

[Lisa]

What a beautiful bird!

[ac12]

She has a numbered plastic band on her left leg.
IF the breeder kept records, the numbered band could get back to the records for that bird.

I know of breeders at the local bird mart that don't band at all. So once they get into the "for sale" cage, if several are visually similar color they are then mixed up. And you don't know their genetics or the parents genetics.

I can tell a buyer the genetics of my birds, at least as far as I know them. Except for surprises, like when I discover that I have a bird with a previously unknown split, which has happened.

[BaceyBoop]

it's for situations like this that i'm seriously considering getting myself a nice camera. that way, i can show you guys all the things i think i see on my birds

She has a numbered plastic band on her left leg.
IF the breeder kept records, the numbered band could get back to the records for that bird.

well i did ask the breeder about her parents. it took her about 20 minutes to look them up in her computer i can tell you the parents of any of my baby birds off the top of my head. but, whatever she told me both parents were black headed. no mention of split to OH or yellow tipped beaks

[nixity]

i can tell you the parents of any of my baby birds off the top of my head. \

Me too!! Even when I had nearly a hundred birds, I could tell by the family band and recite it off the top of my head.
I think it also really helps when you name your birds, because you can associate them with something other than a description.

Recently Gary asked me about the babies he got from eggs he sent me, and that was well over 3 years ago - I couldn't remember exactly what pair the eggs came from, but when he sent me their genetic info I knew immediately OH! Those came from Renfro and Lily.

What's really interesting is that by his breedings I've discovered that all along Lily was a Lilac/White breast, not White breast. I had always been skeptical but I had never really bred her in a way that would have proved one way or the other. Renfro I knew was Purple split for either White or Lilac, so when I got Lilac babies from them, I just assumed he was Purple/Lilac and she was WB!!
Crazy

Sadly, I don't have either birds anymore, because they were among the ones I sold when I got out of birds last year.