several mutation mysteries/questions

[Violets]

I recently had this bird appear in a flock that does not have black faced birds in it. Is he blacked faced? If so, how?? His flanks are the typical NO SPOTS flanks of a black face.




This is an older hen in the flight that has some unusual black on her chest, is it possible that's related? Here she is:



face closeup




The most recent fledgling in the flock had his cheeks come in funny, possibly also related?





The flock consists of fawn, lightback, grey and regular CFW mutations. All either petstore purchased or the resulting offspring.

The final mystery is a bird that I suspect is the father of all the regular CFWs (all hens) in the flock. He doesn't look right for either CFW, tail bars the wrong color for either type, his whole body has a dove grey wash to it and his cheeks are muddied with grey as well. He's been like this since I purchased him.




his tail bars




Can anyone confirm if (and why) I've had a black face show up, and possibly tell me what's up with the CFW cock?

[Sally]

I don't know anything about Zebra mutations, so I'll leave it to others to help you with this. I do want to welcome you to the forum! There's lots of good reading at www.finchinfo.com, where you will find many good articles on breeding, housing, and especially the Zebra finch. If you put your general location in your profile, it makes it easier to answer locale-specific questions later on.

Nice collection of Zebras!

[Violets]

Thanks! I keep a number of finch species as well as ringneck doves but concentrate on the zebras. My current gould pair are on their first clutch as well which is rather exciting.

I'm located in Canada, I'll put that in my details.

[ApricotMuffins]

It looks like there is a bird in your flock carrying Black Cheek as evidenced by the enlarged tear marks on your birds and the very obvious black feathering into the orange cheek patches on your fledgling.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of lighting do you have in your cage?

[Colt]

cindy is great with Zebra mutations.

[Violets]

I've noticed the CFW sister to the black face male is also black face. I don't know how I missed it, but it's clear now BF is in that colony.

I still don't know why the CFW male from the petstore has sooty cheeks though. Black cheek birds have never appeared in this colony, which has been breeding for about 9 months.

Lighting in the cage is just the east facing window in the room.

If anyone is curious about diet, it consists of standard finch seed mix, as well as some anise/caraway/fennel/sesame and black and white lettuce seeds offered, plus fresh eggfood and assorted veg every morning (actual cooked eggs shell and all, not a dry premix) and sometimes some mealworms mixed into the eggfood. Cuttlebones are always available and I use Calcium Plus in the water sometimes because otherwise I have egg binding issues. This is what I use on all my finch species.