FINCHforum

I now have some yellow back gouldians. Their breast colors are either purple, violet or washed out purple color to almost pastel light violet. In three pairs I have 5 different shades of light to dark breast color. (one is white breast) Is this normal? Does the orange head versus red head color have anything to do with the shade or breast color? Are there pastel yellows?

This is the latest pair I got yesterday. I realize the pictures are horrible.

This is the other pair. The male has many green feathers. I don't know what color the hen's head is.

first pair again...

Second pair again with green on male.

Better shot of that hen.

Third pair, red heads. All have different shades of purple. All birds are in quarantine and all photos taken by my blackberry. Sorry for poor quality! They eventually will have great cages.

I think you have combinations of purple, white and lilac breasted birds. Pictures are sometimes hard to tell by but I'm pretty sure your male with the green spots is a single factor yellow because there seems to be a lot of grey on his chin.
All good looking birds, best of luck with them

Thanks Debbie, Learning as I go!
The one hen has not much color on her head. I think she it's orange, will it fill in or is that a fault? Why is the other hen so pastel looking?

There are many shades of colors ... this can be genetic... like there are many shades of blonde haired people...depends on the genetics of your parents.
The shades can be affected by diet... foods rich in carotenoids: lutein (yellow), astaxanthin (red)will enrich reds and yellows, the melanins: eumelanin (black), phaeomelanin (browns) affect the purples. So the best diets result in the best colored birds as long as the genetics for good coloring is there.
Crossing back to the origional wild colored birds will not only strenghten the birds healthwise, sizewise, but also color wise.
Some lines tend to get washed out with to many breedings with same type mutations. An example of this is washed out heads on yellow hens like this one.. 2 yellows paired together for several generations

compared to this one who's yellow parent was crossed back to a wild colored green


I have noticed the lack of color in the breast like this example also, at least in my breedings.