What mutation is she? Where on earth did she come from?

[Birdy]

In one cage, I had a cream (dominant silver fawn) pair and a grey pair. Besides a few pieds, the grey pair seemed to produce normal greys. The cream pair produced a cream male, and around twenty eggs that never hatched despite their best efforts, so I think they may carry some sort of recessive that is fatal when doubled.

I do not know which of the two hens laid the egg that produced this chick, nor which male fathered it, though i suspect it is the cream pair or the cream male with the grey hen.

She was thrown out of the nest upon hatching and was almost dead when my mother found her, so she is a special little bird to me. The greys incubated and raised her.

She is very sweet and likes to eat out of my hand. I am just curious what mutation she is. She is more brown than the photo shows - a light tan on her back and wings, a lovely cream on her underparts. She does not have a teardrop marking.

Looking around, it looks like she may be a European Isabel. I imagine it may be a sex linked muation of some sort, though i do not know much about the inheritability of the isabel mutation.

Any ideas?

This is her (I named her Isabelle anyway) with Tsuki, my white hen.

[nelloyello11]

Can you post a picture of her back?

[cindy]

If she has no tear and has gray with fawn lacing she may be a gray/fawn Isabel.

a clear picture of her back as Nelissa suggested would help.

[Vargur]

I think she is too dark to be Isabel.
Her tummy looks like its dark, her wings and her tail!
Maybe she is BF.. BF darkens the body.
I have one bird with black tail and thats my BF OB BB male,
seen in my profile photo.
I think she might be normal grey BF and maybe BB,
hence the lack of tearmark.
If you post a photo of her tummy and her back/tail it would be nice.
Even photos of the parents.


Vargs - Isabel ungarnir undan Vargs Álf og Isabellu by Elma_Ben, on Flickr
these are my three fawn Isabel chicks (all grown up now)
and they are alot lighter than your bird.


Vargs - kvenfugl undan Bríet og Butralda by Elma_Ben, on Flickr
Grey Isabel BC female.
A little bit darker with nice silver grey tone on her head, wings and tail.

[Birdy]

It was tough to get a picture of her back, she kept turning around and hopping over to take a look at the camera. Last photo was taken with my iPad and the camera quality isn't great.

Anyway, here is the best shot of her back I could get:


This is her true coloring. As you can tell, she is lighter than the initial picture shows. She was light as a hatchling too. Looks like she almost has a brown teardrop in here, but it isn't as pronounced in person.

[nelloyello11]

It's tough to tell looking at the picture on my phone. She might be a single factor Florida Fancy (sf/FF). She looks similar in color to one of my surprise sf/FF hens. I guess sometimes splits for FF are visible and sometimes not so much (mine came from a pair of visually normal greys). I will post a picture of mine tonight or tomorrow afternoon so you can compare. (Or do a search of my posts- I think it was called "what do you think?" I got some very helpful responses on there).

[Vargur]

Well, I can see her much better now!
Thank you for the photos!

Now I can see the brown lacings in the wings,
Looks like a single factor florida fance to me.
(a.k.a Florida silver)
I am not sure why her tail is in one color,
but I think the other finches have plucked her tail a little bit.

Sometimes a "suprize" color can pop up when you pair up zebras

She is very pretty

[cindy]

Vargur is right....pretty little thing. Zebras are just full of little hidden secrets!!

[nelloyello11]

Here are my tow sf/FF hens

IMG_9510 by Nelloyello11, on Flickr
The one on the right has a light tear mark, and the other has none at all.

[cindy]

Pretty girls.

[Birdy]

Thank you guys. I do so love my zebras, and have had some surprising colours come out before, but this one was the first I have seen like her! Nice to have a name for her colour.

Her name is staying Isabelle, though, hehe. Her tail hasn't been plucked, it is just that the bars are only now starting to come in. She is only around seven or eight weeks old. The other finches don't like her a great deal, probably because she is different. I am trying to integrate her into my cage that has my adults in it (two cream, one white, one black cheeked, one pied grey) but that hasn't gone terribly well. She is still in the baby flight.

She is actually perfectly tame. I've tamed several before, but none have been this easy! She has the sweetest disposition.