FINCHforum

I am so excited to have her..she will arrive tomorrow. This is my first time with the blue back. Any advice? Thinking about pairing her with a yellow back purple breast and i'm not sure of the head color. Looks white to me. But maybe you guys can help me out.

Congratulations!!

Congratulations!
A white head yellow body gouldian would be genetically a Black Head.
The yellow gene suppresses the expression of the color black on the birds, so any area which would normally be black on a green bird appears white or off-white on a yellow bird. This is why genetically black headed yellow birds appear to have white or near-white heads.

Can't see real well but yours looks like it has a yellow tipped beak, then it would be a YTB Black Head (genetically a Yellow Head)
If two yellow head genes are present on a bird that has no red head genes (and instead has black head genes), the bird will have a black head with a yellow tipped beak (YTB).

Thanks Debbie for the great infor. I couldn't really tell the color on the yellow male. but now it makes more sense to me.

debbie276 wrote:Congratulations!
A white head yellow body gouldian would be genetically a Black Head.
The yellow gene suppresses the expression of the color black on the birds, so any area which would normally be black on a green bird appears white or off-white on a yellow bird. This is why genetically black headed yellow birds appear to have white or near-white heads.

Can't see real well but yours looks like it has a yellow tipped beak, then it would be a YTB Black Head (genetically a Yellow Head)
If two yellow head genes are present on a bird that has no red head genes (and instead has black head genes), the bird will have a black head with a yellow tipped beak (YTB).

Sorry, I am confused. Does the yellow beak mean the male will eventually have a black head or do you mean genetically. Is he genetically black head with yellow beak? Thanks.

From the Finch Information Center genetics page:
http://www.finchinfo.com/genetics/lady_ ... colors.php

Yellow head (YH) is an autosomal recessive trait, but also requires at least one red head gene to be present in order to be expressed. If two yellow head genes are present on a bird that has no red head genes (and instead has black head genes), the bird will have a black head with a yellow tipped beak (YTB). This occurs because the bird is genetically a yellow headed bird, but it cannot express the yellow color because the yellow gene depends on the red head gene for expression, and the red head gene is not there. Both cocks and hens can be "split" for yellow head.

Before you pair it up, I suggest using the gouldian forecaster to see what the offspring will be. I do it that way when pairing up my gouldians.
http://www.amadinagouldove.cz/gouldian- ... /index.php

She is very pretty, congrats

oh thanks for the site, AC12..

Great looking birds! I have two exactly like those that are fixing to be paired just as soon as the male completes quarantine.

I hope they make you beautiful chicks!