Question: Society finch mutation

[elinore]

Hello! I'm hoping to enter the world of finches late this spring. I've found a pet shop that buys its societies from a local breeder that seems like a great source for birds when I am ready to purchase. This weekend, when I was "scouting" for the best vendors, I saw they had a really lovely little society for sale. The bird was gray-ish in color, crested, and pied, which was an obvious and beautiful contrast against the fawn pieds it was with. The color was very unusual (at least to a newbie like me!), very similar to the color of a whiteface cinnamon cockatiel, not just plain gray but more rosy-gray. I would love to know what mutation this is, so I can look for it when I'm ready to purchase.

I really wish I could buy the bird now, but I need to wait till this summer, when I'll be home from law school and able to quarantine properly. I have a young cockatiel whose health I just will NOT risk in my little apartment. Sigh... anyway, here is the horrible picture I was able to take with my phone. Sorry the color doesn't come out well. I had to take a picture of picture to get it on my computer.

[Martie]

It's very hard to tell from your photos, but my best guess is that it's a fawn gray - a really nice color.

This is a really great site for learning about Society Finches (called "Bengalese" in other parts of the world): http://www.lonchura.webspace.virginmedia.com/Index.htm.

The colors can get confusing, but Jim Warburton really has simplified it all on this site as well as providing a lot of other information about care, etc. Hope it helps!

[elinore]

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for that wonderful link! That really is the best, simplest-to-understand society site I've seen! I looked through, and I found this picture that looks extremely similar to the bird I saw (though the bird I saw also seemed to be very lightly pied, and crested). I did notice a slightly unusual beak color on the bird, which seems to correspond to the example in the picture. http://www.lonchura.webspace.virginmedia.com/C7.jpg

From what I can tell, it seems like my mystery bird would be a crested fawn gray pied. Wow,I really wish I could buy the bird now!

[Martie]

It looks like a very nice bird in the photo - at least you know there is a breeder somewhere there who is raising fawn grays. Hopefully, you will find him/her and be able to get one or more of these beauties when you're ready to get started.

Glad you liked the site - I agree - it's a really good one.