FINCHforum

Here are our new Zebras, I think we have mostly figured out what they are, but more experienced opinions would be most welcome.

First, here are the two I got from Lisa, they are brother and sister. Sorry there's only this one picture, they just will not stay still for the camera! They were hatched in May.
Bird A is Sprinkles, a male Normal Grey/Split CFW
Bird B is Twinkle, a CFW female


Bird C is a male hatched in May. Black face? His sister is fawn. Father was grey (did not look close enough to see BF, wasn't noticing that), his mother was white-ish, like a CFW but with hint of some other color washed overall, lighting was bad in the room but she looked silver-ish or cream-ish.
Next to the black on his face, there is a stripe of bright orange, then the rest of the cheek is darker orange.


Here is Bird C again, and his sister Bird D, who is Fawn, hatched in January (but same parents). Again, father was grey, mother was a CFW but not shiny white.



Bird E is a male Pied/split CFW, hatched in August. His sister, also hatched in August is
Bird F is a female Pied. Parents were a male pied with a lot of white, and a female CFW. They are the two in front, Birds C and D are in back.



Here are some group shots of all four:





So, do I have them right?

And, next spring or so when they are old enough to breed, any suggestions for getting the most out of the types I have? Remember, I have pairs of siblings, so A&B, C&D, and E&F cannot be bred together.

I can't offer any help Nerien but I just wanted to say that your little Zebras are so pretty. You really have a nice varied collection. I kind of like the pied one!

Those last two photos would make a great screensaver!

Very pretty!
Congratulations

I had the same thing happen to me (Black Face confusion).

It is probably NOT Black Face. Black Face is dominant (you need to get the genetic from only one parent). Because neither parent was Black Face the young one is not black face.

Like my birds last year, your bird has a few feathers that aren't black. My birds also produce young that have grey tears. The Black Face and grey tears disappear over time (in mine). Eventually they look NG.

However, I do wonder that this is a sign of black breast. My mated pair are a Black Cheek NG male and a NG hen. I believe I have splits in the cage. My bird with this black face developed an incredibly smudgy chest. Some black fathers extend several inches down the chest. They are more dominant down the sides, in groups. I have a split hen from this arrangement too (has the hour glass tail feathers).

So, don't get too excited about the Black Face. I think Mother Nature is playing a game with you!

I don't know if the father was blackface or not, I didn't get a good look at him, the parent cage was down low and the light on it was dim, and my eyesight is pathetic. The mother was light or white, again, no good look at her. Poking around looking at pictures, she could have been a fawn CFW. The sister is the fawn bird in the pictures with him.

Just took a close look, he may have some tiny gray feathers in the black face area, or they could be pins. There is no gray tear. The cheek is not larger than normal, it seems to have a bright orange streak at the front edge, then is darker and sort of fading/mixing into grey near the far edge.
His chestnut sides have no spots. Maybe a hint of greyish spots, maybe just he ruffled his feathers because I shoved my face so close to the cage trying to see, which he did not really like.
His tail feathers have big, round-ish, irregular shaped white spots.

He's about 6 months old, so I guess he could still change over to something else as he ages. How long before they settle in to their true colors? Did not know/think I was choosing a blackface, we just chose him because he was different than the other males we had already. Blackface, blackbreast, whatever, just trying to figure him, and all of them out.

So how long does it take for their final feather colors to show up?

I love the black face.

the male is BF.
BF males tend to loose their spots on their flanks, the tail could become more black,
and the breast will become more black.
The extent of the black varie from bird to bird.
He is not perfect black face, but he is cute
And the fawn female is very pretty!
Looks like one of the females is split bc.

My opinion on them:

A: Grey male
B: CFW Hen
C: BF Male (with maybe fawn or isabel in his lineage becus eof the color of his wings)
D: Fawn hen (maybe split BB, I need better tail shots)
E: Grey/pied
F: Grey/pied bc female (split BC because her thick round tears and her black breast bar)

I must be honest did I not really read what you wrote so if there is any splits you mentioned I probaly did not add them in. Lol