FINCHforum

I have a male zebra finch. I think he's just a normal male, but was noticing something - while photos of normal males show a white breast, Mal's is actually more of a sandy brown - very similar to my fawn hen's breast (though just a tad darker).

Could Mal be split to fawn or some other mutation? In all other aspects he appears to be a bog normal male zebra finch.

A picture will help...

efinch.com has a section on identifying split to fawn males

"Identifying Splits
Male: There are no sure fire ways to determine if a male is split for fawn other than breeding. The advantage with a sex-linked gene is that any male that is split for Fawn will produce fawn hens no matter what he is paired to. Some Gray males can be identified as being split for Fawn by a buff belly and traces of brown in the wings, but since some brown in the wings is normal for a Gray Zebra, this is not a sure way to determine splits. This method is best used in a single line or family of birds that has both splits and non-splits to compare to."

Yea, but don't have a pic on this computer. Will try to post one later. Reason I ask is they've got a baby about 11 days old, and I'm curious what it's likely to be. The hen is definitely fawn. If Mal is split to fawn, will all the babies be fawn then?

Well, it seems to depend on the light. In some light, his wings are grey with a tinge of brown. In other light, they're clearly brown with a grey tinge. Photos show about the same... so... kind of brownish grey. Or greyish brown. ::sigh::

Edit: This is the most color accurate photo I can find. Some show his wings a lot browner. His whole breast is the buff color that's only showing on his butt here; accurate breast color is something else that's eluding my little camera. So what do you think? Normal male, or split to something?

The male looks like it may be a lightback http://www.efinch.com/species/lbzeb.htm

he is too dark to be lightback.
lightbacks dont have dark orange colored cheeks,
they have light orange colored cheeks and their back is
silvery grey, not dark grey and not with brownish tint in their back eather
and have bright white colored belly.

he is normal grey split fawn.
but its hard to see if they are spit for fawn
there is no way to be 100% sure unless you pair him with
normal grey female.
If he is split then he will produce fawn hens

I'm thinking he is split to fawn. Now, I'm a total newbie at this, but his baby (13 days) looks like it's going to be fawn, to me. What do you think (FWIW, Inara, his mate, is definitely fawn)?

look normal grey to me
does he have any siblings?

Normal, even though the budding feathers on back and chest and wings are light brownish?

No sibs. There was one but it died at less than 24 hours old. I wasn't planning on breeding, so replaced two of the 4 eggs with fakes.

the wings say normal, but you are right, the beak look brownis.
how is the mom colored?
fawn babies dont have grey in their wings, sometimes normal baibies are confused with fawns because of the brown
pin feathers, but it will soon change to grey or have brown tint in them.
I have also seen fawn chick with very dark beak. Your chick could be NG split fawn, time will tell
here is one of my fawns

Vargs - Ungar undan Agna og Ágötu by Elma_Ben, on Flickr


sorry about the loss of the sibling.