Interesting fawn line Zebra

[Dramoth]

Hi all,

One of our juvenile Zebs is not colouring up properly. It's beak is almost fully coloured orange(ish) but it hasn't got the black teardrops on it's cheeks.

Has any of you Zebra fantatics come across a fawn mutation like that?

[lovezebs]

Dramoth

Was there a picture that I'm not seeing?

[cindy]

we need a picture of the tail and the whole bird... Since Australia has mutations we do not have in the states or Canda we may need someone from Australia to give an opinion.

[Dramoth]

I need to get a new pic, none of the ones I took yesterday worked out

Give me a couple of minutes

[Dramoth]

This is the little git...

[mohum]

One of my babies is like this. I think it's a girl. I also have two with completely white faces and chests

[Dramoth]

mohum,

Her (if it is a little girl) siblings are all starting to mark up now... she is the only girl in a family of 5... I think

It just seems so weird that she hasn't got any tear drops on her cheeks yet or any tail banding. Her brothers are all marking up already and look like they will all turn out as standard fawn line males.

[xz_zebs]

Sometimes markings are just missing - it is just a show fault if this is the case. It would be similar to the opposite case of hens showing faint male markings.

It is also possible that she is an orange breast or split to orange breast.

http://www.efinch.com/species/obzeb.htm

"Female: The tear mark and tail bars should change to orange. The tear mark can be difficult to spot and may appear to be missing."

You can see an OB hen without obvious tear marks in this pic from the same site:

http://www.efinch.com/birdpix2/oblb.jpg

I bought a cream hen without tear marks that I believe is also OB. Her tail markings are so faint that it is impossible to tell that way. The man I bought her from also thought she was OB or split to OB. Rather than tail markings, he looks for orange tinted feathers on the underside of the wing, which she has [YMMV]. She is one of my favorites for her sweet personality.

[xz_zebs]

And I can't believe I forgot about this - she could also be BB.

http://www.efinch.com/species/bbzeb.htm

"Female: The tear mark is missing and the rump and tail are buff colored like the males (see below). As with the males, there can be some orange or white lacing on the wings."

There is a pic at that link.

[Dramoth]

We did have a charcoal cock bird in the aviary... so it could be that he mated with the mother because the rump area of this little girl is quite dark compared to all the other fawn hens in the aviary.

And I think that the mother has white lacings on the wing.

If thats the case, then we are keeping this young lady to see what we can get out of her

[cindy]

And I can't believe I forgot about this - she could also be BB.

http://www.efinch.com/species/bbzeb.htm

"Female: The tear mark is missing and the rump and tail are buff colored like the males (see below). As with the males, there can be some orange or white lacing on the wings."

There is a pic at that link.

According to this Australia does not have BB (black breast) or OB (orange breast) on this site if you click on the mutations you can see what Australia does have. Australia does not have all of the mutations we have in the states and Europe. The ones on efinch pertain mostly to the ones we commonly see here in North America. http://www.hzebra.com/AllMut.htm

Sent you picture off to a friend of mine in Australia that breeds zebras and works with mutations... let you know what he says the mutation is. I work with almost all of the mutations we see here in the states.

[xz_zebs]

I believe you are miss-reading http://www.hzebra.com/AllMut.htm. Both BB and OB are listed under "common mutations" meaning they are common to a variety of areas. If they were listed solely by location what is available in a certain location, the US would only have Florida Fancy.

However, I agree that Australia may not have OB and BB and I'd love to hear what your friend says. I know that those names don't show up on the 2 websites below. However, much of this is misleading since many of the varieties listed are names for combinations or alternate names for what appears to be the same mutation (state appears to be recessive dilute/silver, beige is fawn with recessive dilution). For instance the description of Red sounds like OB and the Description of Red Headed sounds like BB:
http://www.victorianzebrafinch.com/varieties
http://www.seqzfs.org/zebravarieties.htm

Red and Red Headed
http://www.seqzfs.org/nonstandardmutation.htm

[cindy]

No misreading the "common ones", fully aware OB and BB are present in other parts of the world. I have many of the different mutations and some were brought in via Europe through Canada.

They do use different terms for their birds and often you do hear the word Red associated with orange birds. I know they do not have BC and I do believe it was discussed they do not have BB (I have had the discussion with our Australian breeders prior) they did at one time have penguin but it has since died out. They do not have BCCFW or BCCCFW either. We do not have Grizzle or Charcoal or George.

They may have certain mutations in Australia that create the same effect as the ones we have here but the terms, the names are different and the genetics may work a bit different.

I have written to two different breeders in Australia, will let you know on the ID of your bird as soon as I hear back.

[cindy]

Your bird (hen) is a Fawn Charcoal.

Regarding their mutations.... I thought I would double check again with the breeders for you....

They have red chested similar to your OB, their reds they have are a combination of charcoal x red chested and a mix of Isabel sometimes.

Our continental cfw is similar to their marked whites.

They do not have FF, they have no crested, no grey cheek, no penguin, no BC, no BB.

[cindy]

He also said quote "We have black bodied and black fronts but there totally different looking from your black breast and different effect when combined with other mutations"... "2 BFs we have: Black face BF and black front BF" (no that is confusing!) Our Black breast (BB) is commonly mistaken for their BB (black bodied) initial wise (BB)