FINCHforum

I am VERY confused about my baby goulds this year... please help!

I have trouble deciding the head colour of this one:

http://s641.photobucket.com/albums/uu13 ... G_4679.jpg

I thought it would be a red head male, but as it is finishing the molt it seems more yellow/orange to me.

The parents are: father red head (split for black as far as I understand it), and his head colour is very clear, intense and "christmassy red". The mother has a black head. Thus, yellow head should not be possible, right?

Compared to another red head male baby, who hasn't even finished his molt, the difference in colour is already quite distinct. Not sure if it is visible in this picture, though, but take a look:

http://s641.photobucket.com/albums/uu13 ... G_4688.jpg

I only have 2 breeding pairs (no yellow headed adults), and this one was banded in the nest.

Is it possible that maybe one of the parents were split?

lovemyfinch wrote:Is it possible that maybe one of the parents were split?

Not sure... the clutch they had last year yielded only 3 black headed males - I guess that means the red headed father is split for black? (This years baby had 2 siblings but both unfortunately died before they showed head colour.)

I think the yellow face genetics is a bit complicated to understand!

As I understand it...
The orange (aka yellow) genes are on a different chromosome than the red and black genes. So, if mom and dad are both split to orange then you have a 1 in 4 change of getting an orange head.

On the finch information center, they do explain it in fairly understandable terms.

franceska wrote:I guess that means the red headed father is split for black?

Yes. That makes sense.

Definitely a yellow head. The head colors and how they are inherited are confusing. You can have a red/black/yellow split.

Sounds like the father is RH/BH/OH.

Does the mother have a yellow beak? If so, she is BH(YTB) - genetically Orange/Yellow head, but unable to express it due to being genetically BH instead of RH.

Otherwise, if she has a red tipped beak normally, then she must be BH/OH.

Either are entirely possible

He is gorgeous!