Blue-faced (split to Lutino) Parrot Finch young'uns

[L in Ontario]

Both males are doing extremely well. The younger one is still much more vocal than the older sibling who is getting some blue on his face already.

[lovemyfinch]

Adorable little faces Yup, he sure does look vocal

[annague]

Cute fellows! I wonder if you'll get any lutinos eventually?

Keep the pictures coming.

[Sally]

They look wonderful, Liz.

[L in Ontario]

Thanks everyone. I can hear these two birds over all others in the birdroom. It's so great that their real parents are actually sitting on eggs now!!

Cute fellows! I wonder if you'll get any lutinos eventually?

Keep the pictures coming.

Thanks and I sure hope so!

[nixity]

Very nice.. how do you know they are both males, out of curiosity?

[L in Ontario]

Very nice.. how do you know they are both males, out of curiosity?

Because they are so LOUD, of course!

I'm probably way off base and do not profess to understand much about genetics - continually getting confused but I thought since the female parent is a Lutino and the male parent is a regular Blue-face that all males would be regular split to Lutino Blue-face and all hens would be Lutinos...? Please clarify if that's not correct in any (or every) way.

[nixity]

Very nice.. how do you know they are both males, out of curiosity?

Because they are so LOUD, of course!

I'm probably way off base and do not profess to understand much about genetics - continually getting confused but I thought since the female parent is a Lutino and the male parent is a regular Blue-face that all males would be regular split to Lutino Blue-face and all hens would be Lutinos...? Please clarify if that's not correct in any (or every) way.

I don't know anything about their genetics or how it's inherited

If it's sex-linked, then you are correct - the males would be BF/Lutino but the females would just be BF too (and not split)..

[Sally]

If this is a sex-linked gene, which I believe it is, then with a lutino hen and normal male, you will get all normal babies, but all males will be split to lutino. The hens will be normal and cannot be split. So these two could be either male or female.

The only combination that is easy to figure out the babies is a lutino male with a normal hen--that produces all split to lutino males and all lutino hens.

[L in Ontario]

Ahh so I had it backwards. Thanks Tiffany and Sally!

[bluebutterfly213]

Ive only had experience with two clutches of BFPF but I think there is a difference in the beaks of males and females.
I noticed that the beak in the males is wider in the corners near the nodules, than the female, least that was how it worked out for the first clutch.
My second clutch hasnt coloured up yet but Im saying two hens and one cock just based on the beak size. Ive marked my breeding records so that when the head colour arrives I can see if I was correct.
Looking at your pic I would say the one on the left is male and the other looks to be female.
I would be interested to see if my theory stands up.

[L in Ontario]

That's a great tip - thanks!! How old were yours before you could positively ID them as male or female and how did you do it - by them singing (or not)?

[bluebutterfly213]

I look at them from the first day they fledge.

My first clutch theory (read guess ) has proved to be correct (by the person who has the birds)
This pic is of my second clutch, they hatched 30th June 2010.
I have looked and decided that based on the beak size I have one cock and two hens there. The bird with the red leg band (on the left of pic) is the one I think is the cock.

Sorry its not a very clear pic, but as those who have BFPF know its difficult to get one to sit still on a branch let alone three!

I hope others can see what I believe I am seeing, to me the red leg ringed bird has a bigger yellow beak, deeper. The two hens beaks have less yellow.

I know its not very scientific, and I might have had an extremely lucky guess the last time, but Im happy to give this theory a run for the money and see what happens.

I would be interested in others results.