CFWs and fledglings

[Ameza]

Ha ha, I have never heard of this thread and needles stuff before! Amazing!
Here in iceland people usually just get a very strong "feeling" about the sex of unborn babies ;)

[Jeff McKee]

Well, thanks all. I believe I have CFW or CCFW parents. Probably a combination. Chicks are white skinned, but some have black beaks and some have white beaks. I think white beaks indicates CCFW. Black beaks indicates CFW.

I was most curious if it was possible that both parents are split to White. I'm not certain whether White is recessive to CFW/CCFW. Can a bird be CFW/White or CCFW/White? That would explain the white bird. It might also explain why there have been quite a few young birds, before a white one came along. The white bird has no markings, but there is a bit of darkness around the beak.

Fawn... well other young ones aren't pristine white, but they are white. You've got me looking at them differently, wondering if they could be fawn, but I'd be surprised. In the past, the young have coloured up similarly to the parents. The tail bars are soft coloured, not distinctive, like the sample here from Garrie Landry's website.

http://www.zebrafinch.com/NewZebra/ches ... white.html

As far as black breast. I consider them to be similar to the sample bird shown by Landry. My birds markings aren't nearly as wonderful, well the tail in particular isn't distinctive black.

Black breast... well, this pair of birds is always paired together. It's been a number of months since anyone else was in the cage with them. Several months back, I re-introduced a large NG male to the cage for only a few hours. I had evicted the NG male from the same cage, while his mate was rearing young, because he tossed some little ones.

Upon re-introduction the CFW male beat the tar out of the NG male. (Yes, I removed him and he's fine!) Thus, for two or more months, no other males were available to the CFW/CCFW female.

I have some OB/BB in the Avery, but these birds have never mixed. I have some Isabelle, whites, silvers & black cheeks. Again, these birds have never had the opportunity to mix with the CFWs that produced these little ones.

The yellow, without question is staining from the nest. The pic is from the fledglings first day out of the nest.

So... could there be hidden White in my CFWs? Is it possible that this white bird is "only male" or "only female"? Sometimes there are combinations like that... Thus, only 12.5% of the time you get this bird? (something like that).

I'm pretty confident that this bird is a keeper! It will have pretty good size and body type! I wish my 2012 bands had come in on time!

I look forward to the arrival of Garrie Landry's genetics book! Perhaps end of this week or early next week it will arrive. I look forward to studying and learning more about the countless combinations!

Again, thanks everyone for your time. It is appreciated.

[cindy]

The white chick is a CFW, CFWs are white...the white feathers, black skin...the black flecking on the head (like my bird/baby pictures below) is a sign of cfw. My chick is a BC CFW....yours is CFW (tear).

Your parent birds are a fawn CFW male and the female is a Regular CFW. Since the dad is a fawn CFW the chicks that look fawn may all be girls. The white one with be either a Regular CFW male or female. The father has both regular CFW and fawn in his genetic makeup.

this article on efinch is helpful.
http://www.efinch.com/species/cfwzeb.htm

As you baby molts the flecking if male usually fades and the cheeks come in. If a female the head may loose all or have a tiny black flecking. It is very faint. Notice the top of the head.

Parents are all white with BC...your by if male with have the orange cheeks like his dad. There are two types of CFW...regular and Continental. http://www.efinch.com/species/cfwzeb.htm explains the difference. Pictures of young and chicks, examples of markings are shown as well.

[cindy]

CFW is sex linked....this chart will help in understanging why you have a white CFW chick.

http://zebracrazy.byethost13.com/Gen3.htm

the upper right square/diagram best explains your pairing and offspring, In your case the male is a fawn CFW not a normal gray.

[DanteD716]

The dad looks split cfw or lightback to me