My leucistic Goldfinches (photos)

[andiok]

this are some of my old photos of my birds. i moved to another country so i dont own this beautiful and rare goldfinches. for some of you that dont know what a leucistic bird is i would shortly say a melanine deficiency on some patches or totally in the skin and those spots are totally white. could be nails and fingers too.

[eddie.chiao]

Hi Andiok,

Beauty Birds!
Are they nature or hybrid?
I am a new guy in GF field, so many things are interesting!
Wish you could get them again soon.

[andiok]

eddie.chiao
thanks eddie.
these are pied goldfinches otherwise known as leucistic gf.
just normal goldfinches most of the species carduelis carduelis Tschussi and c.c balcanica. very tiny and beautiful in colors but kept more for the beautiful song.

pied birds in case you don't know are just normal birds but they show no melanin in their skin/feathers but only lipocroms because of this mutation of the gene. (you need to read more to get this right though )

i have been selecting and crossing with interesting result this birds for a long time. in the same time the wonderful song of the goldfinch makes things a lot more exciting.

[Lee123]

nice birds are these cheverall and pea throats ? at least that's what they go by in the UK I'm just starting a aviary of goldfinches would love some of the cheveralls but they seem hard to get hold of nice looking birds tho

[gostokom]

Hi!

Interesting birds, I have some leucistic parva too, with a nice symmetric depigmentation.
Can you tell me a bit more about selecting?

The first one seem dead!

[andiok]

Lee123
yes thats what they are.
its hard to find leucistic goldfinches.
one of the best countries where u can find them is albania and italy.
we breed them for years with different results.

[andiok]

gostokom
the goal with leucistic goldfinches or pied goldfinches is to get a totally white prole like this one \
or beautiful pied prole with lots of white on them like this ones



these gf are not an albino mutation with red eyes
this are normal birds that with no melanine in their skin

[lovezebs]

andiok

Lovely looking birds!

Are these birds that you have bred yourself, or is this what you are aiming for with your breeding program?

I haven't seen too many Goldfinches (as they are not common where I live) but I have never seen these colour mutations before. Thanks for sharing .

[andiok]

lovezebs
hi Elana.
yes i had one total white born in my aviary but had a short live unfortunately. I do have his prole though.
to me, goldfinches are the most beautiful birds on their real colors but the pied once are more like a challenge. Its very exiting to see how the new prole is going to be because the same pair never gives the same colors to their prole. And from a pair with very few leucistic spots you could get a total white so its always unexpected results.

[lovezebs]

andiok

When you use the word 'prole', do you mean the word 'prole' in Spanish, meaning offspring?

Yes, the original colours are quite lovely, but it's an interesting challenge to breed different mutations as well, and to come up with something unique, isn't it?

Good luck and would love to see what you come up with in the future.

[andiok]

lovezebs
Yes thats what I mean the offspring

[gostokom]

gostokom
the goal with leucistic goldfinches or pied goldfinches is to get a totally white prole like this one
or beautiful pied prole with lots of white on them like this ones
http://www.francomonopoli.it/bbb/chiari14.jpg
http://www.francomonopoli.it/bbb/chiari16.jpg

these gf are not an albino mutation with red eyes
this are normal birds that with no melanine in their skin

Hello andiok ,

It is difficult to predict the outcome , it is unpredictable from year to year and clutch to clutch , that's why we can not say it's a mutation .

But we now know that certain subjects are stonger with this particuliare default , some says that they should have a white beak with no black dot at the end, white spots and white nails ...
what do you think abou this website: http://brianreederbreeder.blogspot.com/

My birds are wild caught (no breeding history), so I have to try them first and hope they do not carry an aberration, this is what happned to me with some paires, hope to succefful this year.

[andiok]

gostokom
all of my goldfinches were wild caught when i started breeding leucistic gf. its very hard to find cage bred leucistic gf for sale. i started breeding goldfinches 25 years ago so i was not new to gf. the only thing that fascinated me was their ability to give birth to total white offspring. thats why i keep breeding them but not only, i also teach them the song of my preference.
regarding the genetics on leucistic birds....well that is a very long discussion but i will only say a few words.
the leucism in reality it is a mutation. the bird genes miss le melanine (color) and they express their self as white. (look at it like with the lipochrome canaries, they do not show melanine in their feathers but in the same time they are not effected from albinism because their eyes are still black)
the only thing with this kind of mutation is that it is not a fix mutation like the other goldfinch mutations. (agata, albino, etc)
So basically you dont know if the results will be a total white or just some white patches around his head or else.

[gostokom]

gostokom
all of my goldfinches were wild caught when i started breeding leucistic gf. its very hard to find cage bred leucistic gf for sale. i started breeding goldfinches 25 years ago so i was not new to gf. the only thing that fascinated me was their ability to give birth to total white offspring. thats why i keep breeding them but not only, i also teach them the song of my preference.
regarding the genetics on leucistic birds....well that is a very long discussion but i will only say a few words.
the leucism in reality it is a mutation. the bird genes miss le melanine (color) and they express their self as white. (look at it like with the lipochrome canaries, they do not show melanine in their feathers but in the same time they are not effected from albinism because their eyes are still black)
the only thing with this kind of mutation is that it is not a fix mutation like the other goldfinch mutations. (agata, albino, etc)
So basically you dont know if the results will be a total white or just some white patches around his head or else.

Hi andiok!

I got some leucistic offspring and you?

[GouldianGuy]

so cool