FINCHforum

I picked up a couple of young zebra finch today. Here is a picture of one of the hens:


This is her father (sorry its so blurry):


I am guessing that her father is a black face because he has a solid black breast bar and from the tear forward to the beak is black (you can't see it in the photo though). As black face is dominant, 1/2 of the offspring should be black face. The hen above has a very large tear and I am thinking she may be a black face hen. She is only about 3-4 months old. Apparently it is hard to tell the hens from normal sometimes. Can any of the Zebra finch experts tell me if the hen is a black face?
thanks
Lori

True it is hard, sometimes the best way to tell is when they are really young. In an ldeal world the area between the tear mark and the beak shouldn't be white, it should be same colour as the bird, but that rarely happens with mine either. It definately looks like a Blackfaced to me, her belly is grey where Normals have a buff colored belly.
When they are really young. That area between beak and tear is white with normals but when blackfaced it doesn't turn white untill they've molted out, did you notice that?

the grey hen is not BF.

Thanks for the input. What about her makes you say that? I am trying to pick up the subtleties of these different mutations. If she is not BF then is the father a BF? If he isnt BF what do you think he is? When I look up all the mutations I can't find another mutation where the part from the tear to the beak is all black.
thanks,
Lori

Because she is white between the beak and the eye.

If you look at this photo you can see the differents
http://www.efinch.com/birdpix/bfyb.jpg

I would like to see another photo of the dad,
but its looks to me he is BF.


Vargs - Ungi undan Álmos og Vargs Gefjun by Elma_Ben, on Flickr
Normal grey, BB BF female


Vargs ungi by Elma_Ben, on Flickr
Normal grey BF male - baby


vargs - Ungfugl undan Álmos og Aris by Elma_Ben, on Flickr
Adult!


Vargs - undan Vargs Svartskegg og Vargs Gefjun by Elma_Ben, on Flickr
Fawn BF OB male - baby


Vargs - Ungfugl undan Vargs Gefjun og Vargs Svartskegg by Elma_Ben, on Flickr
Adult!



If she is this old and have already molted into adult feathers,
then she is not BF.

Wonderful pictures Vagur!

Thank you Cindy!!

Yes she is definitely whitish in front of the tear. I don't have any other photos of the dad as I just bought the daughter. Why would her tear be so thick? Could she be a split to BC? I have read that you can tell a split to BC by the larger tear and feathering of the tear back towards the cheek patch.
thanks
Lori

Isn't the cock Zebra a black breast? He looks like it to me.

Isn't the cock Zebra a black breast? He looks like it to me.

I could be wrong but as for Black breast...his cheek patches were normal size and the tear mark was present just enlarged to be black from where the tear is all the way to the beak.
Lori

Oh, I can't see that. It was just the closest one I could think of. I am no kind of expert that's for sure. He's very pretty and so is the hen!

While I have all the experts attention... I have a couple of other mysteries:
I thought this one was just a pied hen but then when I got her home I noticed that she does have a cheek patch. Hopefully you can see that the cheek patch is slightly different in color and more of a tan color. Her tear is also faded.





If she is a hen then wouldn't she have to be a fawn cheek pied? From the few photos I have seen she has the right colored cheek and the faded tear.
If "she" is a male what would she be?

Here is another one...I think he is just a Florida Fancy but he has very little coloration on the flanks. Also his face is not as orange as it appears in the photo but again more of a tan color.





Is he just a FF?

I love the zebra finches just because they are such a mystery!!!
thanks,
Lori

Its a definitely a "she" and she is very cute!!
She is very Silverish in color.
Her tear mark is like dark silver and the rest of the body is much lighter silver.
Maybe she is a SF FF. (florida Silver)
And there are some fainted cheeks there for sure!
could be Fawn cheeks.. or she is split for OB.
And is showing some male markings..
You dont know anything about her parents?

And the grey female could be split for BC.
The "split BC" tear mark can be in many different shapes and sizes.
If you want to know for sure, I think you sould pair her up with
a split for BC male or full BC male.

I dont know about the Male.
But he is very handsome.

I have Florida silver females from my FF and FS's...does you silver girl have white edges to her wings similiar to the male below... This is a FF male.....your white male with light cheeks might be a cream...I had one like this and sold him to a friend that was working with creams. Very soft looking. Cream...(mine has a faint tear)