Spice Subspecies

[flrancho]

I was reading yesterday online that there are three different kinds of subspecies of Spice finch. I never knew that, and thought a Spice finch was just a Spice finch.

This got me to thinking, how do you tell the difference between the Spice subspecies? Is inter-subspecies breeding undesirable?

The reason I ask, is that even before I read about the Spice subspecies, I was making a comment to my Mom, that my current female Spice finch, Sendai, seemed different than my other Spice finches that I'd had in the past.

She seems fatter in body and seems to have a bigger head than the others I've had. When I had to catch her once to clip her nails, she grasped onto my finger with one of her feet and she has quite a grip for such a little bird and she bit me.... a lot, to the point that my finger was a little red from where she kept biting me. I don't remember this with my other Spices either, she seems stronger and more fiesty. My other Spices were generally pretty laid back and friendly to my other birds, I've noticed with my current one, in addition to seeming to be larger and stronger, she also seems to be more aggressive to the other birds, at least to new Society finches (so much so I thought I was going to have to pull her out of the flight).

I will also note here, that I bought Sendai as a "Society Finch" even after insisting to the bird guy that she was not a Society, but a Spice. He insisted she was a Society, and I ended up buying her anyway. I'd posted a pic here then of her, and got unanimous opinions that she was indeed a Spice finch.

Could it be possible that I have a different subspecies of Spice than what I've had before, or is this just this current bird as an individual?



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[cindy]

Did you read efinch.com?

http://www.efinch.com/species/spice.htm

over a dozen subspecies!!!! The white rump to an untrained eye could look like a society...wonder how many were sold mistakenly as societies!!!

[flrancho]

Yes, that was one of the sites I looked at, in addition to a few others.

[cindy]

Ok...now we need pictures of each subspecies!!!!! Volunteers??????

ps...love efinch!

[JohnBoy]

I have bred Spice Finches for years and the intensity of color varies from pale to brilliant. I really believe most birds we have are a mixture of many of the subspecies. The differences in the sub species is so minor it would take an extremely experienced eye to tell them apart.
They are all in the Lonchura family and the names are as follows: L. punctulata, L.p. subundulata, L.p. topela, L.p. yunnanensis, L.p. fretensis, L.p. nisoria, L.p. blasii, L.p. sumbae, L.p. particeps, L.p. baweana, L.p. cabanisi, L.p. fortior

The plate is from "Munias and Mannikins" by Robin Restall. Also note that a few of the pics are juvenile colors.

[DanteD716]

I never knew there were so many subspecies! I would too like to see photos of all of them to compare.

[cindy]

Bravo John.....thank you!!!

[finchmix22]

I'm not sure which subspecies my Spice are, but one has a red sheen to his feathers and the other is more of a chocolate color. Thus, their names are Blaze and Ginger. LOL. My other spice was called Nutmeg due to her slight difference in coloring. Hmmm.

[DanteD716]

I have bred Spice Finches for years and the intensity of color varies from pale to brilliant. I really believe most birds we have are a mixture of many of the subspecies. The differences in the sub species is so minor it would take an extremely experienced eye to tell them apart.
They are all in the Lonchura family and the names are as follows: L. punctulata, L.p. subundulata, L.p. topela, L.p. yunnanensis, L.p. fretensis, L.p. nisoria, L.p. blasii, L.p. sumbae, L.p. particeps, L.p. baweana, L.p. cabanisi, L.p. fortior

The plate is from "Munias and Mannikins" by Robin Restall. Also note that a few of the pics are juvenile colors.

Do you happen to know what book that picture is from?

[DanteD716]

I'm not sure which subspecies my Spice are, but one has a red sheen to his feathers and the other is more of a chocolate color. Thus, their names are Blaze and Ginger. LOL. My other spice was called Nutmeg due to her slight difference in coloring. Hmmm.

I like the names! Pretty bird, too.

[JohnBoy]

I have bred Spice Finches for years and the intensity of color varies from pale to brilliant. I really believe most birds we have are a mixture of many of the subspecies. The differences in the sub species is so minor it would take an extremely experienced eye to tell them apart.
They are all in the Lonchura family and the names are as follows: L. punctulata, L.p. subundulata, L.p. topela, L.p. yunnanensis, L.p. fretensis, L.p. nisoria, L.p. blasii, L.p. sumbae, L.p. particeps, L.p. baweana, L.p. cabanisi, L.p. fortior

The plate is from "Munias and Mannikins" by Robin Restall. Also note that a few of the pics are juvenile colors.

Do you happen to know what book that picture is from?

The name of the book is posted in the post.