Young Zebra finches - what do I call their color?

[Celebrian]

Hi all! I'm new to the forum and finch breeding, but have owned finches for over 10 years.

So one day in July while sitting down for coffee I heard a bunch of little chirps in the cage. Long story short, we had our first clutch of four zebras. I have kept two, a male & female. I've been reading about breeding and genetics like crazy, but am still unsure what color they are. I'm assuming the mom hen is pied and dad is white pied (he's pure white)? Is that why all the babies had color?

Thanks!

[MiaCarter]

Wow! Very lovely!

All three are very heavily pied. Without seeing the dad, I can't be totally certain on the two kids, but I can make an educated guess.

In the first photo, on the right, you have a grey and white. That looks like a heavily pied normal grey to me. I think you said she's the mama.

The bird in the middle bird in the middle photo looks like it could be a normal grey male, heavily pied. It's hard to tell, as I can't see his face and chest. But he has black tail bars, so that rules out a number of mutations.

The bird in the third photo, the daughter, looks to be a heavily pied fawn, I believe?
She's missing her teardrop, which can be suggestive of some other mutations like Penguin and Florida Fancy, but I think that the teardrop was simply eliminated by pied markings.
Her tail bars are missing so that complicates matters.
I think we'd need to see what her dad (and her mom, if that's not her mom in the first pic) looks like to be certain on her.

Take a peek at this page:
http://www.efinch.com/varieties.htm

Pied, by the way, just means they have random patches of white where they would normally have color. Any mutation/variety can be pied.

[Celebrian]

MiaCarter, thank you so much for taking the time to look at my finches! I adore them.

(Also, I don't know if it helps to see the other two babies they had, but I attached their pic just in case.)

I attached a picture of the dad. He's pure white in color, no markings at all. He was laying in the charcoal feeder so any shadowing is from that, lol!

You are correct! The most colorful on in the first picture is the hen. I think what threw me off with trying to compare her with color types was the light tan color on her belly.

The middle bird in the second photo is their son and he has no markings on his face or chest (pure white). The only marking he does have is a thin "eyebrow" above his right eye. He looks like he's worried all the time

I love the daughter so much. Her fawn patch reminds me of a saddle pad.

Thank you for the link and explaining Pied. I think that's what was really throwing me off - thinking pied was a mutation within itself, not something that can affect some/most mutations.

[Ginene]

Welcome to the forum . Your birds are lovely!!!

[Celebrian]

Thanks Ginene!

[Sadie]

Hello Celebrian, what a beautiful bird family you have

[DanteD716]

Mom is a normal get pied, dad is a pied white (so heavily pied he lacks any markings) the boys are normal grey pieds and the female is fawn pied.

I'm not sure on any of the splits, but the dad is split to fawn (it is sex linked so only female offspring will be fawn) there is a slim chance that the sons will be split to fawn as well

[DanteD716]

The more pied you breed in the whiter the chicks will be. The triangle of color is often referred to a "saddle back" i have bred white pied to a saddle back before and the markings of the offspring are always random

[Celebrian]

Thank you all for the warm welcome!

Dante, thank you for your breakdown. That makes a lot of sense.

I'm interested in breeding the fawn female down the road, so I'm making notes and continuing my research.

[DanteD716]

Celebrian anytime and welcome to the forum! If you can get a normal/fawn male you will get farm/pied of both genders!

[Celebrian]

Thank you so much! I love it here already! I'm so excited to get into this hobby. They are so much fun and the "accidental" clutch whetted my appetite for learning about zebs.

I'll have to make another post in a bit for my Lady Gouldian male as I am actively looking for a mate.