"Fancy" Zebra finch - interesting!

[cindy]

I have been working with zebra mutations for close to 8 years now...

Pied... think of it as a big eraser. It removed color, it does not add it. It is a very stubborn gene, once introduced you can't get rid of it, you can breed it down but it is always in there.

Visual refers to a bird that presents as a full not split to the mutation

example: a full black cheek presents with complete full black cheek patches... that is a visual

a split may present with wide tears with some slight feathering of the black from the back of the tear into the orange of the cheek.

markers for split to pied... spots of white on top of the head, spot of white under the chin (lower beak) and white wing edges.

[Derk]

cindy
Thanks Cindy.

[MiaCarter]

cindy has it perfectly! (of course!)

Definitely looks like a pied penguin male.

That's a great way to explain pied. (Would you believe I'm actually breeding FOR pied? I love the uniqueness of pieds! But I still haven't produced a pied female, so my pied breeding attempts haven't gone too well. Though I've produced a lovely pied male zebra, Tiny!)

It's also important to remember that the pied gene is totally separate from the primary mutation genes. Lots of people get confused with that.
So you can be a normal grey or a black face or a lightback or a penguin or a CFW.
The pied gene is always separate from and in addition to those genes.

[Teagarden]

Very pretty bird.
Mary