Some Facts on Star Finch Genetics

[Finch Fry]

In another thread, I was trying to understand the genetics of star finches. It is a good example, with only 2 colors and a simple dominant recessive nature to do some quick genetic calculations to determine theoretical color yield from random pairings.

I went through and put together a spreadsheet (pm me if you want me to email it to you) that puts together every possible pairing possibility for star finches. I then calculate color probabilities and from there determine wether they are double factor reds or single factor yellows. Here are some of the interesting facts I have come up with.

Please, if you see some flaw in my thinking, let me know. This is just an excercise for my own understanding of genetics and I think I understand it all now. I just wanted to share my findings with you in case you were interested.

Assuming yellow is recessive, which means any Red gene will outwardly express red in that star finch....

For a random pairing of any 2 colored star finches, you will get a 75% chance of getting a red star finch and a 25% chance of getting a yellow star finch. The red star finches will be 33% double factor reds (DFR) and 66% single factor yellow (SFY).

Any Yellow star finch can essentially be considered double factor yellow (DFY) for any instance it outwardly expresses yellow.

The only facts for offspring are if you have DFR male and DFR female, you will always get reds that are DFR. Any pairing with one red parent invovled yields at least 50% red offspring. Any of the red offspring produced from a single red parent pairing will all be SFY red stars. Any pairing with both yellow parents will yield 100% yellow offspring.

In a situation where both finches are red, but not know if they are DFR or SFY, then you have a 6.25% chance of getting a yellow baby and a 93.75% chance of a red baby. If the baby is red, 60% chance it is DFR and 40% it is SFY.

[L in Ontario]

Wow you really did great with this although I can't get it to stick in my head.

I have a yellow female and a red male and the surviving egg hatched into a yellow male.

I would like to get a red female for him someday and see what babies they end up with.

[anna_moscow]

Hi, my name's Anna . I'm from Russia (Moscow).
Sorry for my English. It's pretty difficult for me to find proper words because of the conversation theme.
I have 2 pairs of yellow faced Finch Star (and 9 babies)



But i'm very interested to find some information about mutation like on this photo

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... start%3D30

[nixity]

I'm guessing/assuming, then, that neither color is sex-linked?

[anna_moscow]

If somebody knows how to breed these Star Finch mutations and can share the information please answer

[Sally]

I haven't seen these particular mutations in my area of the U.S., though one woman I know has a yellow-faced Star male that has the yellowest breast I've ever seen--he is gorgeous. I have one pair of yellow-faced Stars. She had two eggs, those two weanlings are about ready to be moved to a juvie cage, but I don't know if the yf male is the father or if it is the rf male she was with before.

[trljr14]

Anna,i have two babies that look like your light colored one.I sent pictures to the breeder who i bought there parents from,and he said they were isabel dilutes.

[Sally]

I'm guessing/assuming, then, that neither color is sex-linked?

Actually, my understanding is that yellow is sex-linked. Red-faced is the normal, yellow is a mutation. I have a YF hen--when bred to RF males, she produced all RF, but the males were supposed to be split to YF. I didn't know that at first, and I sold all her male babies, so I never had a chance to try out that theory. Now I have her paired with a YF male. The first clutch of two hasn't colored up yet, and they could be RF out of the RF male she had been paired with. She is feeding five now, and the YF male will definitely be their father, so I'm thinking I should have all YF.

[Finch Fry]

Sally, that is what I also understand it to be from what I have read.

[newlinta]

I was just talking to Connie Gahman(Quakertown,PA) about her yellow headed stars a few weeks ago. She breeds Yellow headed,isabel stars and some of her lines are pied as well...she has been breeding them for years. In her experience, the yellow is not sex linked at all. She has had every pair combination possible(2 yellows,2 splits,male yellow/female split,female yellow/male split,etc) produce male and female, yellow headed babies.

Just thought I'd pass that info on...I thought it was sex linked as well.
I also thought that females couldn't be split(since it was supposed to be sex linked).

I will very definitely be getting a pair from her as soon as I can...lol.

[Sally]

Wow, Tim, that is incredible information! And I have sold all the babies out of my yellow Star hen--arghhhh! Well, all of her babies were RF, and since I didn't keep them, have no idea if any were split. Since I now have a YF pair, I can see what they produce--they have at least 4 babies in the nest right now. But I will have to get more lines if I want to keep on with the YF Stars. Lucky you to be close to Connie Gahman--she is a wealth of information!

I know the breeder that bought one of my supposed RF split to YF, so I will be able to check with him to see if he gets any YF with that male.

[nixity]

I was just talking to Connie Gahman(Quakertown,PA) about her yellow headed stars a few weeks ago. She breeds Yellow headed,isabel stars and some of her lines are pied as well...she has been breeding them for years. In her experience, the yellow is not sex linked at all. She has had every pair combination possible(2 yellows,2 splits,male yellow/female split,female yellow/male split,etc) produce male and female, yellow headed babies.

Just thought I'd pass that info on...I thought it was sex linked as well.
I also thought that females couldn't be split(since it was supposed to be sex linked).

I will very definitely be getting a pair from her as soon as I can...lol.

I think that may have been who I got my absolutely frickin gorgeous BCCBs from in Delaware!
She is a very nice woman

[nixity]

Actually I just remembered I got my CBs from Peggy Duval.. lol, maybe she is friends with Connie though because that name seems awfully familiar!!

[CandoAviary]

Peggy has nice birds...that is who I got some of my RTPF from Does Peggy have stars too?

[nixity]

Peggy has nice birds...that is who I got some of my RTPF from Does Peggy have stars too?

Yes she does - she had some yellow face stars when I got my CBs, and I don't know anything about them but they looked really nice.

Even her CBs.. they were the most bright blue I have ever seen.
She was especially warm and friendly, as well
She offered me any help I needed when it came to giving me advice on them since they were a new species for me.