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Winic1

CFW babies or not?

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I loaned a pair of zebra finches to the high school biology teacher, who keeps several different animals in his class.  Taught him and a few students how to care for them.  They let them breed, and they had a clutch of six babies, who have now fledged and are about a month old (they first saw babies on October 25).

Parents are:  male NG/CFW, female NG.  The male came from a friend so I knew he was split CFW.  The female had come from a pet store, and just appears NG.  Both just look perfectly NG, nothing else, not even one stray white feather hinting at carrying pied. 

The six babies appear to be 2 NG, 1 NG pied with two white spots above his beak and outer wings white.  1 CFW, who will of course be female.  And two that I am not sure about.

I only got to see the for a bit after school this week when we stopped in, and I forgot my camera so the friend with me took a few shots with her phone.  They're not very good, but they're all I have at this point.  So, I will describe, and put up the pictures we do have.  These two babies are white underneath, with silvery grey heads, and white cheeks, like a CFW baby.  However, the silvery grey (not as dark as NG) goes down their back between their wings.  The wing feathers have this silvery grey down the middle of each and every feather, and are white around the sides, thick band of white, not just a thin edge.  So they are white wing feathers with a grey stripe down the middle.  The tails are lightly banded like CFW.  (I am in the USA.  So CFW, not CCFW here.)

The silver grey on these two chicks is a completely regular and symmetrical pattern.  Really quite pretty.  But, what are they?  Are they just CFW with extra grey that will molt out as they get their adult feathers?  Are they something else?  Four of the six chicks will be taken home (in same sex pairs) by the students, and I get the parents and two chicks back, my choice.  So, I need to know if these are something special that I should keep, or just CFW's that are starting out a little dark?  Plus, it is driving me crazy seeing these unusual chicks, when I raised some CFW's before, they came out of the nest shiny white with just the juvenile grey heads.  Sorry the pictures aren't any better, this is what we were able to get on my friend's phone.  Hoping the teacher will send me more.

First picture is Dad, NG baby, mystery baby, NG Pied baby, NG baby, CFW baby

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Second picture is top view of mystery baby.

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Third picture is NG, CFW, mystery, Dad

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IMG_5390 (1024x765).jpg

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