Faracat

OK. This is interesting and slightly more complicated than I thought. Most of my birds were bred with me, so i know their parents. I have CFWs (males and females) whose parent's were also CFW. My Greys (also a mix of males and females) have a Grey father and a CFW mother.

They are beautiful birds and such a nice selection of colours too.

I don't have any fawns as all my birds are either CFW or greys. I have been wondering about getting some fawns as it is an attractive colour. I keep my birds in an aviary, so they pair up with who they like. If a fawn paired up with one of the CFW, what colour would the chicks be? If a fawn paired up with a grey, what colour would the chicks be?

Looking at efinch, I'm leaning towards her having one copy of BC. The grey cheeks have much 'cleaner' markings with an obvious black tear and grey cheek (very pretty IMO). This hen really looks 'smudged' but it's hard for you to see as I managed to get one of the cage bars right over her cheek on the least fuzzy photo. Sorry. Any other thoughts?

I would think that it's more likely that chick 2 is male, but hasn't fully feathered up yet. My young males have always tended to grow in the breast bar before the flank markings anyway.

I've not heard of GC. *Goes off to look it up*

Oh right, I didn't know that. Thanks. I had a CFW hen that was definitely a BC carrier (she had BC offspring, including the one in my avatar) and she was white with thin, grey tear marks, no smudging. Does anyone what was going on with her? ETA - Maybe with her paler tears the 'smudging' into the cheeks was too pale to really see?

Photos. Sorry that they aren't the best.

After losing one of my CFW hens recently, I decided to replace her and popped into my local pet shop that normally has a good selection of zebbies. I ended up choosing a hen with slightly unusual face markings and coming away with a super CFW male as well... as you do. I'm not certain if she's just badly marked or has something else going on too (maybe BC?) as she looks like her black tear markings have smudged onto her cheeks. Any ideas? I'll try to get a photo tonight.

What a nice surprise. Fingers crossed that the parents breed you some more!

I've seen them for about £8 too. I was really lucky and had a nice surprise when two surprise BC chicks hatched from non BC parents (although they must both carry BC, I didn't know that at the time). The BC pied is shown in my avatar.

Thanks Andy. She's not a pied, but as she was a pet shop buy, she could be carrying something that I don't know about. Is there a site that explains all the genes for Zebra finches? I'm really interested in learning.

Well my lovely new grey penguin hen has decided that my young, pied CFW male is the one for her and they are busily building a nest. The joys of keeping all your birds in an aviary.... Anyway I'm not going to split them up, so if they do manage to have chicks what colours might they be?

That's the right sort of surprise.

Hi, welcome to the forum. Sadly I can't see your photos, could you try adding them again?

Even with the fuzzy photos (I struggle with getting good close ups too - you aren't alone there) you can tell that that is a nice bird.

Thanks for that Kareem - it's very helpful.

He looks fab.

Oh lovely. She is special - you must be very pleased.

The hen is really pretty. When you say that they 'appeared' do you mean that you accidently bought them, or that they've just turned up out of nowhere?

Thank you.

Am I correct in thinking that BC is recessive?

Thanks, that makes sense. Is there a desirable % or placement of white markings with pieds?

I did wonder if the hen was actually pied, but you couldn't see it because she was white anyway?

Hello, nice to see you on this forum. I'm sadly no help with the colours as I'm learning myself but they are lovely chicks and look very well fed!