Colour That Is New To Me, Please Help

[penguin 1]

Hi,

I have breed this season what i thought to be a cockbird but this morning on cleaning the cages i've found two egggs, all the other birds are defo cocks. The bird in question is almost identical to the one on the forums home page apart from the cheek patches are more fawn than grey, because of the cheek patches i assumed it was a cockbird. Can you please help me identify this bird. I have now moved it in with the hens.

Cheers

Wayne

[penguin 1]

thanks for all the help ????????????

[Emmy 528]

Hi Wayne

Sorry no one has replied to your post but when you say its like the photo on the home page do you mean the image at the top of the page where it says 'Zebra Finch Forum' if it is then I think that represents a 'Normal' cock zebra finch. If you could post a photo of the bird you are trying to identify that would be a big help. I'm sure then that some of the  members will be able to identify it for you. Unfortunately I only know the basics re the colours.

Hope some other members will help Wayne identify the bird if he posts a photo.

Emmy

[penguin 1]

Thanks Emmy,

 

If you go to the home page, zebraman.co.uk there is a coloured sketch taking up most of the page, this is the bird in question.

 

thanks

Wayne

[James 5]

Hi Wayne

 

If it is the same as the bird in the sketch then I think you have a grey cheeked hen there, Im sure other members will correct me if I'm wrong but the cheeked gene is dominant and should not be bred to another cheeked bird due to risk of blind chicks and chicks that are dead in shell, but if bred to a normal, recessive or other dominant mutation, 50% the resulting offspring could be cheeked, I think, Im sure other members may be able to clarify it more for you.

 

James

[dannyboy2012 63]

Hi Wayne,

James is right in what he says, but U say it has fawn cheeks, so this would be a fawn cheek, to sex a Zen can be done several ways.

First the cheeks, but if you have black cheeks, fawn cheeks, grey cheeks and cfw cheeks.

Secondly you can use the chest barring and flanks, as mainly only cocks birds have these, but you can get poorly marked hens that show slight chest bars and side flanks.

Thirdly you can use beak colour, cock birds are a really bright red compared to a hens orange.

Hope ive helped any more questions fire away fella.

Cheers Dan

[Emmy 528]

James and Dan, Thanks for replying to Wayne's post 

Emmy

[penguin 1]

Thanks,

The bird in question is almost identical to the sketch only with light brown cheeks so i assume from what you say it's a fawn cheeked hen, hence the eggs. I'll pair her up this season ( as she's a nice size ) with one of my grey cocks and see what happens. What is a fawn cheeked cock like ??? i'm assuming very similar to a cfw.

 

Thanks again.

[norfolk flyer 208]

Wayne,

             Go to www.efinch.com lots of photo's and info to what you need,

 

Hope this helps you,

 

Trevor

[penguin 1]

Thanks Trevor

[Zebraman 267]

Hi Wayne,

 

Firstly sorry for the late reply from me.

 

The bird that you've been looking at is a grey cheek hen, if your bird has fawn cheeks then it should be a fawn cheek.

 

Both of these types are dominant and your best pairing would be a normal cock bird to a grey cheek or a fawn cock bird to a fawn cheek.

 

The colour of the cock birds can vary in both types, but they retain the flank makings and the cheek patches are more orange than grey or fawn.

 

Try not to pair these types together as they can produce youngsters that are blind.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Gary.

[penguin 1]

Thanks Gary, i'll try pairing this hen to a grey cock to see what they produce.

 

Wayne