Please post photos of your black eyed self budgies here so that others can learn about the mutation. Include name, sex, colour, and other mutations (if any).

 

 

Description of a black eyed self:

 

A black eyed self bird should have their back, rump, breast flanks and underparts all an even shade of colour throughout.

 

 

MARKINGS: Faint markings are found on their cheeks, back of head, neck and wings.

 

 

EYES: Dark with a white iris ring.

 

 

LIGHT YELLOW (Buttercup) : has white suffused or pale violet cheek patches and a neutral tail feather suffused with ground colour.

 

 

DARK YELLOW: has white suffused or pale violet cheek patches and a neutral tail feather suffused with darker ground colour than that of the Light Yellow variety.

 

 

OLIVE YELLOW: has white suffused or pale violet cheek patches, and a neutral tail feather, suffused with darker ground colour than the Dark Yellow variety.

 

 

White: has white suffused or pale violet cheek patches, and a neutral tail feather with ground colour suffusion.

 

 

 

 

Feathers.

 

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Edited August 11, 200816 yr by Dave_McMinn

As the Black Eyed Self (BES) mutation is often confused with the Dark Eyed Clear (DEC) it was suggested that I update this post with the differences between the two. I know I initially thought they were the same thing. I spent 14 hours researching the DEC before I realised mine were completely different.

 

 

 

Description of a Dark Eyed Clear

 

 

General body colour of back, rump, breast, flanks and underparts to be a solid and even shade throughout.

 

 

MARKINGS: To be absent from all areas

 

 

EYES: Dark with the absense of a white iris ring.

 

 

YELLOW (Buttercup): White cheek patches and a tail feather approachig body colour

 

WHITE: White cheekpatches and tail feathers that are white.

 

 

 

From this description, compared with that of the BES, you can see that the BES has an iris ring, but the DEC doesn't. Also the BES has faint body markings, but the DEC should have no markings at all.

 

 

Feathers.

BEC / DEC are from pair recessive Pieds to Contenential Clear Flights. DEC is a from of Double Factor Recessive Pied.

 

What are They?

 

Dark-Eyed Clears, from their name, are budgerigars of clear yellow or white, free from any markings and colour pigmentation. This purity of colour covers the entire body and wings. They resemble the Lutinos and Albinos except in the eye. They share a common ground with Recessive Pieds, insofar as they have the solid black eye without the white iris ring; hence at times they are referred to as a "Black-Eyed Clears". Like the Lutino and Albino the DEC can mask any colour. For instance, a Yellow DEC could be in fact, an Olive Green DEC or a Light Green DEC. The shade of yellow in this case will be deeper and richer in the Olive than in that of the Light Green.

 

Genetics

 

It took a while to understand the gene that controlled their production and by the fifties they were popular, as were the Continental Clearflights. It was found that when pairing a Clearflight with a Recessive Pied, half of the young would be Clearflights and the other half Normals, with all the young split for Recessive Pied. It was also found that by mating a Clearflight split for Recessive Pied back to a Recessive Pied, a certain percentage of the young will be DEC. These Clears are not really Pieds in appearance but are the Recessive Pied form of the Continental Clearflight, or more concisely "Clearflighted Recessive Pied".

 

It took me a while to understand their genetical breeding behaviour as written material on them was rather scarce. Those DEC's are in fact, birds that carry in their genetical make-up, one dominant gene (gene for Clearflight) and two recessive genes (genes for the Recessive Pied). Depending on which partner they are paired with, one type of gene will predominate and various varieties will be produced.

 

For example, if a DEC is paired to a Recessive Pied, then the recessive genes will act and the pairing will be as pairing two birds of recessive genes or two Recessive Pieds together. This type of pairing will produce DEC's and Recessive Pieds of equal numbers, theoretically.

 

The confusion arises when pairing a DEC with a normal (non-pied or split for Recessive Pied); we then produce the Clearflights. In this pairing we will not produce DEC's even though we started with one. In fact, the pairing will produce Clearflights and normals all split for Recessive Pied. What happens in this type of pairing is that the dominant Clearflight gene will act and the pairing is just like a Dominant Pied to a normal. Because the DEC had two recessive genes in hidden form, then these genes will continue to be present in the progeny in a hidden form as well, hence all the progeny will be split for Recessive Pied.

 

Yet, when pairing a DEC with a Clearflight split Recessive Pied, the dominant gene on both sides will act and the pairing is similar to Dominant Pied × Dominant Pied. This pairing will produce DEC, Clearflight and normal; both of the latter being split for Recessive Pied because of the recessive genes of the DEC, and because of the presence of the recessive gene on both sides, Recessive Pieds will appear as well.

 

It is interesting to see how the dominant and recessive genes of the DEC act depending on the partner. Because of the presence of a dominant gene in the DEC make-up, this gene can be present in a single or double dosage, visually both alike. The Pied genes act by eliminating the pigment melanin from the Pied patches. It seems that neither the recessive nor the dominant Pied genes can on their own, eliminate all the pigment, but two recessive and one dominant are sufficient to give complete elimination.

 

by Ghalib Al-Nasser

Edited March 14, 200817 yr by Daz

Not sure perhaps you can help, are these BES?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers

Nome & Tim

Nome & Tim your birds are Black Eyes and damn good ones too.

 

As far as the differance between Black Eyes and Dark Eyed Clears there is no way to mix them up. BE's have an eye ring and DEC's do not. BE's almost always show evidence of barring and DEC's don't.

 

The exhibition Black Eyed Self is usually a Cinnamon Dilute. The Dilute in its true form has around 25% body colour and light violet cheek patches. When Cinnamon is included and retained over generations the body colour is greatly reduced as are the markings and the cheek patches become silvery white in appearance.

WOW...this bird is almost the same as my Lacey !!!!

 

 

Anne, does Lacey fit the description above for the requirements especially the absence of an iris ring?

Elly, Lacey seems to fit the first description of a Black eyed self - with iris ring, not a Dark eyed clear...I am very new at all this so I could be way off the mark!!

if she doesn't have an iris ring she can't be a BES only a DEC

Yes, she has an iris ring

Oh see on your other post, did we put her down as a dilute? I would if I were you bring up that question back on that post and say you think she is a BES, because I think you just may be right but I don't know that mutation very well.

Oh see on your other post, did we put her down as a dilute? I would if I were you bring up that question back on that post and say you think she is a BES, because I think you just may be right but I don't know that mutation very well.

 

When I saw her picture just now I thought dilute only due to the heavier than standard body colour. BES are actually cinnamon dilutes, creating a clear even ground colour without body colour suffusion. She could be a BES but she would be considered too heavily suffused. On looking at picture again I would definietly say dilute.

Thank you Elly and Nubbly5,

 

I am going to remove her from the avairy tomorrow and get a picture that is closest to her markings as that photo is a bit off......

They are sooo sweet!

I tried to get more pics of Lacey today....I think I might need to get a show cage and take one of her in there....she looks a bit differ

I tried to get more pics of Lacey today....I think I might need to get a show cage and take one of her in there....she looks a bit different in all these shots due to lighting I guess....

A black eyed self bird should have their back, rump, breast flanks and underparts all an even shade of colour throughout. So....picture no 2 clearly tells me that she is not a BES .... definatley a DILUTE!! ?????Goodness me !! - Not sure how I made that mess!! sorry

Edited June 11, 200915 yr by anne101

My...I really botched that up didn't I !!! picture 2 wasn't the one I was talking about !! sorry ....

 

This was supposed to be picture 2....

 

Hi everyone.....

 

so Lacey is a 'olive' dilute, or 'green' dilute??

 

Thanks again....

I would say a dilute

Probably light green dilute I would say. Olive you would expect stronger suffusion on rump.

Thanks Elly and Nubbly5 - I'm glad I know now what she is