We recently bought a hen. She appears to be grey but she also has a slight bluish tinge. Her cheek feathers are blue and her tail feathers are black. Is she a mauve or a grey.

 

I tried to do a bit of research but it just confused me. My research told me that greys have grea cheek feathers and black tail feathers while mauves have blue/violet cheek feathers and blue tail feathers. However, we had a grey opaline hen a few years ago and she had blue cheek feathers?????

 

Any ideas?

Do you mean cheek patch ?

yes, whoops... :fingerscrossed:

I have a couple of Greys with a blue tinge too, like metalic grey But they have grey cheek patches so they are Grey carrying the Violet factor. (confirmed through breeding).

 

Bluey Grey with dark blue cheek patched = Mauve. :fingerscrossed:

Grey birds cheek patches are a slatey blue/grey colour. Mauve have a dark blue/violet cheek patch. Quite different.

 

If you post a picture we might be able to give you a definite answer.

Hi all, thanks for the advice i'm still a bit confused when it comes to cheek patches though...

 

You see this is Jemima, the budgie I'm asking about. These photos are the right colour so they should be a good guide to go by on her colouring.

 

The thing is... we had a grey budgie before and she had blue cheek patches. This is her.

 

She can't have been mauve because her partner was a skyblue recessive pied and if she was mauve she couldn't have had mauve babies with him because he had no dark factor, the darkest their babies could have been in this case was cobalts, but they had grey babies too so this is where i'm coming form. Why has a grey budgie (proven through breeding) go violet/blue cheek patches?? and how can you be sure Jamima is a mauve based on her cheek patches in that case?

 

If anyone can see where i've gon wrong please lt me know so i can improve my understanding, this has just made me very confused.

Edited February 2, 201015 yr by SunshineE

now i really dont know yet myself so dont quote me but i read that a budgie with what they call french blue which is what gemma seemed to have is a Australian grey (im not saying she is as i also was told they are no longer )and grey were just grey i have no clue i just figure they are grey carrying cobalt but thats what mauve is so mave comes in the three shade factors of light medium and dark so...

The tail is the key is it blue or black? You may need to take the bird into the natural sunlight to tell, check the quill of the feather[the centre vain] is it blue or black. Good luck Clearwing

The tail is the key is it blue or black? You may need to take the bird into the natural sunlight to tell, check the quill of the feather[the centre vain] is it blue or black. Good luck Clearwing

I had a look before when i was trying to figure out what she is and her tail feathers look completely black... what does this mean, is she a grey variety or mauve. I didn't know there were different varieties of grey before so i'm even more confused :huh:I've just been looking through other topics and I found this one:http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index....=26306&st=0I did understand most of what was said in this topic however the addition of this other possibility only serves to confuse me more!!If it helps to say that Jemima looks just like the budgie referred to in this topic then... She looks just like the budgie the topic is about Is this a possibility for Jemima? Could she be grey carrying a violet gene??Also she is Jemima, as in Jemima Puddle-Duck

The tail is the key is it blue or black? You may need to take the bird into the natural sunlight to tell, check the quill of the feather[the centre vain] is it blue or black. Good luck Clearwing

I had a look before when i was trying to figure out what she is and her tail feathers look completely black... what does this mean, is she a grey variety or mauve. I didn't know there were different varieties of grey before so i'm even more confused I've just been looking through other topics and I found this one:http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index....=26306&st=0I did understand most of what was said in this topic however the addition of this other possibility only serves to confuse me more!!If it helps to say that Jemima looks just like the budgie referred to in this topic then... She looks just like the budgie the topic is about Is this a possibility for Jemima? Could she be grey carrying a violet gene??Also she is Jemima, as in Jemima Puddle-Duck

 

If the tail is black she is grey, as ashow bird the blue sheen would be considered a fault. As a pet or avairy bird, I'm sure she is beautiful. You can only really know her genetics by asking the breeder the family history or by breeding from her to discover what chicks[varieties and colours] she produces. cheers Clearwing

Looks grey to me.

 

Mauves cheek patches are very dark blue/violet not the kind of steely blue - steely blue or a grey slatey blue designates the bird as a grey - Plus mauve is usually a patchy kind of colour. I'll try and get a couple of comparison pics for you.

 

 

okay grabbed some pics. Bear in mind he mauves are both clearwings but the pics still show cheek patch and body colour accurately to what you would see on most normal mauves.

 

Greys can have a wide range of cheek patch colours - steely blue to a straight grey colour but they are never the deep colour of a mauve. Body colour of a normal grey is also much more uniform whereas mauves are patchy, purplish dark grey.

 

3 different greys with varying cheek patches. All have nice uniform grey body colouring. These birds are unrelated.

 

 

 

 

okay 2 mauve clearwings. Note the difference in the cheek patch colour AND the body colouring. These are from unrelated pairs as well.

 

 

Hope that helps.

Edited February 3, 201015 yr by nubbly5

wow- that helps heaps! thanks. I'm sure she's a grey now i've seen some comparison photos, HEr cheek patches are not that really dark blue/violet on the mauves so she must be a grey.

 

I agree that the blue sheen is a fault but I didn't get her to show, my brother fell in love with her the moment he saw her and we were looking for a partner for one of our boys who has been depressed ever since his partner died so I hope he likes her too!

 

Anyway Thank you all for your input and advice, I've learned heaps as well as what colour Jemima is

In the original post it was mentioned the bird had a black tail feather. So if that is indeed the case then the bird is Grey. Mauves have dark blue tails.

 

Sunshine I tried to contact through the PM but you have not returned my message. It was some time ago now. Did you get it?

Sorry to hijack the post but......WOW Nubbly, this guy is a stunner.....

 

 

RIP, thanks for the clarification No I did not get your PM, when did you send it? My server is very unreliable and it drifts in and out often so maybe something happened there, not sure though...