Just trying to get to know the variety, as I think I'm having a clearwing baby in the nest at the moment. She's now about 4 weeks old and 3 of her siblings got out this week. My intention of the paring in first place, was to produce violets, as both the parents are violets. The hen, most likely a cobalt violet, was bought together with a skyblue spangle, also possibly a clearwing cock, same age, same shop. The cock of the pairing, is a skyblue violet spangle and he might have the dilute gene as split, his father was a greywing.

 

This violet pair produced 5 chicks, all of them which seem to be spangles, some of them violets and - or so I first thought - a greywing. But this "greywing" has very faint wingmarkings and the bodycolour just the same density as the eldest chick, who seems to have the same colour as the mother, only different shade of it. I have been also wondering, why in this clutch it seems, that some of the chicks body colours are rather dull or faded, but the wingmarkings very nice, strong spangle ones?

 

 

"Maybe CW" hen, chick number 5, on the left, and her brothers number 2 and 1, accidentally taken with flash.

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From lef to right, mother, father and chick number 2 (same as above front, without flash..)

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Chick number one with his mother, see the difference in colour between them, the colour is the same basically, only the shade is different.

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The possible CW chick younger, number 5 she is.

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And a picture of her uncle, that is, the mothers possible brother, on the right.

Yes it looks very much like a clearwing but could also be a spangle greywing with the spangle markings reducing the amount of grey shown. It's a bit hard to see but the older bird in the bottom photo might also be a spangle greywing or clearwing. Looks to be a clearish patch on his rump indicating spangle but the photo is a bit far away. Need some close up of wings and rump.

 

Also the chicks will ALWAYS be a more muted colour than adults until they moult into their adult plumage.

Thank you Nubbly5!

 

The bottom picture cock in my last post is a spangle. The wing markings are very faint to be exactly sure, but he has the typical white/blue opalescence on his rump to indicate spangle. Also I'm quite sure, that all the chicks are spangles, at least all the normal coloured. However chick number 5, greywing/clearwing has nearly no markings at all compared to her siblings. She's still in the nest with one of her brothers, so I'll take a picture of them two, for you to see the difference. Other chicks have actually quite nice spangle markings, black and strong, so you can easily tell the odd one.

 

Here's a bad picture without flash of that skyblue spangle, next to a reseccive pied skyblue. Their bodycolours are normal, not diluted in the least.

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Here's the picture of the two youngest chicks

And in case you need to see it bigger, click here.

I wish to get some answers to my dilemma...

 

I had this mating last summer and another one for the same couple right after. The first clutch included the chick above who nowadays looks like this (she's also a spangle, violet), sorry I don't have a photo from front, she's at my friend, but I can assure you the colour is quite as dense front as at her rump:

 

 

 

The second clutch included another violet chick who at first had quite a diluted body colour and grey wings, he looked like this at 1 month old:

 

 

 

And now, at 5 moths:

 

So my question is, are they badly marked clearwings or full body colour greywings? Or is it impossible to tell? And as I have ready from all over the internet single factor clearwings (clearwing / dilute) would actually have more suffusion and only double factor clearwings (two clearwing alleels) would have the bright white / yellow wings? These chicks are after two visually normal parents, most likely a split clearwing hen and split dilute cock.

Edited February 10, 201114 yr by falki

They look like full body colour greywings to me. Cheers Clearwing

Edited February 10, 201114 yr by **KAZ**

That's what I've been thinking too... it's just that the father of thic clutch has earlier produces a dilute or something that looks a lot like one and if the father is a split dilute and not a split greywing, the chicks would have to be clearwings. I guess what I'm looking for as an answer is, that can a clearwing be this heavily marked or is the only option in cases like this a full body colour greywing?