Your Email:
Get the latest news, tips and
free advice every month
What was the reason for your most recent tack shop impulse purchase?
I liked the special display
I watched a demonstration
Someone in store recommended it
The item was on sale
The item had a promotion I liked
It was a new item I wanted to try
I liked the way it looked
I didn’t make an impulse purchase


WEDNESDAY, May 30, 2007
Those Little Orange Beauties

By Blake Ma
Blake enjoys working with lovebirds and has a passion for exhibiting and breeding them

Click image to enlarge
Diary of a Show Bird, By Blake Ma
Orange-faced Australian cinnamon baby lovebird.
Diary of a Show Bird, By Blake Ma
Orange-faced lutino pied lovebird.
Diary of a Show Bird, By Blake Ma
Orange-faced dark Australian cinnamon baby lovebird.

Have you ever seen an orange-faced lovebird? They are pretty, little bundles of joy! When you add the orange-faced mutation to a normal green, the peach on the bird turns into a very pretty orange. The red on the tail feathers also turns orange. 

Orange-face is a co-dominant mutation. You can, however, barely see it at all on a normal green bird unless you know what to specifically look for. To really see the orange, you need to inherit orange-faced from both parents. Even though orange-face is technically a co-dominant mutation, many people refer to birds with one orange-faced factor as being split to the mutation, as the orange face is not really visible. Normal green birds that are split to orange-faced birds should be shown in the AOC (Any Other Color) class of the green section at a bird show. The one orange-faced factor will slightly change the color of the green bird so it should not be shown in the normal green class.

Click image to enlarge
Diary of a Show Bird, By Blake Ma
Orange-faced lutino pied and orange-faced dilute lovebirds.
Diary of a Show Bird, By Blake Ma
Orange-faced Australian cinnamon and orange-faced green lovebirds.

If you pair a full orange-faced bird with a bird that has one orange-faced factor, then 50 percent of your birds will be visual orange-faced, and the other 50 percent will carry one orange-faced gene. If you pair two orange-faced birds together, 100 percent of your babies will be orange-faced.  If you pair two birds that each only have one orange-faced factor – therefore are not visual orange-faced – then 25 percent of your babies will be visual orange-faced, 50 percent will have one orange-faced gene, and 25 percent will have no orange-faced genes. And lastly, if you pair a visual orange-faced bird with a bird that has no orange-faced genes, you will get no visual orange-faced birds, but all of your babies will have one orange-faced gene.

The cool thing about orange-faced and any lovebird mutation is that you can combine this mutation with any other mutation. Some favorite orange-faced combinations are the orange-faced Australian cinnamon and the orange-faced dilute. 

<< Read the Previous Entry                         Read the Next Entry >>


 Give us your opinion on
Those Little Orange Beauties
Submit a Comment
No Current Comments

Wild Bird
Buy Now
Birds USA
Buy Now
Bird Talk
Buy Now
 


Hi my name's 
Pierre BOTW Nov 17 -23 2008


Visit the Photo Gallery to
cast your vote!