Eminent Dutch zebra finch breeder GJ HUISMAN describes a new colour project which he hopes will bear fruit in time for the show season later this year.
As zebra finch breeder specialising in combining different mutations, I found it a nice challenge to make a combination of topaz and charcoal. But first I had best describe the charcoal and topaz separately, since they are relatively new mutations.
Topaz
This mutation provides a brightening of the plumage. Topaz reduces the amount of dark pigments, making the plumage lighter and revealing more subtle colour nuances. It enhances the contrasts in the plumage, making light markings and patterns stand out better, and ensures that the overall appearance is lighter and brighter.
Charcoal
This mutation affects the distribution of melanin, resulting in a darker appearance, especially on the chest, tail, and lower body. The pigments are concentrated and provide a blacker colour. The characteristic orange cheeks of the male have disappeared and have the same colour as the rest of the head. Furthermore, the white dots in the flanks and white stripes in the tail are missing.
But what can we expect from a new combination of these two mutations? Are they complementary and do they reinforce each other? Or will they work against each other? And, perhaps most importantly, will the combination be clearly recognisable?
With all these questions in my head, I paired a beautiful yellow-beak, topaz, grey lightback male from Arnold Wiegersma to charcoal grey (normal) hens from my own English line. I paired the male for two rounds with two different charcoal grey hens.
After the first round, I selected the best youngsters and paired two of them together: a grey, split yellow-beak,
topaz, charcoal lightback x grey, split yellow-beak, topaz, charcoal. From this I bred a charcoal grey male with a beautiful type and model.
I paired this male back to his mother according to the line-breeding principle, in the hope that he would also be split for topaz. The chance of achieving splits was 50 per cent, with a 25 per cent chance of visual topaz and the remaining 25 per cent neither visual nor split topaz. With great enthusiasm I paired this charcoal grey male, with a chance of being split topaz (also a chance of split yellowbill and paleback) to his mother, a grey, split topaz, charcoal, yellow-beak. The first young immediately turned out to be a topaz grey. Later I even discovered that this youngster was a topaz, charcoal grey (a chance of only one in eight), after which a second topaz charcoal grey was born.
Unexpected features
In young topaz greys, interesting characteristics can be seen. For example, the skin of the wings is much lighter in colour than the rest of the dark pink body. Around the beak, the black accents are prominent, while the down has a soft, light brown colour. Contrary to popular belief, topaz greys do not have red eyes. However, the caps of newly hatched young are less dark than in ordinary greys.
In the accompanying pictures you can see topaz charcoal greys in the different stages of growth.
It will be particularly interesting to see how both combination mutations appear once they have their adult plumage. What differences will become visible? I hope we can admire this at the beginning of October during the national NZC show in Beusichem.
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