Welcome hope you like it here.

(removed some of the quote since it was a long post)

I thought I started to get the basics, but even after reading yout post above my head started spinning again... I really have to concentrate not to lose track of what mixed with what becomes this or that. Thank God for the geneticswizard in you tielfan !!

I got into mutation genetics because Buster and Shodu gave me a couple of lutino chicks in their first clutch and I wanted to understand how that could happen. That's just the tip of the iceberg too, the subject of color genetics is insanely complicated lol.

Getting back to some other topics that were raised... Bird coloration is a lot more complicated than mammal coloration. Mammals have one pigment - melanin - so that's all you have to remove to get an albino. Birds have melanin too but many birds also have a separate red/yellow pigment and many have structural color. This is why birds can be so much more colorful than mammals, they've got a lot more to work with. Most bird species including canaries and finches get their red/yellow coloring from carotenoid pigment in the diet, but parrots manufacture a unique pigment called psittacofulvin (aka psittacin) that's found nowhere else in nature. There are a few other bird families that make a special yellow/red pigment, for example penguins have their own unique pigment.

Blue, green and purple are usually produced by structural coloring which is basically an optical illusion. There are no known blue pigments in birds, and the only known green pigment is in touracos. With structural color, light enters the feather and bounces off the melanin in the feather core, but it passes through a special layer in the feather that alters the way the light reflects and makes it look like blue. If there is yellow pigment in the feather the combination of blue and yellow will look like green, and if there is red pigment in the feather it will look like purple. You need the melanin layer in the feather core to get this effect, and the structural layer basically doesn't function in a mutation that eliminates the melanin. A feather with no pigment in it will simply look white whether it has the structural layer or not.

The cockatoo family (including cockatiels) doesn't have structural color, and neither do African greys. But as far as I know all the other parrot species do have structural color, and that's why we see so many green, blue and purple colors in parrots. Iridescence is a special kind of structural color. I don't know of any iridescent parrots, but several other bird families have it.

I've had Dweezil since mid-May. It's kind of a long story on him - the bird club bought him for the Christmas raffle and I babysat him for about six weeks from late October to early December. I tried to win him in the raffle and lost, but a few months later the woman who won him said she couldn't keep him any more and gave him to me. So now he's back and I'm very happy. He was fairly comfortable here from the start, but just in the last week or two he's gotten livelier so I think he's really settled in now. He's more vocal and active than I expected, and is basically goofy which I like. I'm having a lot of fun with him.

POWs are compatible with cockatiels - they're mellow and fairly non-aggressive just like cockatiels, and there isn't a huge difference in beak size so if it came to a fight the cockatiels won't be annihilated. They don't usually argue with him though, and when he squawks they back off. But I've occasionally seen a tiel squawk at him and make him retreat. This is typical of squabbles between the cockatiels too, the bird that starts the fight is usually the one that wins it. He's been singing to the chicks lately but they don't look impressed lol.

I got some baby pictures posted for this year's chicks: http://home.comcast.net/~ch_zonie/2015babies.html

Awww how cute! I saved just about every one that Lucy was in, to my laptop. I might have to make a slideshow or collage.

Though how could you tell who was who when they were newborn? I can't seem to tell Lucy and "Chester" apart in the earlier pictures, until the feathers actually start to develop. I have a feeling she might be on the left in most of them, though.

Also, I love how in the fledgling picture, Lucy had her back turned and her bum showing. I can recognize those tail feathers.

Lucy is the bigger chick in the pictures with Chester. She's two days older than him, and babies grow so fast that you can easily tell the older chicks from the younger chicks based on size.

Yes, she did strike a most elegant pose in the group shot of the fledglings. She wasn't the only chick to have a less than perfect picture, but she was the only one to actually moon the camera. Most of them were busy trying not to fall off the perch lol.

Well, you said her mother's the crazy one. Maybe that picture is an omen of what I surprises I have in store with Lucy. XD

Out of Buster and Shodu, which one is the more vocal? Naturally I would think Buster as the singer, but I heard that females may have a tendency to pickup on male behaviors, on occasion. Does something like that ever carry on to the chick's behavior?

Buster is the singer, and he's not particularly talented either - his song tends to be pretty monotonous. Shodu's not very vocal either, she goes for action not words lol.

But singing skill doesn't seem to be too related to parent behavior. Their sons are better singers than Buster is. None of their daughters have been very vocal but there could be exceptions.