Hi all! So I've noticed that as Coyote is getting older, his face is coming in more yellow. At first, I wasn't sure since it was kind of subtle, but just now I was checking him out and compared it to the pics I took when I first got him and he's definitely gotten more yellow feathers and fewer grey feathers. I know for a fact that he's a light pied because his parents are both pied, so he's not just a split.

Do male pieds sometimes do this, molt on brighter faces?

They aren't supposed to, but pied breaks all the rules and it wouldn't surprise me if this happens occasionally with a light pied male. Can you post pictures? I'd like to see what he looks like now.

Here is a picture I just took now, with the flash so you can really see all the yellow feathers. His yellow is a lot brighter in general in his face and crest and there is just more of it in his crest and around his beak in particular.

Here's one of his baby pictures, conveniently taken at almost the exact same angle:


Time will tell, but it looks to me like maybe his yellow feathers are just getting brighter, rather than getting more of them. It looks like his grey tones are getting darker too, which might be just the lighting in the picture, but it's normal for males to get darker when they mature. The extra contrast would help make his yellows look brighter. He's a handsome fellow!

BTW I've noticed that his eyes seem to have a dull red glow in almost all his pictures. You know those 50% odds of him being split to cinnamon? I think it's most likely that he does have the split.

I think you're right and he has had face and crest pin feathers since I got him so I'm wondering if maybe he's just still filling out and the new feathers that are filling out his face and crest happen to be yellow instead of grey. He is very handsome! I love that he might be split to cinnamon since I've told you that we may get my son a female cockatiel in a year or so and then perhaps they'll make some babies! That's a ways off though and we're enjoying the single cockatiel/trio of budgies household at the moment.

But he's pied, split to whiteface and pearl and probably cinnamon. He could definitely have some gorgeous babies for sure. You could become a great grandmom, lol.

I'm already a great grandmother through several of my feathered grandchildren, which is a good thing since my son hasn't delivered in that department yet lol. Buster and Shodu want to get to work on making a whiteface lutino girl right now - here's a picture I took last week of them checking out the nest potential of a light fixture. But I told them they have to wait until May, and I put a screen over the light so they can't get in it any more.

haha, I saw that pic in the other thread and I literally LOLed. I'm glad I only have the one to worry about at the moment. I was just telling a coworker the other day that I could not believe how quickly he figured out how to pop a key off of my keyboard. It went from, "Oh how cute! He's typing... OH NO! OMG HOW DOES THAT EVEN HAPPEN" in about 1.5 seconds. Then she told me a story about her 18 month old walking up to her the other day and nonchalantly spitting out a Tab key into her hand. Kids and birds (or really, most pets). Funny how they can be so alike.

You know I like those whiteface lutinos! Shodu and Buster need to get to work in May.

Don't laugh too hard. They might be your future in-laws.

Ah! Coyote was bred by Carolyn. So cool!

Totally cool. I was lamenting on trying to find a good breeder for cockatiels in my area on TC and a poster there mentioned her. I looked her up and sent her an email and voila! Not to sound gushy or anything, but honestly, I feel so lucky. He is healthy, tame, charming and so hand friendly (to the point that he prefers my hands to any other perch which can make posting a little hard, since he wants to help me type by plucking keys off my keyboard, like just now, haha). He loves face scritches and he'll try a nibble of pretty much anything I show him and he's just so great. I know that each bird has their own personality but I can't help but think that he's so tame like this due to how he was raised and for that I feel so lucky!

/gush