There are pages and pages of information on the world wide web that deal with various color mutations in lovebirds, budgerigars and a variety of other species.  This page will look to garner input from budgerigar breeders and lovebird breeders.  Most breeders have a little piece of the inheritance puzzle, and this page will seek to aggregate that knowledge, so that a greater understanding of physical inheritance can be theorized or recorded

The challenge in the bird world, as I see it, is determining the inheritance patterns for specific physical traits.  The conformation and deportment of your bird should get you to the bench every time: not color alone, but in concert with form.

New breeders have access to all of the color inheritance knowledge accumulated, over years of trial and error, by experienced breeders.  Has that access negatively impacted the mainstream breeding business or generated more interest ??  The scientific community is working on feathering and color inheritance ( distribution, cloudy cells, barbules, melanin, dilution).  Do experienced breeders feel threatened by these studies and the information they may provide... they should not.

Should breeders be afraid to share information regarding their knowledge of inheritance and how it relates to physical form, both deleterious and beneficial... NO, they should not.

Experienced budgerigar breeders (hobbyists) used to have much of the knowledge required to "assemble a bird" as required or as the 'standard' of the day dictated ("Standards" are meant to be flexible, not engraved in stone).  I am not sure how widely disseminated that information is in the budgerigar world today.  Budgerigars today, show little resemblance to the spritely, bright and "typy" birds which were shown in the late twenties and thirties.  They were something else entirely.  Looking at and reflecting on how budgerigars have "evolved" in the sport is a personal thing.  However, the standard today tends toward big intermediate and buff birds with plenty of blow.  The lovebird fancy seems set on following this direction, with larger (buff) birds and the allure of "the" big bird with broad round head; excellent conformation, tight feathering (from coarse feathering); and overall balance and deportment... something budgerigar breeders have always sought whether in the birds of the past or birds today..

There is a golden opportunity for budgerigar enthusiasts and master breeders to share their knowledge with those in the lovebird fancy wishing to pursue larger "Buff" type birds, and as well for those few who cannot give up the more active and tighter feathered "standards" of the present.  Can we get out of our self-imposed silos and share the knowledge we have accumulated over the years... ???

In many ways, the physical perfection of our birds (be they small or large) is everyone's ultimate goal.  Many may say that this goal is unattainable, as:

•     older breeders have no wish to share knowledge acquired over years of hard work and study, just so that they can increase the competition ( personally I don't like old, I prefer experienced)
•     Physical structure is subject to greater variance and impact from modifier genes than color. As such, it is impossible to predict physical inheritance
•     Shape and size (form) are predicated on polygenic inheritance and therefore are not subject to simple dominant or recessive allocations, perhaps indeterminate, but there has been little work done in this area.
•     We have barely perfected color inheritance and it is already becoming more challenging with spots and flecking etc..., how does one propose to determine dominance of specific physical traits ?
•     Don't you know that like does not necessarily beget like, consequently your objective and premise for this page are unattainable and flawed.
•     You're living in the past old man, nobody shares this kind of information today, particularly in the competitive world of budgerigar breeding... times are hard (they were in the past too!!)
•     Knowing the inheritance will give people the formula for breeding excellent exhibition birds all the time,,, have you lost it ?  ( think about this and what has happened with the color inheritance information...)

•     Inheritance is predictable
•     The challenge resides in having a pure enough strains to identify the inheritance of certain characteristics... those identified in the chart below
•     A great deal of time has been spent on color combinations, but even today, if we look at the budgerigar world, those colors which were once clear are now fairly "dirty" barring a few exceptional cases... why ???  Everyone has access to a list of what to cross in order to obtain the best pairing for color production??  That access is similar in the lovebird community.  Is it happening because many pet owner "breeders" want a lovebird split for 7 or 8 color mutant genes ... what impact does this have on purity of color and color identification in the general public?  Who will keep the strains pure ?
•     Many continue to be unaware of the differences in the lovebird "species" and mate them with reckless abandon ( they are unaware that they are doing anything wrong). This complicates matters further in terms of potential future inheritance patterns.
•     Does the release of knowledge and information mean it can be used in a negative fashion or cause trouble for "breeders"... not unless the individual acquiring the information is willing to undertake the time and effort required to use it ?  In the end, someone with that desire will end up breeding anyway.
•     Inheritance of certain traits is pretty well understood in the budgerigar and in the lovebird world (anecdotal evidence combined with practical progeny testing and observation... let us expand upon it and share our thoughts here).
•     Can the lovebird community benefit from the budgerigar experiences and vice versa.. This is your choice.  Like the fancy itself,  one only gets out what one puts in !!

If you know of a site that collects morphological / physical inheritance information, please let me know (I have not been able to find any and that is why I thought to set up this page and aggregate some of the knowledge out there).  Please be aware that nothing is free.  In order for this site to work, I only request that people from both the lovebird and budgerigar communities share their own experiences, reasons and observations regarding why they believe a particular physical trait is inherited in a particular way
 
 

 

Trait	STRAIN  (X many Years)	Inheritance Recessive Dominant Indeterminate	Transmission Hen  or Cock	Comments / Observations
Faulty Carriage Tail & Wings beak relationship
Mask Breadth & Depth
Attitude and Deportment
Broad Shoulders and back
Eye Position Foreward Centered To the back
Tail neatly in line with body axis
Roach Back
Straight back line
Wings neatly in line with body
Body Angle on perch
Coarse Feathers (Buff)
Color Intensity
Narrow / Wedge Face
Broad Face and brow
Raised Rump
Dropped or Hinged Tail
Dome or skull  shape height
Back skull (round)
Snaky Neck
Badly Crossed Wings / Wing tips
Beak problems overgrown under-slung etc... jutting-out tucked-in
Separated tail feathers
Hump on the shoulders
Dome (Crown / Frontal)  or forehead shape
Head shape Flat Round
Neck Full & Wide Pinched
Chest tapering to Abdomen vs large or pronounced abdomen (front line)
Feet size
Tubular body
Hoopy Carriage
Short Wing & side
Too shallow body
Shallow Mask
Broken Mask