Post
by Mikesringnecks » Fri Apr 25, 2014 5:36 pm
Hi Bridgey
I'm not sure how much this will help but here goes. A normal wild type ringneck has an overall distribution of yellow pigment as seen in your lutino birds. Those lutinos carry 2 blue genes each and those genes have in effect removed all black/grey pigment from the feathers to allow the beautiful yellow to be seen on its own.
A single blue gene in a bird has no effect on the black/grey pigmentation and it will look exactly like a normal green bird. However there are several "blue series" genes that combine with a single blue gene to have a significant visual impact on a bird's colour. They are Turquoise, Indigo, Sapphire and Emerald.
Put very simply, Turquoise, Indigo and Sapphire, in combination with a single blue gene, result in a patchy distribution of yellow pigment to give you a blue bird with patches of green. Turquoise allows more green than Indigo and Sapphire gives you even less still. These mutations are "progressive" which means that the amount and distribution of green changes significantly as the bird matures. It stabilizes at full maturity with a turquoise cock bird having a black/white/pink neck ring and an indigo bird having a black/white neck ring.
Emerald in combination with a single blue gene seems to change the nature/colour of the yellow pigmentation over the whole bird. It does not seem to be particularly progressive, it is not patchy and it results in an overall sea green or aqua appearance (emeralds were called aquas in Europe for years). The resulting yellow pigmentation, when seen on its own (in my case in cleartails) is very pale/delicate, quite unlike the strong yellow in a lutino.
Apart from the patchiness, the colour of indigo and emerald birds is similar but not exactly the same. I can send you some photos but it will have to be direct as this site can only handle low resolution pics.
Kind regards
Mike
