Indigo thread

[trabots]

I thought it about time that Indigo got threaded.

I always like the surprises I invariably get when catching my IRNs up for breeding. They reside off season in a very large flight.

The first df Indigo I have bred, which I just assumed was an Indigo at fledging in 2011, I hadn't previously caught it up since fledging. As it was from an Indigo pair with the cock split Pallid I have been getting rid of the cocks being poss splits. Ben, you have one.

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[Ring0Neck]

: DF indigo's phenotype is close to an sf emerald's.

[Johan S]

Here is one of mine.



Not sure if she is hetero-/homozygous yet. 100% offspring were parblues, but the numbers are too low to conclude anything yet. The other distinguishing feature between this parblue bird and turquoise(?blue) is the change in colour of the blue regions compared to homozygous blues. Notice the cobalt cock in the background and how the blue appears different (more "silvery")on the cobalt parblue hen.

Willy, how does your mature IndigoBlue hens compare to this bird? The homozygous indigo you posted appears more green, but of course that is 100% expected.

[Gratz]

Johan S

Is this bird indigo blue?
Looks more like indigo violet blue ?
The indigo blue that I am used to seeing are more like an emerald colour
Have a look at the ring on the back of the birds neck

[Johan S]

Gratz, it is a cobalt parblue compared to a cobalt. Sorry if there was confusion. Probably an IndigoBlue cobalt and the 100% parblue offspring being a fluke. Will know better after another nest. Also why I'd appreciate Willy's input on his IndigoBlues, as he should have specimens he knows 100% for sure to be heterozygous.

[Gratz]

Thanks Johan
Now I know what you were referring to as the (more silvery) .
I have read about the indigo influence darkening the overall colour of the bird.
I often wonder if the name indigo is the correct name for this mutation as a lot of breeders here in Australia have jumped in saying they have an indigo because the bird is lightly pasteled.
My reasoning for this is , with the indigo blue the bird I'd lightly pasteled but the overall colour of the bird is a green (emerald like) , you cobalt has a silvery appearance and I have seen many other photos of birds eg indigo cobalt and the bird is visually cobalt with a light pastel and the same in the violet , the bird looks violet with a little pastel,
Have we confused the indigo with a lightly pastel bird?

[trabots]

These have been probably posted previously but they belong in this thread. The Indigo is a bluer bird overall than a Turquoise, especially in the face and the front of the bird. The df Indigo is a lot greener as would be expected knowing that with the second factor, these Parblues have more psitticin than the sf Parblue. The flights of a df Indigo are darker however the image below does mis-represent them. They are not that dark.

Indigo

Indigo

Indigo and df Indigo

I often wonder if the name indigo is the correct name for this mutation as a lot of breeders here in Australia have jumped in saying they have an indigo because the bird is lightly pasteled.

As many have jumped in claiming they have 'Sapphires' just on the appearance, totally forgetting what they bred them from. Let's not fill this thread with argument and supposition based only on the sf Indigos. The sf Parblues can overlap in appearance, the df Parblues have been shown to have demonstrably different phenotypes to their df co-alleles. Breed them together people and treat them as distinctive recessive mutations to get the df Indigo and in combinations on the perch in your aviaries. There is no mistaking on that basis. Do not breed Indigos to Turquoise or Emerald, the phenotypes will be in- between in phenotype and like hybrids will get lost and mess up yours or someone else's breeding.

[trabots]

DF indigo's phenotype is close to an sf emerald's.

I must emphasise, other than Emerald these Parblue IRNs are not fully coloured until at least after their 3nd annual moult at 27-28 months of age here in Oz. As you know some cocks don't even get their ring until after the 4th annual moult. Other than a simple observation as above, valid comparisons of immature birds is not possible. The df Indigo hen which started this thread has only had its second major moult being 19 months old.

1st annual moult 3-4mo
2nd annual moult 15-16mo etc.

[Carr.birds]

Willy

I totally agree with you about the maturity. We have a lot of Indigo birds in SA, breeders just didn't know it is a separate allele of the blue locus and how to identify them. Most SA breeders will pair a "turq" looking bird with a blue partner and therefore I haven't seen a df indigo locally.

Do you agree the below pair are both indigoblue


Both above birds were bred from 2 separate df indigo bronze fallow birds. I kept a 2011 df indigo or indigoblue cock. Selected the "greener" bird in the nest of 4.

Tienie

[trabots]

Tienie, yes these look like Indigos to me.

[Gratz]

hello

Just a quick question to the Indigo blue breeders.
can anyone who has bred a DF Indigo blue cock bird that now has its ring tell me what colour the neck ring is ?
just curious if it stays black and white as in the single factor or does it also have pink ?
Thanks

[trabots]

Gratz, the df Indigo I had had a pale pink ring. The breeder had breed a few all the same.

[Gratz]

Thanks for that Willy,

Does anyone have a pic of an Indigo cleartail they could post .?
Or know if there is a pic of one posted previously

Thanks

[Ring0Neck]

Gratz

Here's a young indigoblue CT
http://parakeet.me/irn/f/069.jpg
http://parakeet.me/irn/f/0699.jpg

[Gratz]

Thanks Ben,

Would really love to see an adult cock bird ,if anyone has seen one can you let us know if the head and belly is creamy colour rather than yellow as in the turquiose cleartails . Also the overall colour is it more on the blue side compared to a turquoise cleartail.

[trabots]

These two chicks show df Indigo and IndigoBlue in the nest.