What is a budgie variety?
Sometimes a mutation occurs that alters the colour or pattern of a budgies markings. If this is able to be passed on to chicks it can become a new variety. A variety is separate from a budgies base color. They can occur on any color and are basically overlaid, so you would describe your budgie by its color and its variety. For example a wild budgie would be a light green (the color) normal (the variety), or you may have a skyblue (the color) opaline (the variety).
I have thought long and hard about organising the varieties in a way that makes it easy to find the one you want if you don’t know what it is called… This has turned out to be a bit tricky, and will probably not suit everyone, but I have done my best! I have grouped them in the way that they differ from the normal budgie. So we had better start with that.
Budgie Parakeet Colors, Varieties, Mutations and Genetics
There are couple of basic colors mutaion of budgies which are given below in a list. We will discuss all of them one by one. To read all of them please scroll down.
- Albino
- Blue
- Cinnamon
- Clearflight
- Clearwing
- Crested
- Dominant Pied
- Fallow
- Green
- Greywing
- Lutino
- Lacewing
- Opaline
- Rainbow
- Recessive Pied (Harlequin/Danish Pied)
- Spangle
- Violet
- Yellowface
- Japanese Crested
Details of Color Mutations
1. Albinos (ino gen white)
An albino is an all white budgie with red eyes. Albinos lack the black pigment melanin. Their eyes lack the dark layer which protects against light - this allows the red blood to show through making their eyes red in color. This lack of protection for their eyes makes them more sensitive to light. The 'alb' in albino denotes the color white. The albino is the blue series verion of a Lutino. This is a sex-linked trait.
Albino Breeding Outcomes:
ino x ino =
-100% ino
ino cock x normal hen =
-50% normal/ino cocks
-50% ino hens
normal cock x ino hen =
-50% normal/ino cocks
-50% normal hens
normal/ino cock x normal hen =
-25% normal cocks
-25% normal/ino cocks
-25% ino hens
-25% normal hens
2. Blue
Normal Blue Budgies are one of the more popular colors for pet budgies. They are generally classified into skyblues, cobalts, and mauves.
Skyblue
- Mask (face) - white
- Body - bright sky blue color with black and white wavey striped wings and back.
- Tail Feathers - blueish black.
- Throat Spots - three black spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
Cobalt
- Mask (face) - white
- Body - rich cobalt blue color with black and white wavey striped wings and back.
- Tail Feathers - blueish black and darker than the skyblue
- Throat Spots - three black spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
Mauve
- Mask (face) - white
- Body - purply-blueish-grey color with black and white wavey striped wings and back.
- Tail Feathers - blueish black and slightly darker than the skyblue and cobalt
- Throat Spots - three black spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
3. Cinnamon
A cinnamon can be any body color. Cinnamons are colored very much like a normal budgie except where it would normally be black on the wings, it is cinnamon brown, and their body colors look somewhat washed out.
Cinnamon
- Mask (face) - depends on 'base' color
- Body - 'base' body color is muted to about 50% of a non-cinnamon. For example, cinnamon would turn a sky blue to a powder blue.
- Tail Feathers - whatever the'base' color is with a hint of cinnamon brown
- Throat Spots - three cinnamon brown spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple (except in the cinnamon grey green which will have grey to slate colored cheek patches)
- NOTE: - This is a sex-linked trait.
- NOTE: - Cinnamon babies are born with reddish colored eyes but this changes to the normal dark eye colors within about a week.
- NOTE: - Males often are a slightly deeper shade than females
Cinnamon Breeding Outcomes:
Cinnamon is a sex-linked recessive gene:
cinnamon x cinnamon =
-100% cinnamon
cinnamon cock x normal hen =
-50% normal/cinnamon cocks
-50% cinnamon hens
normal cock x cinnamon hen =
-50% normal/cinnamon cocks
-50% normal hens
normal/cinnamon cock x normal hen =
-25% normal cocks
-25% normal/cinnamon cocks
-25% cinnamon hens
-25% normal hens
normal/cinnamon cock x cinnamon hen =
-25% normal cocks
-25% normal/cinnamon cocks
-25% cinnamon hens
-25% normal hens
Cinnamon Colors:
Cinnamon Skyblue
Cinnamon Cobalt
- Mask (face) - white
- Body - skyblue body color is muted to about 50% of a non-cinnamon. Cinnamon brown wavy on white for wings and back
- Tail Feathers - blueish color with a hint of cinnamon brown
- Throat Spots - three cinnamon brown spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
Cinnamon Mauve
- Mask (face) - white
- Body - cobalt blue body color is muted to about 50% of a non-cinnamon. Cinnamon brown wavy on white for wings and back
- Tail Feathers - cobalt color with a hint of cinnamon brown
- Throat Spots - three cinnamon brown spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
Cinnamon Grey
- Mask (face) - white
- Body - purply-mauve body color is muted to about 50% of a non-cinnamon. Cinnamon brown wavy on white for wings and back
- Tail Feathers - purply-mauve color with a hint of cinnamon brown
- Throat Spots - three cinnamon brown spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
Cinnamon Grey Green
- Mask (face) - white
- Body - grey body color is muted to about 50% of a non-cinnamon. Cinnamon brown wavy on white for wings and back
- Tail Feathers - cinnamon brown
- Throat Spots - three cinnamon brown spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - grey to slate
Cinnamon Violet
- Mask (face) - white
- Body - grey green body color is muted to about 50% of a non-cinnamon. Cinnamon brown wavy on white for wings and back
- Tail Feathers - cinnamon brown
- Throat Spots - three cinnamon brown spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
Cinnamon Light Yellow
- Mask (face) - white
- Body - violet body color is muted to about 50% of a non-cinnamon. Cinnamon brown wavy on white for wings and back
- Tail Feathers - pale cinnamon brown
- Throat Spots - three cinnamon brown spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
Cinnamon Light Green
- Mask (face) - buttercup yellow
- Body - buttercup yellow body color is muted to about 50% of a non-cinnamon. Cinnamon brown wavy on yellow for wings and back
- Tail Feathers - lighter than body color with a hint of cinnamon brown
- Throat Spots - three cinnamon brown spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - pale purple
- Feet - pink
Cinnamon Dark Green
- Mask (face) - yellow
- Body - grass green body color is muted to about 50% of a non-cinnamon. Cinnamon brown wavy on yellow for wings and back
- Tail Feathers - dark blue with a hint of brown
- Throat Spots - three cinnamon brown spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
Cinnamon Olive Green
- Mask (face) - yellow
- Body - grass green body color is muted to about 50% of a non-cinnamon. Cinnamon brown wavy on yellow for wings and back
- Tail Feathers - dark blue with a hint of brown
- Throat Spots - three cinnamon brown spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
- Mask (face) - yellow
- Body - olive green body color is muted to about 50% of a non-cinnamon. Cinnamon brown wavy on yellow for wings and back
- Tail Feathers - slightly darker blue with a hint of brown
- Throat Spots - three cinnamon brown spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
4. Clearflight
The Clearflight Pied has two main characteristics: a clear patch on the back of the head and, ideally, completely clear primary flight and long tail feathers. All other features are normal. Sometimes the major coverts (row of feathers above the flight feathers) are also clear. Usually there are some small patches of clear body feathers up around the neck. Poorly marked Clearflight Pieds can look like Recessive Pieds, but they can be distinguished from them by the white iris ring, which is always present in adult Clearflights. Some specimens may also resemble Australian Pieds but may be distinguished from them by two characteristics: Clearflights have normally colored blue-gray feet (Dominant Pieds usually have pink feet), and second, if they possess extensive clear areas on the breast, these always extends down from the mask whereas the clear areas of a Dominant Pied are always lower down on the abdomen with an area of normal body color immediately below the mask and separated from it by a sharp dividing line
The inheritance pattern of Clearflight Pied is the same as Dominant Pied. However, Clearflight Pied is unrelated to either Dominant Pied or Recessive Pied, and a budgie can have any combination of the three pieds at the same time. There are only two alleles for Clearflight Pied: the normal gene and the Clearflight Pied gene. The Clearflight Pied gene is completely dominant to the recessive normal gene. This means that a single-factor (sf) Clearflight Pied looks the same as the double-factor (df) Clearflight Died.
5. Clearwing
Any color budgie with white wings. First recorded in the 1930s in Australia. No wing markings - only ground color. (yellow or white wings with normal blue or green body)Clearwings are a bird of any color, but the body color and cheek markings should be as dark and as close to normal as possible while the wings are as light and as close to pure white or yellow as possible. Very few clearwings have truly "clear" wings. Most have at least a tinge of light grey.
Green Clearwing series
Normal – dominant
Greywing – recessive, co-dominant with clearwing
Clearwing – recessive, co-dominant with greywing
Dilute – recessive
normal + normal => normal
normal + greywing => normal split greywing
normal + clearwing => normal split clearwing
normal + dilute => normal split dilute
greywing + greywing => greywing
greywing + clearwing => full body color greywing
greywing + dilute => greywing split dilute
clearwing + clearwing => clearwing
clearwing + dilute => clearwing split dilute
6. Crested
There are several varieties of crested budgies. The crest factor is dominant. Always mate a crested budgie with a non-crested budgie to avoid the double crest factor which is lethal. Basic Color of crested are green, blue, mauve etc.
Crested Budgies
Tufted Crest - crest extends upward from the top of the cere. (like a cockatiel's crest)Full Circular Crest - crest extends outward radially from the middle of the head.
Half Circular Crest - crest feathers are in a half-circle and can either extend upward or outward right above the cere.
Green Crested
Blue Crested
7. Dominant Pied
All pied budgerigars are characterized by having irregular patches of completely clear feathers appearing anywhere in the body, head or wings. These clear feathers are pure white in blue-series birds and yellow in birds of the green series. Such patches are completely devoid of black melanin pigment. The remainder of the body is colored normally.
Skyblue dominant
Dark Green SF Dominant Pied
8. Fallow
A fallow can be almost any body color. Fallows are colored very much like a normal budgie except where it would normally be black on the wings, it is brown, and their body colors look somewhat washed out.
Fallows are very close in appearance to cinnamons. There are only a few minor differences between them one being that the fallow's brown coloring is slightly darker than the cinnamon; more of a bronze color, while its body color is slightly lighter. But the most distinguishing feature between a fallow and a cinnamon is that the fallow has dark red eyes. (Darker than the eyes of the Inos). There are 2 different classifications of Fallow: German and English - the only difference between them being that the English Fallow is a recessive trait while the German Fallow is a sex-linked trait.
Fallow
- Mask (face) - depends on 'base' color
- Body - 'base' body color is muted to about 50% of a non-fallow and dark brown wavy patterns against white background wings and back.
- Tail Feathers - whatever the 'base' color is with a hint of dark brown
- Throat Spots - three brown spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
- Eyes - dark red
- Legs - pinkish red
Fallow Light Green
Fallow Dark Green
- Mask (face) - yellow
- Body - greenish-yellow color muted to about 50% of a non-fallow; dark brown wavy patterns against white background wings and back.
- Tail Feathers - Dark grey-blue
- Throat Spots - three dark brown spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
Fallow Olive Green
- Mask (face) - yellow
- Body - grassy green color muted to about 50% of a non-fallow; dark brown wavy patterns against white background wings and back.
- Tail Feathers - Dark grey-blue
- Throat Spots - three dark brown spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
- Mask (face) - yellow
- Body - olive green color muted to about 50% of a non-fallow; dark brown wavy patterns against white background wings and back.
- Tail Feathers - Dark grey-blue
- Throat Spots - three dark brown spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
10. Green
Normal Green Budgies are the most similar in color to the wild Australian budgerigar. They are generally classified into light greens, dark greens, and olive greens.
Light Green
Dark Green
- Mask (face) - buttercup yellow
- Body - mostly grass green with upper back and background of wings light yellow
- Tail Feathers - blueish black.
- Throat Spots - three black spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
Olive Green
- Mask (face) - buttercup yellow
- Body - darker green than the light green variety mostly grass green with upper back and background of wings light yellow
- Tail Feathers - blueish black and darker than the light green
- Throat Spots - three black spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
- NOTE: - Green is sometimes splotchy and may even have a little blue in it.
- Mask (face) - buttercup yellow
- Body - olive green color with upper back and background of wings light yellow
- Tail Feathers - blueish black and darker than the light green variety
- Throat Spots - three black spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
- NOTE: - Green is sometimes splotchy and may even have a little blue in it.
11. Lutino
Sometimes referred to as yellow albinos, lutinos are an all yellow bird with red eyes and reddish colored legs.
Lutino
- A lutino is actually the albino of the green series.
- NOTE: - this is sometimes a sex-linked trait. There are two mutations - one which is sex-linked and the other not. Because these two mutations are visually identical, they can only be distinguished through breeding.
12. Greywing
A greywing can be any body color. Greywings are colored very much like a normal budgie except where it would normally be black on the wings, it is grey, and their body colors look somewhat washed out.
Greywing
Greywing Skyblue
- Mask (face) - depends on 'base' color
- Body - 'base' body color is muted to about 50% of a non-greywing. Grey wavy markings on back and wings.
- Tail Feathers - whatever the'base' color is with a hint of grey
- Throat Spots - three grey spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - pale purple
- NOTE: - This is a recessive trait.
Greywing Cobalt
- Mask (face) - white
- Body - skyblue muted to about 50% of a non-greywing. Grey wavy markings on back and wings.
- Tail Feathers - blueish grey
- Throat Spots - three grey spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - pale purple
Greywing Mauve
- Mask (face) - white
- Body - cobalt blue muted to about 50% of a non-greywing. Grey wavy markings on back and wings.
- Tail Feathers - darker blueish grey
- Throat Spots - three grey spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - pale purple
Greywing Violet
- Mask (face) - white
- Body - violet muted to about 50% of a non-greywing. Grey wavy markings on back and wings.
- Tail Feathers - slightly darker blueish grey
- Throat Spots - three grey spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - pale purple
Greywing Light Green
- Mask (face) - white
- Body - violet muted to about 50% of a non-greywing. Grey wavy markings on back and wings.
- Tail Feathers - slightly darker blueish grey
- Throat Spots - three grey spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - pale purple
Greywing Dark Green
- Mask (face) - yellow
- Body - grassy green muted to about 50% of a non-greywing. Grey wavy markings on back and wings.
- Tail Feathers - blueish grey
- Throat Spots - three grey spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - pale purple
Greywing Olive Green
- Mask (face) - yellow
- Body - green muted to about 50% of a non-greywing. Grey wavy markings on back and wings.
- Tail Feathers - blueish grey
- Throat Spots - three grey spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - pale purple
Greywing Grey Green
- Mask (face) - yellow
- Body - olive green muted to about 50% of a non-greywing.
- Tail Feathers - blueish grey
- Throat Spots - three grey spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - pale purple
Greywing Grey
- Mask (face) - yellow
- Body - mustard-grey muted to about 50% of a non-greywing. Grey wavy markings on back and wings.
- Tail Feathers - dark grey
- Throat Spots - three grey spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - pale grey
- Mask (face) - white
- Body - skyblue/grey muted to about 50% of a non-greywing. Grey wavy markings on back and wings.
- Tail Feathers - dark grey
- Throat Spots - three grey spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - pale grey
13. opline
An opaline has a V-shaped design on the back. A good quality opaline should have no shell-like markings on the back between the wings and there may be some body color in the wing markings. Opaline is a sex-linked trait.
Opaline Skyblue
Opaline Cinnamon Light Green
- Mask (face) - white
- Body - An even skyblue color with back of head and upper back (creating a clear "V" shape between the wings) skyblue; wings black and skyblue in symmetrical wavy pattern.
- Tail Feathers -
- Throat Spots -
- Cheek Patches -
- NOTE: -
Opaline Light Green
- Mask (face) - buttercup yellow
- Body - An even very light grassy green color with back of head and upper back (creating a clear "V" shape between the wings) buttercup yellow, wings same color as body with cinnamon brown markings.
- Tail Feathers -
- Throat Spots - 3 cinnamon brown spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - Purple
Opaline Dark Green
- Mask (face) - buttercup yellow
- Body - An even, bright, grassy green color with back of head and upper back (creating a clear "V" shape between the wings) buttercup yellow, wings black and grassy green in symmetrical wavy pattern.
- Tail Feathers -
- Throat Spots - 3 black spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - Purple
Opaline Olive Green
- Mask (face) - buttercup yellow
- Body - An even, dark green color with back of head and upper back (creating a clear "V" shape between the wings) buttercup yellow, wings black and dark green in symmetrical wavy pattern.
- Tail Feathers - slightly darker than light green opaline
- Throat Spots - 3 black spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - Purple
Opaline Grey Green
- Mask (face) - buttercup yellow
- Body - An even, olive green color with back of head and upper back (creating a clear "V" shape between the wings) buttercup yellow, wings black and olive green in symmetrical wavy pattern.
- Tail Feathers - darker than dark green opaline
- Throat Spots - 3 black spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - Purple
- Mask (face) - buttercup yellow
- Body - An even dull light green color with back of head and upper back (creating a clear "V" shape between the wings) buttercup yellow, wings black and dull light green in symmetrical wavy pattern.
- Tail Feathers -
- Throat Spots - 3 black spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - Grey
Opaline Breeding Outcomes:
Opaline is a sex-linked recessive gene:
opaline x opaline =
-100% opaline
opaline cock x normal hen =
-50% normal/opaline cocks
-50% opaline hens
normal cock x opaline hen =
-50% normal/opaline cocks
-50% normal hens
normal/opaline cock x normal hen =
-25% normal cocks
-25% normal/opaline cocks
-25% opaline hens
-25% normal hens
normal/opaline cock x opaline hen =
-25% normal cocks
-25% normal/opaline cocks
-25% opaline hens
-25% normal hens
14. Rainbow
"Rainbow" is an unofficial term for a very colorful budgie -- usually clearwing opaline yellowface (type1) blues. The wing markings should be as faint as possible. Greywings, and whites (opaline yellowface blue) are also often referred to as rainbows. Rainbows are not recognized as a specific variety for show, but they can be shown as clearwings (where they would most likely not win as opaline clearwings of any variety rarely do because they don't have "clear" wings.) so they would be better off, and usually are, entered as an Any Other Variety rare. However, if one is raising birds for the pet market, the Rainbow is highly sought after as a pet or breeder. By the way, the opaline yellowface (type 1) blue spangle is also spectacular and easier to produce and larger than the true rainbow.
15. Recessive Pied
Recessive Pied Budgies are often referred to as Danish Pieds or Harlequins.
Recessive Pied Light Green
- Mask (face) - buttercup yellow
- Body - random patches of yellow and light green
- Tail Feathers -
- Throat Spots - any amount of black spots
- Cheek Patches - silver/white
- Beak Color
- Feet/Leg Color -
- NOTE: Recessive Pieds keep the "baby" black eyes and the bars on his head.
More photo of Recessive Pied
16. Spangle
SINGLE Factor Spangle: The markings on the wings, the throat spots and the tail feathers are altered on the single factor Spangle. The feathers have a white or yellow edge, then a thin black pencil line, then the center of the feather is yellow or white. The throat spots are often all or partly missing but if present look like targets, with a yellow or white center. The long tail feathers can be like the wing feathers with a thin line near the edge, or they may be plain white, yellow or solid dark blue as in a normal.
DOUBLE Factor Spangle: Pure white or yellow bird, though sometimes with a slight suffusion of body color.
Both types of Spangle have normal dark eyes with a white iris ring and normal ceres. Their feet and legs can be gray or fleshy pink. They can have either violet or silvery white cheek patches (or a mixture of both).
SINGLE FACTOR spangle
DOUBLE FACTOR SPANGLE
Spangle Breeding Outcomes:
Spangle is an incomplete dominant gene. This means it has three forms: the non-spangle, the single factor spangle and the double factor spangle. Spangle genetics sometimes do not act as expected.
normal x single factor spangle:
- 50% normal
- 50% single factor spangle
normal x double factor spangle:
- 100% single factor spangle
single factor spangle x single factor spangle
- 25% normal
- 50% single factor spangle
- 25% double factor spangle
single factor spangle x double factor spangle
- 50% single factor spangle
- 50% double factor spangle
double factor spangle x double factor spangle
- 100% double factor spangle
17. Violet
True Violet Budgies were considered a rare occurance. Although because the violet factor is dominant, their rarity is questionable. The violet factor isn't actually a color in itself, but rather it is an intensifier of color.
Normal Violet
- Mask (face) - white
- Body - deep violet color with black and white wavey striped wings and back.
- Tail Feathers - dark blueish black.
- Throat Spots - three black spots on each side
- Cheek Patches - purple
18. Yellow Face:
Yellowface Type 1
Yellow mask and yellow rim on tail feathers. Yellow on the head. The yellow does not spread over the body.
Yellow Face Type 2
Same as type 1 only the yellow spreads after first molt. Whole body yellow tint. (Yellowface II will turn a blue budgie ocean green)
Yellowface Breeding Outcomes:
The yellowface type 2 gene is dominant to the yellowface type 1, meaning that it is visually expressed and the type 1 is masked in a genotypically type 1 x type 2 bird. When two yellowface type 1 skyblues are paired together, half the chicks will be yellowface type 1 skyblues and half will be normal skyblues in appearance. But half of these apparent skyblues will be double factor (DF) yellowface 1′s. Here are the breeding expectations using punnett squares:
19. Japanese Crested
Japanese helicopter crested budgerigars and are very rare so these are costly because of the speacial breed.
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