A Strange Mutation and Other Lovebird Species Photos and Info

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A new Mutation?

Here are some unsually marked birds- anyone want to help me figure out why they are striped???
These birds are from an australian cinnamon violet pied hen and a WF blue/aussie cinnamon male.
Each clutch has had striped birds with the striping increasing with each clutch.
Better views are available via e-mail upon request.

Strange feather markings?

This is one of a clutch of 4 lovebirds that all have odd feather colorings-- they are STRIPED!

Yellow Stripes~

This bird actually has stripes of creamy off-white and bright Lutino yellow across it's body. It looks like it has tiger stripes !

Another view...

You can see the light and dark yellow areas on the wings -- they are actually stripes of creamy white and lutino yellow on each feather.They continue over the head and wings with the rump a clear teal blue and sand colored flights. This is a cinnamon from an australian cinnamon violet pied hen and WF blue/aussie cinnamon male.

Masked Lovebirds~

Masked Lovebirds~

Masked Lovebirds come is several mutations-
This is a Cobalt Blue Masked Lovebird
Masked Lovebirds are members of the Eye-Ring species of Lovebirds. You can tell this by the white ring of skin around their eyes.

 I no longer raise these birds, but they are beautiful.

Rainbow is a Hybrid-- Peachface x Masked Lovebird

He is a rescue and is NOT used for breeding. Hybridizaton of any parrot species is not a desirable practice. Not only does the bird have problems with instinctual impluses often being at odds--- but the gene pools of the parrot species are mixed and in effect the true original species is lost forever. In species who are fast losing their habitat in the wild this will actually hasten their extinction.

Hybrid?- How can you tell?

Note the difference in the colors of the 2 birds. Rainbow is easily identified as a hybrid by the mask-like coloring on the peachface ground color, the red beak and his eye-rings. He has a blue rump like peachface lovebirds, but he tends to pluck all his blue feathers each spring. I have even caught him plucking his peach-colored chest feathers once the rump feathers are gone. He seems to have multiple personalities and will act much like a normal peachface at times, and at other times show more traits of the masked species. This is not uncommon in hybrids which makes them harder to handle so they are often given up as pets.
They cannot be used for breeding as they are frequently infertile and the mixed gene pool is undesirable in a breeding situation.