If these birds was dust bathing,,the darker feathers would be on the underside,or side of the bird,,the side wing area.I've watched my hens dust bath and they get on their side almost to the point of being upside down,,but their upper part of their necks do not get dirty,,and to look at the complete hen with so many feathers scattered on the topside of her back,and even her shoulder part of the wings,,seems impossible she is athletic enough to evenly dust herself so all her darker feathers are so uniform in being the same hue of yellow-tan. Another thought,,look close at her neck in the first pic of post 37,,there is considerable darker feathers,and between the darker ones,there is lighter ones,,if she got this way from dust bathing,,her head would need to be outstretched forward while she is laying in the dirt,,and be laying flat to get these feathers dirty,,but once she would move her neck in the normal position,the lighter feathers would have been the ones that was covered up and not in contact with the dirt,,compare her neck to a slinky,,if the slinky is tight and put in dirt,only the outside edge of the slinky would get dirty,,but if you stretched the slinky,then put it into dirt,the inner surfaces would also get dirty,,same theory with her neck,,if compact some feathers would get dirty and cover shorter feathers completely,,outstretched,, a lot more feathers would be dirty,,but to get this effect on her underside of her neck,,seems she would need to death roll like an alligator,,and stay stiff as a log with her neck close to her body and not outstretched at all,,and I've never witnessed my peas in such a position.This looks like a new color in a pied pattern????
Edited by frenchblackcopper - 5/12/12 at 10:47pm