Pretty ducks, Lisette! That has got to be a drake. I have never had a bird with that dark of a head
and the claret coloration end up being a hen, but of course anything is possible. Having a
bright blue wing speculum is indeed unusual for Snowies. As we have discussed before, the speculum is generally dulled and the head shaded without eye stripes. You are probably seeing the effects of m+, for example which could occur if someone bred a line of Snowies back to Grey (something that I personally think is an awful idea for most breeders because it would result in tons of mismarked birds eventually).
I would imagine the dusky (m^d) will eventually pop up, probably sooner than later, unless of course you have found a line that someone has already bred the dusky out of (which I have never been able to find). It could certainly be done and might be a good project if you have the patience to weed out all of the birds carrying m^d (most people wouldn't have the space, knowledge, or patience to do it, but someone like you could). There may be a
few lines of Snowy birds that are wild-type or someone has bred back to Grey and eventually bred the dusky out of, but they are the exception, not the rule (by any stretch of the imagination). The vast, VAST majority are dusky based (and I believe they always have been based on the descriptions and drawings of the original mutation birds that were used to develop the color).
Of course, since I have seen the reference to breeding back to Grey on numerous websites recently, I would not be surprised if we do start seeing mismarked Snowies that show signs of wild type. All of the birds I own of the genotype (including *several* from Holderread's, LOL) have dull brownish speculums and fawn shaded heads with no eye-stripes. All of my Silver bantams (Mini Appleyards) are from them and Dave has confirmed them to be the correct genotype for Snowy and the same color as "Silver" in the UK. That pretty much confirms that they are harlequin phase dusky. There is zero doubt in my mind. (
I do have some other questions in my mind about other genes that might affect speculum color, but it is down the list of priorities in my breeding tests right now. It is odd though the speculum color is another thing that varies widely in different lines of harlequin phase dusky. For example, I think it is pretty much agreed upon by everyone that Silver WH and Abacot Rangers are harlequin phase dusky and most lines of both have bright blue speculums, although this can vary as well. I'm not sure why this is. As previously noted, not all carry the sex-linked bill color either, something interesting to some day try to decipher.)
I think they are absolutely gorgeous though with the eye-stripes and blue speculums. I would *love* to have some of those. I think you would totally have a market for them if you can get them to breed true as a harlequin phase wild type, as Holderread describes "Snowy"!
