Albino Peafowl

[kuntrygirl]

Who owns solid white peafowl? What breed are they? I hear people referring to solid white peafowl as "Albinos". Is anyone ezperienced in explaining what breed a solid white pea is?

For those that posted the links in the other thread that we were on, can you please re-post that link here, so that we can further our discussion.

 

[new 2 pfowl]

From the "Peafowl 201" sticky:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/390889/peafowl-201-further-genetics-colors-patterns-and-more

Mechanics of the 'White' Color and Pied Pattern
White and Pied birds are NOT albinos or partial albinos (ok, they are not USUALLY. An albino peafowl would be white, but a white peafowl is not typically an albino). Albinism is the absence of melanin production in the body and applies ONLY to birds who fail to produce melanin. A partial albino is a creature who has other forms of pigmentation (for example, carotenoids) and may still display some color. Albinos will lack color in their skin and eyes, not just their feathers.

Leucism, on the other hand, is a failure to properly deposit pigment (all pigments) on the feathers due to the failure of pigment cells to move to their proper location on the body from the neural crest. Leucism affects only the feathers of the bird, leaving the skin and eyes normal colored. Partial leucism results in the pied coloration (in any bird, not just peafowl. Wild pied or piebald birds can be found, but are very rare and usually are killed quickly by predators or do not get to breed because they don't look right). Total leucism can result in a completely white bird, which is how we have white peafowl. Pale leucism can affect part or all of a bird, resulting in washed out plumage instead of totally white plumage.

Because leucism is a failure of the color to be put into place, not a failure of the color to exist, it is possible for white birds (and pied birds) to exist with other colors and other patterns. A white bird may also be genotypically a purple bird, or a bronze bird, but the 'white' would mask these colors completely because the pigment for them would not be deposited on the feathers. Thus, a bird could genotypically be purple or bronze or any other color, but would phenotypically be white, and would breed true to white. In this way, white birds may be 'split to' other colors or patterns depending on parentage (for instance, a white bird from silver pied parents would breed 100% silver pied offspring if bred to a dark pied from silver pied parents, because both birds would be carrying silver pied... even though neither of them looked silver pied!).

A white bird cannot also be a pied bird, as the pied gene is an allele for the white gene. A bird cannot be both a partial leucistic bird (pied) and a total leucistic bird (white) at the same time. It is also true that a total leucistic bird will never revert to partial leucism, meaning a white bird will never create a pied bird offspring.

In this sense, white and pied are not truly colors or patterns; they are the masking of color and the interruption of patterns. However, we will place them into the color and pattern categories respectively because it's easier.

More information on leucism:
Leucism: Wikipedia Entry
Leucism in Wild Birds
The differences between Albinism and Leucism

 

[Arbor]

This is actually a debatable issue. Whites are definitely not albino, that part is not debatable. However, most people will list white as a colour of peafowl. I treat white as a pattern. White can mask the true colour of a bird. By this I mean that it is possible to have a charcoal (or any other colour) that is actually white in appearance. If you breed a white cameo male to a wild pattern cameo hen, you will get all cameo offspring that will carry the white gene. Another reason I treat white as a pattern is due to the fact that white is one half of the genes required to get a pied peafowl (mixing a colour with a pattern should never result in more of that second pattern). Sorry if this is a little wordy.

 

[kuntrygirl]

WOW!!! Great information provided by everyone. I love the lenghty posts. Helps to understand or at least try to understand this whole "white" peafowl topic.

To be honest, I really do not know "what" breed to call my solid white peacock. I know the breed parents ( IB and IB split to white). So does that make him IB split to white, even though he is solid white?

 

[Arbor]

He would then be just an IB white. A split to white bird would only have a few white flight feathers and sometimes white throat patch as well.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Cool. So can you explain the possible color of the eyes on his future tail? I assume that he will have solid white eyes on his tail?? So, if 2 solid white peas breed, what are the chances that they will have the colored IB pea chicks?

 

[Arbor]

Eyes will be pure white, and at the right angle, you'll be able to discern the actual eye part. As far as I know, breeding two solid white parents has never resulted in any coloured chicks

 

[kuntrygirl]

Well you answered my next question about the actual eye part.

And as far as the chicks, I kinda didn't think that they would have a coloured chick but I wasn't sure. I'm excited about what my boy will look like when he grows up. He will be 1yr old this month.

 

[Arbor]

The first whites I ever had were ones I had hatched from blue parents. I had no idea the parents were both split to white until their first chick came out bright yellow!

 

[kuntrygirl]

Arbor, I bet that was a surprise huh? lol

To call my white pea an IB white will be kinda funny. So, he is an India Blue White (with no blue color). Lol