Call duck color ?'s - Please help :)

[CityChicker]

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[rollyard]

Outcrossing would likely create its own challenges including regaining type, & may also take considerable time to complete satisfactorily, & I did forgot to mention that didn't I. Hence, all the more reason to source good quality snowy calls if possible if your goal is to breed snowy calls. I don't think outcrossing necessary either when good quality snowy calls are available. Playing with colours is another story.

Dana, I haven't long been involved with mallards/derivitives, mostly Muscovy, so am still just learning about them, hence my interest in their genetics. I have not heard the term "snowy" used here though (guess that doesn't mean they don't exist), but yes, have heard of Silver calls & mallards. From memory the silver mallards I have seen were wild-type mallard based (ducks had eye-stripes from memory). A picture of a silver mallard duck in our Australian standards shows a bird with very distinct eye-stripes & accompanying description includes same. Not sure about our silver call ducks as regards being dusky or wild-type based as have had nothing to do with them. Our standard is lacking in description except to say of the duck; "Mottled body , being fawn, brown & grey on a white background, with blue wing flash". From what I have heard, I think the calls in Australia have some work yet before they achieve the level of quality of birds in the states & UK.

Harlequins here are harlequin phase duskies & they include the Welsh harlequin & Harlequin Runners. Our Welsh Harlequin standard doesn't acknowledge birds that are absent for brown dilution (silver form as opposed to gold form I think is how you describe them in the states).

From the bit of research I have done the one gene involved (other than homozygous white & black) in obscuring/hiding eye-stripes is the dusky gene. When the dusky gene is combined with the harlequin gene I have observed that you will get the hood in the females. I did reply on the aussie site quite a while ago now about this very combination & the relationship to hoods, & have since heard another experienced breeder (other than yourself) as I understand it remark the same. Many pics that I have seen of ducks with hoods are harlequin phase duskies eg Abacot rangers, Silver harlequin runners, & Silver calls (UK & dusky based).

I think that a lot of people aren't too sure what to look for as regards colour because a/ they don't have a basic understanding of the genes involved & their effect on colour. And b/ the standards in our case here in Australia aren't as descriptive as they could be, so people have to go on what they hear which isn't always correct, or look elsewhere for info, & that too can be confusing because different countries may assign the same hobby name to birds that are genetically quite different (or visa versa).

Anyway, according to Holderread the Snowy is wild-type (grey) based + harlequin genes & no reference is made to silver in his book (except Appleyards which don't have the silver gene), while the Ashtons in their book descibe the Silver Call as harlequin phase duskies with pictures to support. Don't know if I have answered your questions adequately Dana, but your experience & observations have certainly helped to reassure some of mine

Oops, think this thread may have gone a little off track sorry 19hhbelgian.

Cheers

 

[CityChicker]

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