I want to beat this dead horse a little more and do a point-by-point comparison of the proposed standards for cream and golden crele male color.
The places I see people looking to determine cream vs. gold are generally the hackle, saddle, and shoulder but rarely do I see folks mention the wings and I think the "wing triangle" where the secondary feathers are visible in a standing bird are probably the single best indicator.
Head:
Plumage, cream and gray.
Plumage, gold or straw and gray, should match the crest.
Crest:
Cream and gray, some chestnut permissible.
Gold and gray barred, chestnut permissible.
Neck:
Hackle—cream, sparsely barred with gray.
Hackle—Gold, sparsely barred with gray, chestnut permissible. Color intensity decreases from head to body.
Shoulder—cream, barred with dark gray, some chestnut permissible.
Shoulder—gold, barred with dark gray, chestnut permissible.
Back:
Cream, barred with dark gray, some chestnut permissible.
Gold, barred with dark gray, chestnut permissible.
Saddle:
cream, barred with dark gray, edged in cream.
gold, barred with orange and some dark gray, edged in gold, chestnut permissible.
Wings:
Fronts and Bows—
dark gray, faintly barred, some chestnut permissible.
dark gray, faintly barred, chestnut.
Coverts—
gray, barred, tipped in cream.
dark gray, barred, tipped in gold.
Primaries—
dark gray, faintly barred, small amounts of white permissible.
dark gray, faintly barred, small amounts of white permissible.
Secondaries—
dark gray, sparsely barred with gray intermixed with cream, some white permissible.
dark gray, sparsely barred with gray intermixed with gold, some white permissible.
Wing diagram for reference:
Now let's look at your cockerel's wing, because I'm second-guessing myself.
Fronts and bows are about the same in both varieties except the cream says "some chestnut is permissible" rather than just saying "chestnut". I would say this bird has "some" chestnut, but it's also possible that some of the chestnut we're seeing (remember autosomal red is not affected by the IG gene) might actually be gold.
Coverts should be gray barred tipped in CREAM or tipped in GOLD, I think I'm just seeing gray barred all the way through the ends? So that's a toss-up.
Primaries are the same in both varieties so that's irrelevant to this.
Secondaries are either intermixed with GOLD or CREAM with some white permissible. There's a lot of white in the primaries on this bird, but when I look closely I do see a couple of spots of what possibly appears to be true gold rather than chestnut or diluted gold/cream, but I'm not really sure.
Let's look at the neck and back:
Head and crest should be CREAM and gray or GOLD or STRAW and gray... is that cream or straw? It's definitely not GOLD like the crele OEGB I posted earlier.
Now, hackle. It should be CREAM sparsely barred with gray or GOLD sparsely barred with gray, chestnut permissible, color intensity decreasing head to body. Again, this doesn't look like the OEGB I posted earlier, so is this color CREAM or GOLD? Looks visually pretty creamy and diluted to me compared to undiluted gold duckwing birds. Cream to me does NOT denote an absence of yellow tones, so I'd expect some of that even in a cream bird whereas the expectation seems to be that cream birds should have NO yellow tones at all in this area.
Moving back to the saddle which I think is often what trips folks up, lets consider the cream standard calls for "cream, barred with dark gray, edged in cream" and the golden crele standard says "gold, barred with orange and some dark gray, edged in gold, chestnut permissible." I don't see any chestnut in the saddle, and again we're forced to ask ourselves if "cream" means a full absence of yellow tones or not. That saddle does not look GOLD to me. It looks like diluted gold, similar to what you see in the Cream Light Brown Dutch bantam.
I hate this breed.
The places I see people looking to determine cream vs. gold are generally the hackle, saddle, and shoulder but rarely do I see folks mention the wings and I think the "wing triangle" where the secondary feathers are visible in a standing bird are probably the single best indicator.
Head:
Plumage, cream and gray.
Plumage, gold or straw and gray, should match the crest.
Crest:
Cream and gray, some chestnut permissible.
Gold and gray barred, chestnut permissible.
Neck:
Hackle—cream, sparsely barred with gray.
Hackle—Gold, sparsely barred with gray, chestnut permissible. Color intensity decreases from head to body.
Shoulder—cream, barred with dark gray, some chestnut permissible.
Shoulder—gold, barred with dark gray, chestnut permissible.
Back:
Cream, barred with dark gray, some chestnut permissible.
Gold, barred with dark gray, chestnut permissible.
Saddle:
cream, barred with dark gray, edged in cream.
gold, barred with orange and some dark gray, edged in gold, chestnut permissible.
Wings:
Fronts and Bows—
dark gray, faintly barred, some chestnut permissible.
dark gray, faintly barred, chestnut.
Coverts—
gray, barred, tipped in cream.
dark gray, barred, tipped in gold.
Primaries—
dark gray, faintly barred, small amounts of white permissible.
dark gray, faintly barred, small amounts of white permissible.
Secondaries—
dark gray, sparsely barred with gray intermixed with cream, some white permissible.
dark gray, sparsely barred with gray intermixed with gold, some white permissible.
Wing diagram for reference:
Now let's look at your cockerel's wing, because I'm second-guessing myself.
Fronts and bows are about the same in both varieties except the cream says "some chestnut is permissible" rather than just saying "chestnut". I would say this bird has "some" chestnut, but it's also possible that some of the chestnut we're seeing (remember autosomal red is not affected by the IG gene) might actually be gold.
Coverts should be gray barred tipped in CREAM or tipped in GOLD, I think I'm just seeing gray barred all the way through the ends? So that's a toss-up.
Primaries are the same in both varieties so that's irrelevant to this.
Secondaries are either intermixed with GOLD or CREAM with some white permissible. There's a lot of white in the primaries on this bird, but when I look closely I do see a couple of spots of what possibly appears to be true gold rather than chestnut or diluted gold/cream, but I'm not really sure.
Let's look at the neck and back:
Head and crest should be CREAM and gray or GOLD or STRAW and gray... is that cream or straw? It's definitely not GOLD like the crele OEGB I posted earlier.
Now, hackle. It should be CREAM sparsely barred with gray or GOLD sparsely barred with gray, chestnut permissible, color intensity decreasing head to body. Again, this doesn't look like the OEGB I posted earlier, so is this color CREAM or GOLD? Looks visually pretty creamy and diluted to me compared to undiluted gold duckwing birds. Cream to me does NOT denote an absence of yellow tones, so I'd expect some of that even in a cream bird whereas the expectation seems to be that cream birds should have NO yellow tones at all in this area.
Moving back to the saddle which I think is often what trips folks up, lets consider the cream standard calls for "cream, barred with dark gray, edged in cream" and the golden crele standard says "gold, barred with orange and some dark gray, edged in gold, chestnut permissible." I don't see any chestnut in the saddle, and again we're forced to ask ourselves if "cream" means a full absence of yellow tones or not. That saddle does not look GOLD to me. It looks like diluted gold, similar to what you see in the Cream Light Brown Dutch bantam.
I hate this breed.
