- Mar 3, 2012
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I will take a shot, and then expect to be corrected. It will be a decent test... His Saddle and Hackles are a close match, and definitely to my eye look Cream. I can't tell if any of his tail feathers are actually white, but near the top some of them do not have great barring. (Is that a thing) To me he looks like what a lot of people are working towards. Really from this shot that is about all I can tell. I will look forward to other comments.
I agree on both of these. He looks like a nice warm pale butter cream color, hid hackles and saddles seemingly match. The cream does seem to show up and stand out against the white in the tail and wing triangle. I would like to see more barring in the wing triangle and I do not prefer the white sickles. Is this one of your birds @ChicKat or an example you found else where?Spot on on the white tail feathers. It is allowed in the SOP - and some people don't like them - in my flock, they are the first ones that fall out in the molt - or they just fall out in the pen...so it is a look that comes and goes-- seriously.
to my eye the cream is a more definite cream, and contrasted with the white in the tail, and the white parts of the wing triangle...there is a difference.
I agree with 1muttsfan that the green may be influencing the 'look' -- just as the green background influenced the look of chicken Pickin's birds -- and the cream really popped when the bird was standing in snow. I kind of say if the earlobe is white, and the hackles match the earlobe, then the hackles are white. Sam Brush mentioned in Dallas last year that he wanted to see the white earlobe stand out-- and that would be more likely with a bird like the 2014. A good goal for all of us to have those enamel white earlobes.
I think that I agree with ChicKat that if the hackles match the earlobes then the hackles are too white.
I agree on working on the nice enamel white earlobes. I cull for earlobes that have red leakage or are tinged yellow. I also dislike the shape of the Rees earlobes, so I will be culling some juveniles around the corner for that. I almost wish I hatched out a few more to evaluate. Though I have some good contenders in my young CL group that might stick around.
I do think often backgrounds and lighting can change how these males look in pictures, so we just need to do our best to post the best representation of what we visually see with our own eyes.