MamaBirds_Quail
Chirping
- Aug 25, 2022
- 89
- 202
- 86
Full disclosure: I’m a genetics nerd. I began playing with breeding different colors/coat types in mice as a teen over 20 years ago and it’s just escalated since
I’m trying to teach myself the quail color/pattern types and since my teen birds are molting I’ve been comparing individual feathers to help “see” the differences.
Here are the birds:
Per where I got the eggs they are from top to bottom: Tibetan, Tibetan/Rosetta tuxedo, falb fee (I’m less convinced on this as her feathers continue to come in), range/Rosetta, Scarlett, Egyptian, Rosetta tux, Scarlett (one Scarlett is a tuxedo), “snowie”, and Grau fee.
As far as I can tell, the breed stock they came from are not kept in color pens so assume most of these are het, unless the color requires 2 copies.
Here are the feathers I’ve collected:
Do Falb fee usually have dark under fluff like that? Also, those “wild type” feathers are from the falb… can the fee gene still allow for some brown coloring?
Do all Scarlett lack patterning on their feathers?
What does “heavy horizontal striping” mean when I read descriptions of feathers on pansy/sparkly? Because I feel like all of these feathers have primarily horizontal marks
Are ALL of the above Eb feathers Rosetta?
I’m waiting to *see* the grau fee lose a flight feather so I can compare since I know that Grau only exists on the Rosetta pattern.
On that note, do Rosetta typically keep the wild face markings? Because my grau has this incredible face mask going on, which I know is tyically female on Pharaoh hens; but I suspect it may be a roo

I’m trying to teach myself the quail color/pattern types and since my teen birds are molting I’ve been comparing individual feathers to help “see” the differences.
Here are the birds:
Per where I got the eggs they are from top to bottom: Tibetan, Tibetan/Rosetta tuxedo, falb fee (I’m less convinced on this as her feathers continue to come in), range/Rosetta, Scarlett, Egyptian, Rosetta tux, Scarlett (one Scarlett is a tuxedo), “snowie”, and Grau fee.
As far as I can tell, the breed stock they came from are not kept in color pens so assume most of these are het, unless the color requires 2 copies.
Here are the feathers I’ve collected:
Do Falb fee usually have dark under fluff like that? Also, those “wild type” feathers are from the falb… can the fee gene still allow for some brown coloring?
Do all Scarlett lack patterning on their feathers?
What does “heavy horizontal striping” mean when I read descriptions of feathers on pansy/sparkly? Because I feel like all of these feathers have primarily horizontal marks

Are ALL of the above Eb feathers Rosetta?
I’m waiting to *see* the grau fee lose a flight feather so I can compare since I know that Grau only exists on the Rosetta pattern.
On that note, do Rosetta typically keep the wild face markings? Because my grau has this incredible face mask going on, which I know is tyically female on Pharaoh hens; but I suspect it may be a roo
