Golden Italian - Brown Head vs Black Head

[MichelleKing]

I have two males I want to use for breeding and I have to choose between them. They both are very light golden italian quail, gorgeous birds, except for one glaring difference. One bird has completely light brown markings on the head, and the other bird has black.

Does anyone know which coloring is more desirable? I will be mating the male with white females, and other golden italian females.

And no I can't do one of those genetics squares, I suck at them. I just want to know which, in yalls opinions, is a more desirable coloring. I'll comment with some pics.

 

[MichelleKing]

I just found an article that the light brown head is breed standard. Can anyone confirm?

 

[DK newbie]

Hi! As far as I know, usually the males have brown markings - the females have black. This means that a male with black markings is unusual (are you sure he is male?) but also that any chicks he produces might be a bit harder to sex. So I think I'd go for the brown one, unless you are really attracted to the black one or he has a better temper or anything like that..

 

[CoturnixComplex]

Might I ask what standard you found? There is no governing body (in the U.S. at least) able to set such.

If you just mean typical, there is no typical with goldens! Both the underlying body colors and patterning are controlled by many, many genes, and results in a hugely variable appearance. Certain strains are more set in their appearance like Manchurian golden, Italian speckled, golden layer, etc, but there will still be in-between mutts that don't look like any of those popping up all over since they're all the same gene locus.

That said, black facial markings would be towards more unusual for males.

 

[pitta92]

I have two males I want to use for breeding and I have to choose between them. They both are very light golden italian quail, gorgeous birds, except for one glaring difference. One bird has completely light brown markings on the head, and the other bird has black.

Does anyone know which coloring is more desirable? I will be mating the male with white females, and other golden italian females.

And no I can't do one of those genetics squares, I suck at them. I just want to know which, in yalls opinions, is a more desirable coloring. I'll comment with some pics.

My male Italian has a black head markings and the two females have brown on the back of the head. Probably a mix of Manchurian in there.

 

[Amer]

I’ll ask my friend who does quail genetics and is working on an American quail standard.

 

[Amer]