Odd White Feather

[Cyber]

My favourite Silkie, Loongu (my profile picture), is a pure black Silkie.

And yet she has one white feather on the back of her head. She's currently around 5-6 years old, and that white feather appeared 6-12 months ago. It wasn't really a "problem" so I didn't report it online. But now that I have a forum account, I just thought I'd ask: Does anybody know why that one white feather might be there?

(Also, sorry if this isn't be best forum for a question like this, I couldn't see any one that seemed better for a general question about a weird development with a chicken like this)

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

Just a small color leak

 

[Cyber]

Just a small color leak

Do you think you could explain the meaning of a colour leak? A web search returned nothing related to chooks.

 

[333113]

There are two reasons I know of for white feathers appearing in a previously solid color non-white bird: age and injury.
I see this occasionally in my black Crevecoeurs, mostly in the crests as they get older. But even a young hen can have a feather injury due to a rooster holding on or pulling out a feather, and end up with a few white feathers. That's why the APA standard allows a few white feathers in the crest. If you are breeding the bird, it almost can't be prevented.

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

Just a genetic defect.

 

[The Phantom]

When I had deer a cut would usually scar over and then grow white hair. My one buck scraped his nose up to his head and after it healed he had a white streak.
Maybe she'd been injured before?

 

[Cyber]

Okay so it’s either injury or genetic. Nice to know, thanks for the info!

 

[333113]

In my experience, the feathers you see at the end of the first mature molt will show you what the bird has, genetically. Any white or part-white feathers tend to be in the crest, wings and tail, and are based on the overlap of genetic info that affects the expression of sometimes-conflicting genes. There are some really interesting web sites on genetic colors, like kippenjungle (http://kippenjungle.nl/Overzicht.htm, remember to select the English language links unless you can read Dutch), that can help with understanding what might be going on genetically.

However, if a bird suddenly develops a white feather at 6 years old, I would have to say that's from an injury or from aging. Just like people can get gray hairs, chickens can get white feathers. It's really interesting to see in a color pattern like Mille Fleur--as the bird ages the white part of the pattern on each feather gets larger with each molt. The older birds are quite a bit lighter in color overall than younger adult birds.

 

[drumstick diva]

very interesting