When I first got my Silkies, I had three. I asked for a partridge, a cuckoo and a white. I could tell the difference between the partridge and the cuckoo right away, because the cuckoo had striped wing feathers and the partridge was exactly the same colour but with no stripes. Unfortunately the partridge one died suddenly.
I don't know much about Silkie colours yet, and it doesn't help that different sites contradict each other as to which colours are accepted for Silkies. Some sites don't list cuckoo as an accepted colour. I also found that cuckoo is just the striping on the feathers and can come in different colours. I believe that mine is a partridge cuckoo (or cuckoo partridge?) Or maybe I'm the one who's cuckoo.
Anyway, here's a pic that shows the striped feathers. He/she is also developing "two tone" feathers on the back of the neck. They started out bright orange, but then faded to a straw colour with a dark brown "centre".
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I see striping on the wing feathers of young juveniles fairly often. They haven't had it in adult feathering. Cuckoo isn't accepted in silkies. It causes pigment holes on the skin. (The skin looks mottled) There are breeders working on it.
I pulled out my copy of the APA Standard of Perfection. Black, White, Blue, Partridge, Buff, Gray, and Splash are the only accepted colors.
Cuckoo is black and white. Crele is basically looks like partridge with the cuckoo pattern.
