Silkies Of A Different Color

[Sonoran Silkies]

They don't look anything alike? Grey has black and silver; blue has light and dark blue; no silver and no gold or red. Some greys are very light; others are dark as is the boy shown.

 

[Naamahbengals]

They don't look anything alike? Grey has black and silver; blue has light and dark blue; no silver and no gold or red. Some greys are very light; others are dark as is the boy shown.

When I search photos I see a lot of people calling the same bird both blue and gray.

Looking really closely at photos... The only difference I see is that the grays have some cool brown patterning on their feathers (from what I see on google). Vs the blues have no brown (or red) at all unless they are partridge - they are more a solid color. Is that right?

I see a lot of blues, and a lot of grays, where I could say 'oh that's x color'. But... there are a lot that I couldn't tell them apart, too.

....is Blue Gray a possible color combination? >.<

 

[Theresa sla]

Google searches shouldn't be trusted!!! They pull up anything they can find that can posable fit what your looking for.
Easiest way to tell the differences is blue should be a solid color but that color can range from really dark almost black to so light it can be confused with lavender, or self blue. Whitch is a very different geneticly to blue.
Then there's gray or silver partridge, whitch should look like partridge but with tones of gray in place of golds and reds. So varagated light and dark tones. And they can also range in color too, from very light( almost white) to very dark (almost black.)
So in short blues are solid color head to toe, grays are like the bird above are in shades of lights and dark in the same bird.
If there's shades of reds or browns mixed in then they are called calico or tortuous shell and not blue or gray.
Hope that helps

 

[Theresa sla]

When I search photos I see a lot of people calling the same bird both blue and gray. 

Looking really closely at photos... The only difference I see is that the grays have some cool brown patterning on their feathers (from what I see on google). Vs the blues have no brown (or red) at all unless they are partridge - they are more a solid color. Is that right?

I see a lot of blues, and a lot of grays, where I could say 'oh that's x color'. But... there are a lot that I couldn't tell them apart, too. 

....is Blue Gray a possible color combination? >.<

Oh... And yes you can combine blue with gray in place of the black markings the gray will have blue markings.
And then be called a blue/ gray or a blue/silver partridge.
To my eye the bird above very well could be a dark blue / gray, but most definetly gray in there

 

[Naamahbengals]

Oh... And yes you can combine blue with gray in place of the black markings the gray will have blue markings.
And then be called a blue/ gray or a blue/silver partridge.
To my eye the bird above very well could be a dark blue / gray, but most definetly gray in there

Called a blue/gray OR a blue/silver? Wait, so gray is silver?

 

[Theresa sla]

Yup you got it!!
I think there's a lot of confution if silver and gray are the same thing, but most people say they are the same. so to keep it simple they are. But if you want to get technical there are pattern differences between the gray and the silver. Silver haveing more patterning (penciling) and gray haveing the lighter and darker variations but little to no patterning.
So it's kinda been undeclared (atlesst to my knowlage) the exact proper names i think it mostly depends on who your talking to, it kinda of a gray area! Ha!

 

[Naamahbengals]

Yup you got it!!
I think there's a lot of confution if silver and gray are the same thing, but most people say they are the same. so to keep it simple they are. But if you want to get technical there are pattern differences between the gray and the silver. Silver haveing more patterning (penciling) and gray haveing the lighter and darker variations but little to no patterning.
So it's kinda been undeclared (atlesst to my knowlage) the exact proper names i think it mostly depends on who your talking to, it kinda of a gray area! Ha!

OH! Well then that's where I was so confused! I though Gray was different than Silver, so I was trying to find birds that weren't silver but weren't blue, lol...

So is gray more of.... silver with less patterning (maybe less contrast?), and silver is the 'darker' (more contrasted with patterning) silver? What happens with you breed a gray and a silver - do the chicks come out one-or-the-other, or does it blend? (As in, are they different 'hues' of the same color gene or are they separate genetic varients on the same gene locus, or are they two different genes locations that happen to present as looking almost the same?)

 

[Theresa sla]

here's a picture of what i was told is silver not gray, then was told silver partridge/ calico because of the bronze coloring hues. she's broody and sitting on eggs in the photo, proud to say sh hatched out six lovely little babies


and heres her dad

and mom

really bad picture of her at bath time

and then gray was pictured in earlier posts,
if you mixed the two i think you would end up with a mix of the two combined gray/ silver as well as ones that look gray and ones that look silver. my goal was columbian like the dad and i did get a handful of columbians but happy with the surprise calico / silver partridge, just love patterned silkies

 

[BuckNBark Farm]

This is my "splash porcelain", Stash...

 

[BuckNBark Farm]

The jury is still out on the color of this guy. Either a lavender (self blue ) with a Columbian type pattern, or a Porcelain (self blue cream) with heavy lavender color. His feathers aren't quite as brown as it looks in photo- more white...