Those who need help in sexing peafowl

[MinxFox]

Take photos of the parents when you see them.

The blue area shows up less in spaldings and even some green peafowl don't have much blue on their face - Also for some reason the blue can be hard to make show up in photographs. The yellow shows up more on spaldings - it can show up brightly on some spaldings, and fain on others. I had three white spalding sibblings (1 I sold but I still have the other two) and even though they were all brother and sisters, one has an almost orange face, the other one has a yellow face, and the third, the peacock, has a faint yellow face. There is variation even in siblings.

Spalding peahen

Above peahen's brother.


Spalding white at Rocking BAB Ranch

 

[Birdrain92]

The blue Loral Axe I'm talking about is right above the ear. Or I'm tripping and mistaking the blue for some white. Yellow I'm aware of but this blue is new. The pattern of the feathers is different I kind of thought it was the skin since it's just a spot on both sides only where the ear is at kind of, but I don't know what's up with the blue. I will take photos of the parents next time I see them.

 

[MinxFox]

Yeah I was saying that on Spaldings the blue will not always be that vibrant, but yes Spaldings and green peafowl will have blue on their face. Some of my peahens have light blue on their face during certain times of the year. They will get the blue around the ear.

Here is a photo of a Green peacock to show where all of the blue is on a green peafowl face. The blue does touch the ear. As a bird gets older it will start showing the facial colors more. Yours might get more color to their face as they get older. Also diet can cause more of a vibrant face color. Some people feed their green peafowl and spaldings Kelp meal to help improve their face. Edit: It looks like they say that carotene is what helps peafowl get brighter faces - carrots have carotene and I feed my peafowl shredded carrots so that is cool. Hopefully once I finally get green peafowl I will make sure to give them lots of shredded carrots.

 

[AnimalsRmyLife]

The blue Loral Axe I'm talking about is right above the ear. Or I'm tripping and mistaking the blue for some white. Yellow I'm aware of but this blue is new. The pattern of the feathers is different I kind of thought it was the skin since it's just a spot on both sides only where the ear is at kind of, but I don't know what's up with the blue. I will take photos of the parents next time I see them.

You're not tripping because I see the blue as well.

 

[Rosa moschata]

We'll see what Thor and Calypso will be. If Calypso is a Spalding then she should have offspring that show the green blood. To have a trait become hidden and come back up again after several generations would require one of the parents to have easily visible Spalding feathers. You can't take a heifer like mine and breed it to a bull with the same genetics (not brother and sister but same breeds and varieties in the exact same pattern) and get a red calf. If you're wondering why I would say red calf is because my heifer has red angus blood in her very low blood but of course colors in cattle aren't like hybrids in peafowl but the genetics still act similar, only difference is both phenotypes of the two species show up without blending.

Red is a recessive color mutation in cattle, and non-red cattle can be heterozygous for it without showing it. Should two heterozygotes come together and breed, red offspring can result. A prominent example exists among Angus, which come in black or red.

 

[Birdrain92]

For Calypso's chicks there's a 50% chance bred to Colbolt that the chicks will show Spalding if she's Spalding. I will see the parents and take photos of the parents and post them for everybody to see the parents.

 

[casportpony]

 
We'll see what Thor and Calypso will be. If Calypso is a Spalding then she should have offspring that show the green blood. To have a trait become hidden and come back up again after several generations would require one of the parents to have easily visible Spalding feathers. You can't take a heifer like mine and breed it to a bull with the same genetics (not brother and sister but same breeds and varieties in the exact same pattern) and get a red calf. If you're wondering why I would say red calf is because my heifer has red angus blood in her very low blood but of course colors in cattle aren't like hybrids in peafowl but the genetics still act similar, only difference is both phenotypes of the two species show up without blending.

Red is a recessive color mutation in cattle, and non-red cattle can be heterozygous for it without showing it. Should two heterozygotes come together and breed, red offspring can result. A prominent example exists among Angus, which come in black or red.

Similar to chestnut/sorrel horses?

-Kathy

 

[zazouse]

The blue Loral Axe I'm talking about is right above the ear. Or I'm tripping and mistaking the blue for some white. Yellow I'm aware of but this blue is new. The pattern of the feathers is different I kind of thought it was the skin since it's just a spot on both sides only where the ear is at kind of, but I don't know what's up with the blue. I will take photos of the parents next time I see them.

It is nothing new, many of my birds are colored the same way the skin is thin in that area so it can give off a dark cast, just like when folks get older and the skin thins under the eye giving a darker look under the eyes.

 

[DylansMom]

Actually Spaldings are tricky things... The Genotype and phenotype can be different. Just because a birds phenotype does not exactly say "Spalding" doesn't mean it doesn't have some green blood in it. From Calypso you could get some chicks that look like an India blue, some that look like her, and maybe some that look more like a green? I am still a bit confused about how Spalding breeding works out. AugeredIn would be able to explain it much better!

Here is something I made for a peafowl magazine I created a few years ago. The bottom illustration shows Spaldings - The ones that express more of their green peafowl heritage are on the right. Some of the writing I said might be a little incorrect like when I said that Spaldings in the middle are more desirable. Now it seems that the ones that look the most like a green peafowl are the desired ones. I really should make one of these for peahens...

X2, I wish I had a better picture of these 3 boys, but they are never all posing at the same time. They are brothers, father is Fred my B. Green & mother is a BS hen who I found out is carrying WE and possibly pied genes(even though the reputable breeder I get her from said pure IB BS) I have held on to these boys because I want to see how much their adult appearance differs. It is not as obvious in photos as in person, but the have many differences. The one closest to the camera is very dark in color, even the barred wing feathers are darker and he has some barring on his red primaries, his 2 brothers have no barring on the red primaries. The other one that is fanning clearly shows the WE/Pied genes from mom his barred wings are the lightest of the 3 much more IB looking there. The third and farthest away is a medium shade and has a much bluer neck than the other 2. As I said lots of differences even though they are brothers, this is how spalding are, and I think I've read that you can have several generations not show green characteristics and then all of a sudden a chick will.

 

[DylansMom]

We'll see what Thor and Calypso will be. If Calypso is a Spalding then she should have offspring that show the green blood. To have a trait become hidden and come back up again after several generations would require one of the parents to have easily visible Spalding feathers. You can't take a heifer like mine and breed it to a bull with the same genetics (not brother and sister but same breeds and varieties in the exact same pattern) and get a red calf. If you're wondering why I would say red calf is because my heifer has red angus blood in her very low blood but of course colors in cattle aren't like hybrids in peafowl but the genetics still act similar, only difference is both phenotypes of the two species show up without blending.

If Calypso is spalding and you breed her with an IB, the offspring will have even lower % of green, so chances are lower that they would show the green traits, breed her with a green and you will increase the chance of her offspring showing the green. Green blood can hide completely for generations and then all of a sudden show itself, at least that is my understanding. As for easily visible spalding feathers, I think that is what I am seeing on her belly. My IB hens have very plain creamy white feathers on the lower belly below the green neck/breast feathers. My spalding hens and the spalding hen of Zaz's have a reddish/tannish belly feather that also have darker patterning on them. In your photos of your older pair the hen has the plain creamy white belly in contrast to Calypso's.