I'd like to know the difference between blue and lavender. Anybody got pics?
If you look at the photo of the breeders hen above, it is a slightly darker gray color (though blues can have a huge variation in color, some look black and some look quite close to lavender.) But you can see that the feathers almost look “laced”. That is a blue bird trait. For lavenders, you will see very faint black stripes on the feathers - almost like very faint barring.
Also blue birds I believe will always have a darker color feather shaft when the feather is viewed from the top, while lavenders will have white when viewed from the top. My lavenders have dark when viewed from the bottom of the feather so don’t base off the bottom.
If there is a blue that looks black, one indicator that it could be blue is the feather sheen. Pure black birds will often have a green or purple sheen to their feathers, while blues will look more “flat” and also the blues may lean more towards a brownish look. I have a NN frizzle silkie that I thought was black but now that she is older, and doesn’t have any sheen, and looks a little more brown, I suspect that she is blue. I will have to test breed her to find out.
I’ll post some pics of my lavender bantam Ameraucana to see the ticking on her feathers, my NN who might be blue, and a black bird with sheen (not the best pic sorry, but I promise she has a very prominent green sheen)
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