About albescent strips

[jbangelfish]

I took the time to check several of my spread pigeons for albescent strips and was surprised by what I found. I have several black pied rollers and found very visible albescent strips on all but one of them. These are true blacks, some with smoky, some with dirty factor and I read (Quinn book) that smoky turns them blue and dirty has no effect. That was the part that I always forget so it is pretty irrelevant.

I even found faint albescent strips on self blacks that are good blacks, maybe not show quality but good blacks. I also found blacks that have no evidence of a strip. None of these birds was light enough to show a tail bar, just spread black tails.

I also checked my indigo and andalusion birds and found what I would describe as a faint strip on some of them. Whether it's spread or indigo that makes them hard to see, I don't know, some of each were checked. I think maybe this show homer that we've been looking at is getting a strip from the grizzling or whatever it is that he has.

Birds with some white, from pied or grizzle, seemed more likely to show a strip at least among my rollers that I checked. I have not looked at the figs yet.

Whether it's only homozygous spreads that make the albescent strip invisible or not, I'm not sure. I'll have to check my records to see if any with strips are homozygous or not, I'm suspecting that only the hets are showing it. Interesting anyway.

Bill

[spirit wings]

Originally Posted by jbangelfish

I took the time to check several of my spread pigeons for albescent strips and was surprised by what I found. I have several black pied rollers and found very visible albescent strips on all but one of them. These are true blacks, some with smoky, some with dirty factor and I read (Quinn book) that smoky turns them blue and dirty has no effect. That was the part that I always forget so it is pretty irrelevant.

I even found faint albescent strips on self blacks that are good blacks, maybe not show quality but good blacks. I also found blacks that have no evidence of a strip. None of these birds was light enough to show a tail bar, just spread black tails.

I also checked my indigo and andalusion birds and found what I would describe as a faint strip on some of them. Whether it's spread or indigo that makes them hard to see, I don't know, some of each were checked. I think maybe this show homer that we've been looking at is getting a strip from the grizzling or whatever it is that he has.

Birds with some white, from pied or grizzle, seemed more likely to show a strip at least among my rollers that I checked. I have not looked at the figs yet.

Whether it's only homozygous spreads that make the albescent strip invisible or not, I'm not sure. I'll have to check my records to see if any with strips are homozygous or not, I'm suspecting that only the hets are showing it. Interesting anyway.

Bill

What is a albescent stip?

[george simon]

BILL, Have you tried test breeding them to the wild type + blue ? GEORGE

[jbangelfish]

Originally Posted by spirit wings

What is a albescent stip?

The albescent strip is the outermost portion of the two outermost tail feathers at each side of the tail, which usually shows as white or near white. It is usually the lightest down near the base of these two feathers. You can normally see it in every color except maybe ash red or true blacks but even some of them have it. It also doesn't show up very well with indigo.

Better blacks don't seem to have it, meaning that spread factor hides it to an extent. I have blacks with it and without it and they are blacks (spread). I'm just wondering if homozygous spread birds are the least likely to have it at all.

Bill

[jbangelfish]

Originally Posted by george simon

BILL, Have you tried test breeding them to the wild type + blue ? GEORGE

The only one that I can think of mated to blue was a black self hen with blue pencil cock and they produced a brown check baby. The black is heterozygous for spread. She has a hint of an albescent strip at the base of the feathers.

I don't need blue to prove whether they are homozygous spread. I've had them mated to just about every color. If they throw anything other than spread babies, they are het spreads. I have found several of these. I need to check my records again to see if any have been homozygous spread (or most likely to be so). I'll let you know what I find.

Bill