Is orange head a rare mutation in lovebirds? (348 views)

[Haimovfids]

I bought Cashew for $50. I've never seen an orange lovebird before. I'm wondering how readily available these birds really are? Was the price a bargain, or are orange heads just as common as other mutations?

[tielfan]

I happen to own the Lovebirds Compendium, a massive book by a guy who knows everything there is to know about lovebird mutations and parrot mutations in general: www.ornitho-genetics.info/?page_id=10590 I bought the book for the general-purpose genetic information in it, not for the lovebird information since I don't actually have any of those lol.

It says there's a mutation called the orangeface mutation which is very widespread, but I don't think this is what Cashew has because his tail and rump feathers are a different color than the picture in the book. There are other mutations that can make the face look orange, and the one that looks the most like Cashew is the opaline mutation. This is also very widespread, and it's the same gene that causes the pearl mutation in cockatiels. The way it affects lovebird color is different though, and there seems to be a lot of individual variation in how it affects a specific bird. Some of the pictures look a lot like Cashew, others not so much. But I do see a lot of pictures where there's orange coloring in both the face and the tail.

[Haimovfids]

Cashew is an opaline. Everywhere that would be red in regular peach faced is switched with orange. Cashew’s rump is a torquoise color and his back is very light green, compared to the strong dark blue and dark green Cheerio has.

[tielfan]

Opaline does things to the green feathers too, but in most species it's a lot more subtle than what the pearl mutation does to the grey feathers in cockatiels. I can't really see the effect in a lot of species. My article on coloration mechanics has a description of what it does: www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/info/breed-coloration2.html#opaline but I've never seen an explanation of WHY it does this. I strongly suspect that it's a reversion to ancestral coloring in cockatiels, and if it's ancestral for them then it ought to be ancestral for the other parrots too. But the other species don't express it as strongly as the tiels do.

[tielfan]

The rosy Bourke's parakeet is also caused by the opaline mutation. That's another species where the mutation has a very strong effect, but it's very different from the effect that it has on cockatiels. The bird changes from being mostly brown to being mostly pink.

[flybirdiesfly]

I’ve also heard that yellow sided green cheeks are caused by the opaline mutation as well. Interesting!