#white crested black

[birdgenetics]

Mottling

There are believed to be multiple mottling alleles, all of them recessive to non-mottling. They cause different chick down patterning and varying amounts of white. I am not going to cover all of the alleles, all you need to know that mottling is mo and nonmottling is Mo+

There is some debate as to whether the less even pattern found in exchequer birds is a different allele or if the neat, v-shaped white mottles could simply be achieved through selective breeding. My thoughts? Probably both. Uneven mottling can be turned into neat mottling through selective breeding, but there are some alleles that are messier than others.

It is believed that mille fluer is buff columbian but with extra modifiers, specifically melanizers like the pattern gene and melanotic to create spangling.

The interruption of pigment production by the mottle also helps create this neat spangle. It takes longer for a bird to produce pheomelanin than it does eumelanin. So the mottle interupts pigment, then the bird produces eumelanin, then pheomelanin. That is why the double laced wheaten pattern that you find in dark Cornish gives black edges around the mottles on Spangled Cornish.

The bird works with what it has. If there is no melanin present in the feather at all, the bird will not produce a black edge around the mottle, as evidenced by this red mottled Ancona photographed by Breeding Chickens with Sander.

The black in the spangles can also be diluted to blue or white using the blue and dominant white genes. This cute "Golden Neck" d'Uccle is genetically mille fluer with the dominant white gene.

Mottled is unique in that a mottled bird changes with every molt. The initial chick down looks pied, as seen by these mottled Cochin chicks from Murray McMurray hatchery.

Pied is gene present in many species that give an animal colored patches on top and white patches on the bottom. (See pied guineas, peafowl or pied ducks.) But mottled is not the same mutation as pied. Pied remains the same pattern throughout an animal's life.

The first chick molt gives the same impression

(photo from One Hundred Dollars a Month.)

However, with respective juvenile molts the white becomes more and more evenly distributed over the bird until you get the first adult plumage: the first time the mottling is evenly distrubuted over the whole bird.

With each respective adult molt the bird gets more and more white but distribution continues to be relatively even. (different bird but you get the point)

Now lets cover some oddities. The Ayam Tulak has what looks almost like pied plumage and based on the pictures, the pattern may remain constant throughout its life. However, there are none here in the US and its inheritance is unknown. I would like to know if it is allelic with mottling or if it is true pied (or something else.)

White crests in Polish (this one being a white-crested chocolate) is also theorized to be allelic with mottling.

If you look at the chick down, it is very similar to mottled chick down.

Also, while most of the white distribution on white crested blacks is on their crests, some do have a few tiny mottles on their bodies. Personally, I have seen a white crested black with some mottles at a show.

White crested black is recessive to nonmottled but codominant with at least one other mottling allele.

White crested Polish when crossed with Tolbunt Polish (Tolbunt is gold laced with mottling) produced white crested black and white crested mottled chicks.

[draculavian]

Day 10-18 of birdtober 2024 [list by @/aholmesartstudio on Instagram]

Black crested titmouse ☆ Barn swallow ☆ House finch

Carolina wren ☆ American crow ☆ Red headed woodpecker

White winged dove ☆ Great tailed grackle ☆ House sparrow

[nexeliam]

Hello everyone, the 13th chapter of "The Blind Wizard" is finally, FINALLY out ! Sorry it took sooo long but here it is ! I hope you'll enjoy it :)

Here are the links on AO3 or Wattpad :)

[ghurab-alzilal]

Raven, sarcastically : What's next? Are you going to adopt a stinky skunk?

Damian, deadpan : I already have a stinky skunk. His name is Todd.

Raven: *shrugs in daze and looks sideways at Jason *

Jason, closes book, removes reading glasses and takes a serious glare at Raven : He doesn't talk about me. He actually has a skunk, I just wanted to make that clear.

[skitskatdacat63]

All white fit, hello??

[smidgen-pigeon]

went birding again, this time at a local wildlife reserve. i loved it!! so many birds.

[nh-art]

Wings

[lowcountry-gothic]

Hummingbirds of the World, by Zoe Keller.

[abirddogmoment]

My beloved friends from various swamps

[he-who-needs-to-be-silenced]

Ressemblance

A little diabloceratops notices that an old bull has the same birth defect to his crest and feels… uhh…. Idk… i guess comforted?? Knowing that he’s not alone in the weird world of ceratopsian crests. The old bull also notices this and does a little bow of respect.

In the background there is an individual I call mace face, due to the fact the pathology on the crest originates from an ankylosaur or a pachycephalosaur hitting them in the face as a child, scratching themself. The relation of mace face to the other ones into the piece isn’t specific so feel free to headcannon (ideas of mine include: mother of baby, child of gramps, a & b, sibling of baby, and stranger)

[sitting-on-me-bum]

“Mighty Pair”

“I think that a good picture does not need colour, it just needs to capture the desired moment in time. While I was shooting Crested Caracaras in flight in South Texas, I noticed these two, which were perched in a very similar way. They were staring in the same direction and not moving, almost as if they were posing for me. I was amazed by their powerful personalities.”

© Dinorah Graue Obscura, Mexico

2023 Sony World Photography Awards

[shysheeperz]

[yinandyang-thecoalmarshmallow]

⚫yin and yang⚪

-Black Caiman⚫ - coal (name)

-Crested heron⚪ - marshmallow (name)

That's what inspired me when I created these characters

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[proton-wobbler]

Battle Royale

Family Reunion (C-3)

Some families are more popular than others, you know? It's a miracle there wasn't a submission for ever single corvid that's ever existed. Instead, we have these guys.

[kira-mortham]

Thought I might as well share some of my recent animal photography with y'all.

[dansnaturepictures]

17th June 2024: My first Marbled White of the year a vintage summer sighting and moment which was great, moth, hogweed, views, Greylag Goose goslings, purple-leaved willowherb and one of my first Black-tailed Skimmers of the year a dazzling dragonfly also a key summer sighting at Lakeside Country Park and steeplebush in the garden.

Swift, Great Crested Grebes, Moorhen, Mallard, Canada Geese, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Meadow Brown, Veneer moth, Azure or Common Blue Damselfly, bee, St. John's-wort, vetch, grass vetchling, oxeye daisy, bramble flower, cut-leaved crane's-bill, dock, yellow rattle, hogweed, wood avens and Herring Gull and Goldfinch seen and Blue Tit heard at home were other highlights today,