|
"Feather"
By Robert Manvell
Return to
Main Page Return to Articles
page The following article has been
prepared from a lecture I gave to Newcastle Budgerigar Club of Australia.
Following is an insight into what is a very complicated subject. That is Feather
Quality! The overall appearance of our
exhibition Budgerigars is the result of a combination of many components. Bone
structure, skeletal dimensions, muscle, fat and the all-important feathers are
the basic components, which make up our exhibition Budgerigars. Whether the bird
is of excellent quality or not will depend upon the configuration of these
components. Furthermore, the way a bird controls its feathers and the direction
they are held , will also have a major bearing on our Budgerigars appearance. Feather is probably the most
important and least understood aspect of breeding exhibition quality
Budgerigars. Feather has responsibility for the
following list of features that make up the exhibition bird of today. The below list is only basic, however
you can see how important feather is. Therefore a basic understanding of feather
is necessary if you wish to be successful with exhibition budgerigars.
Size and Shape of the Bird: The more
feather a bird has, generally the larger it will appear. The shape of the bird
is a combination of the Skeleton, Muscle and Fat as mentioned earlier along with
the feather it carries and ware the feathers are located/concentrated. The all-important Top end. In my opinion the most important part
of the Budgerigar and the part which attracts immediate attention is it’s Top
End. Even though we must consider the whole bird, the head and face seem to be
so important for that first and lasting impression. Following are the exhibition
characteristics and how feather controls their appearance.
Along with the above features the
bird must hold each individual feather around the beak or facial area in a
different direction, giving the impression of the feathers radiating out from
the beak. Thus giving the bird a tucked in beak and head width, these are
probably the hardest features to obtain and then retain. Feather Descriptions Misleading To date feather has been discussed by
the fancy as being — Yellow, Intermediate and Buff — this is a dreadful over
simplification of a very complexly structured piece of material. It would seem
this description was put forward many years ago. I am led to believe it was
taken from the canary fanciers of the time, who used it as a classification of
the colour of their birds feathers. I am not convinced it had anything to do
with large or small feathers as both buff and yellow coloured canaries are
essentially the same size. Members of the hobby, since and to-date, have
endorsed this concept by adopting its usage without giving feather on
Budgerigars in particular, too much thought. We probably could justify it as
being a broad classification of feathers. But apart from that, this simplistic
classification is useless and basically meaningless. Most experienced breeders
would realize feathers are much more complex than that. From studying feathers for many years
on Canaries, Zebra Finches and for the past sixteen years on Budgerigars I have
come to the following conclusion. All corresponding feathers on birds of the
same species are different. To explain this further, each species of bird is
different from each other species, a duck has a different feather structure to a
sparrow as an example. Most importantly, all Budgerigars have a different
feather structure to each other, it could be considered a birds finger
print. Therefore, no two Budgerigar’s feather structures are exactly
alike. The difference between individuals may be unperceivable, but
there will be a difference! Individual Feather characteristics.
Following are the feather variables
we must contend with when breeding birds for exhibition. Each one of the
following feather features has a bearing on the visual qualities of our birds.
Length:-
Length of feather is self explanatory. Our birds feathers can be short as is the
case on a pet bird or they can be extremely long, also they can be any length in
between. Feather length alone is not responsible for the Supreme exhibition
birds of today, this is a common misconception. Granted it is important but only
in conjunction with the following feather features Width:-
Width is the distance across the feather, a feather can be narrow or wide and as
above any width between these parameters. From my observations I believe feather
width acts independently to feather length. Shape:-
The feather can be rounded, squared off or even pointed. Possibly feather shape
could be almost limitless. Thickness:-
Feathers are not mono or even bi-dimensional. They are three dimensional like
all matter, not only does a feather have length, width and shape, it also has
thickness and especially the feather shaft. This could be explained as the
distance from the front or outside of the feather through to the inside or back
of the feather. If you have a thinner feather and still maintain the other
dimensions of width and length, the bird will exhibit all the great features
which come with the extra larger feathers whilst keeping the bird tidy because
the feathers can lay closer on top of each other. Structure:-
feather structure is it’s actual components, that is the feather shaft, the
down, the barbs etc. It would be reasonable to expect and is the thinking of
some experienced fanciers, a new mutation or variety brings with it a new type
of feather construction. Thus in some cases it is capable of changing other
varieties feather structure when utilized with them, both good and bad, the
Opaline and Cinnamon would be good examples. The spangle is the most recent on
the scene and it appeared to have some very positive influences on all varieties
of Budgerigars. It should also be noted, the spangle was first introduced into
Germany via Switzerland and this variety may be an important factor in their new
style of budgerigar. Without harping about the Mannes birds, it has also been
substantiated his feather structure is different to the norm. The electron micro
scope has indicated his feathers have more barbules per millimetre than
comparable size feathers from the UK. A possible explanation as to why his birds
while retaining their massive bulk appear to have a beautiful finish to their
feathers, giving them a delightful soft sheen. If I had the chance, I would question
as to which varieties of birds the feathers for these studies were collected. It
would certainly give a fuller picture to the findings. Just putting my thoughts
forward, it would appear to me, the finish Mannes has achieved, on his birds is
not that dissimilar to the finish on Cinnamon Budgerigars. It may be the case
and is possible the cinnamon characteristics could have crossed over and aligned
themselves with the elementary budgerigar feather genes. Therefore through
selection Mannes has fixed this across all varieties in his stud. Down:-
The amount of down at the base of each feather will have a definite bearing on
the appearance of the bird. The down acts as a packing underneath the feathers,
holding them off the body giving the bird the illusion of being larger. During a
lecture given by Fred Sherman some years ago in Tasmania, he claimed to have
built his formidable stud at that time, by the observation of feather down on
the babies in the nest and selecting for this when pairing up. So down is
definitely very important in the appearance of the finished bird. Density:-
The density of feather is the number of feathers on a bird. Birds which impress
me appear to have many more feathers on them than the average bird. Density of
feather also keeps the bird looking better under the stress of judging or what
ever. This feature is an absolute asset in the production of top quality
Budgerigars. Some how it gives the impression of the bird being tight feathered
which is not normally the case with heavy feathered birds. I have noticed on my
better birds, more feathers on the top end, this coupled with good feather
structure gives some uniquely large headed specimens. This feature may in fact
be an elusion as I have no way of counting the feathers to see if this is
correct. However as I said there appears to be more feathers. Distribution:-
The location of the feathers on the bird. As above we are looking for a
concentration of feather on the head, a lovely collar of feather to give back
skull and a full back line whilst enhancing the shoulder and width of mask. You
can have a bird with lovely feather but if it is in the wrong places it is
useless, you will end up with nothing but untidy bags of feathers. I believe
this was the case with the old Australian birds, we always had the feather
qualities we needed, before we started to import birds from the UK. However, the
birds we were breeding had the feathers concentrated in the wrong places. Most
particularly on the top end of the Budgerigar i.e. Head, shoulder and face.
From the above feather features we
can see how meaningless the words Yellow and Buff are as an explanation or
description of the particular feather any of our birds are carrying. Some of the above individual
feather features are very hard to identify, however if you study your birds
overall feather appearance, whilst keeping the above in mind, I am sure you will
see your birds in a very different light. The mode of
inheritance of feather My observations would suggest the
Yellow to buff pairing theory which has been touted for decades is with out
foundation. There is nothing I have seen which confirms the pairing of yellow or
finer type feathered birds to Buff or longer feathered birds produces a blend
some where in between , described as the intermediate feathered bird.
Intermediate birds being put forward as the required show bird. There is also no
evidence to substantiate the continual pairing of the so called buff birds
together will make your birds become more or double buff. This concept would
have it’s beginnings placed some sixty years ago. I can’t understand why
they keep pushing this theory, it is obviously wrong. Feather is not passed on
in such a simple manner. After many years of breeding and studying the feathers
as I said before on exhibition Budgerigars, Canaries and Finches, I still do
not believe it is possible to manipulate feather. The type of feather an
individual budgerigar ends up with is basically in the "laps of the
gods". It is has also been said, "Buff
feather is recessive"! How can it be? If you pair two so called buff birds
together what do you breed? ( Answer from the floor ) "Anything and
everything, no consistency what so ever". Exactly! Blue is recessive,
if you pair two Blues together or two Recessive Pieds together you will breed
100% Blues and Recessive Pieds respectively. If this is the case, " how can
buff feather be recessive"?? Leaving the above aside, I will
endeavour to explain how I believe feather is inherited. Basically we need to
understand; features, whether they be on a Budgerigar or any living thing, are
passed on to the next generation by in some cases, many thousands of genes.
These genes control the features and everything to do with the offspring.
Furthermore, features are either passed on fixed or in a state of constant
change. The first example where the feature
is fixed is called Discontinuous Variation:-this is where there is no
variation passed on to the offspring. My belief is this type of inheritance
could be controlled by one single gene and therefore easy to predict and
control. An example of this would be the Ino. or blue gene in Budgerigars. These
features are passed on without change, in either a visual or latent state, they
do not change they are either in the genes or they are not. The second example which is
technically called Continuous Variation:- is where the feature is passed
on to the next Generation in a modified state, it is Continuously changing from
one generation to the next. This inheritance phenomena could be the result of
the cumulative effect of many and possibly hundreds of genes, and maybe in the
case of overall feather quality and features even thousands of genes.
Consequently feather quality is virtually impossible to control or predict.
Examples may help to explain, a Human finger print is continually changing,
there are no two finger prints on Earth the same. Human height is another good
example of continuous variation. This is how feather is inherited, in a constant
state of variation. So each birds feather in the nest is, if you like is a
mutation of its parents feathers and each offspring will be different. If we take feather as a two
dimensional object i.e. just length and width, you can see we have two factors
are in a state of continuous variation, within maximum and minimum parameters.
Leaving aside all the other dimensions and features of feathers which could also
be in a state of constant change. I would suggest this is why when we pair two
lovely birds together we can, and most of the time do, breed less than desirable
youngsters! Could this also be why it is so hard to get any continuity of
quality in your nests? "If the above is the case,
why bother", I hear you say. Well lucky for us, as we know some human
parents have a tendency to produce above average height. As it turns out we also
have families of budgerigars or individuals for that matter, that tend towards
producing excellent quality youngsters, with favourable feather characteristics.
It is our responsibility to identify these families or individuals and
concentrate our efforts into them. These good families will still throw out poor
babies periodically because you are working against Mother Nature. Continuous Variation is in essence
the basis of Darwin’s Law of Evolution. Survival of the fittest. If species
were not in a state of constant variation there would not be the genetic
diversity within the species in order for it to survive in a continually
changing environment. Remember you are fighting against 4
million years of evolution, thus the birds readiness to revert to it’s natural
wild state. Quality can only be maintained and improved with attention to
detail, keen observation and sensible well thought out actions. Finally you must
select for and concentrate on FEATHER QUALITY! ã
Robert Manvell 1997 Please seek permission before reproducing this article. Email robert@bigtgolf.com |
|
Robert Manvell: Phone 02 67622272 Mobile 0427 622272 Tamworth NSW Australia |