Button quail color identification

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DK newbie

DK newbie

Crowing
8 Years
Apr 20, 2015
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Tomorrow I'll go pick up a pair of button quail someone didn't want to have anymore. The female is blueface, but the male is.. Well. This:


I really don't know what to call him. He kind of looks like a female red breasted, but I've never seen a male with that color before. So I'm really curious - does anyone know what to call his color? He is supposed to be 9 months old, so it's not like the color will clear up after a molt or something..
 
Last edited:
After bringing him home, I've realized he is definitely some kind of dilute - cinnamon, fallow or whatever it's called (anyone knows? I've been trying to determine whether he has red eyes, so far no luck) - the red feathers are much paler than usual. Then I found this post:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...rent-button-quail-colours-please#post_3457669
Picture number 4 shows what the owner claims to be a golden pearl male that switched to female colors
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And in the later posts, it is stated that this male had fertile offspring and that the male offspring also leaned towards female colors, though not as much as the father..

I also found this:
https://floridabuttonquail.wordpress.com/choosing-males-and-females/
Last picture shows a red breasted female with rust colored tail feathers! And here I was, thinking that if it has rust colored feathers, it's definitely a male..

According to the guy I got this pair from, he hatched them himself from German eggs. So I guess it's actually somewhat likely that I've got some strange German mutation where the males have partially female coloration.. Or where the males have this color.

So, currently I'm suspecting red breasted and/or golden pearl, combined with some kind of dilute gene and possibly a partially female coloration gene.. He doesn't actually have a red breast, but he has a few red feathers quite high on his breast and other places where I wouldn't expect it in a none red breasted bird. Not the best picture, but the only one I have that shows the few red feathers at the top his breast:



Some more pictures, in case they help anyone tell me anything about his color:


That's definitely not the normal back stripes, but is it red breasted, golden pearl or something else?


Anyone has a clue why he has those gray feathers showing up all over? Part of his color or are they just there because he's male? And does anyone know what's going on with his bib?


His eye looks kind of red there, I'll have to get some proper light and study him closely tomorrow..


Him and his girlfriend, just because they are cute together ^^
 

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