Look what fledged today!

[onthespot]

I was totally shocked to see this baby's color. Violet is rare, and recessive trait in Fischer Lovebirds. Didn't know my birds carried it. I'm working on blue pied fischer, would LOVE to make Violet Pied fischers!!! Woot! Total bonus color!

 

[sonew123]

OMG its gorgeous!!!

 

[IwannaBEaMERMAID]

I. WANT. IT

 

[AquaEyes]

Beautiful!

Violet is actually a dominant mutation. Single-factor violets look like a darker blue. Your bird looks like a double-factor violet, so I'd assume that each parent is a single-factor violet, and this is the statistical 1 in 4 offspring that would inherit two copies of the violet gene.

Below is a pic of three blue Fischer's lovebirds. From left to right are DF Violet, Blue (no violet factor) and SF Violet. These birds all have the recessive blue mutation, and all but the middle bird also have the violet gene. The bird on the left has two copies of violet, while the bird on the right has one copy.

SF Violet X SF Violet = 25% DF Violet, 50% SF Violet, 25% Blue (no violet)

ETA -- the most beautiful violets also possess one dark factor. They are harder to breed because they don't breed true. SF Dark Blue is also called Cobalt. When Cobalts are also SF Violet, the bird looks about as "violet" as a DF Violet with no dark factor. Birds that are DF Violet Cobalt are, if I remember correctly, the "most violet" in color.

What color are the parents? Maybe I can sort it out and advise a good pairing for you.

 

[SimplySplendidSilkies]

Wow all are very nice birds.

 

[onthespot]

The two parents that have been feeding the baby are the two normal blues at the top right side of the photo, above the baby at the bottom. Maybe the mama bird was unfaithful... I don't have any other violet fischers. Can greens carry violet?

 

[AquaEyes]

Quote:
The violet factor is a separate gene, and can be had regardless of whether the bird is blue or green. It's just that the way it modifies the feathers shows the best "violet" coloring in the blue birds (especially with the addition of one dark factor). Green birds can certainly be SF or DF violet, it's just that they'd be hard to tell apart from SF or DF dark greens.

The secret is in looking for areas that are blue in normal fischer's lovebirds -- the lower rump. I don't have experience with the species myself, so I wouldn't be the one to ask about the differences in hue between "normal" blue on a green fischer's rump, SF violet blue on a green fischer's rump, and DF violet blue on a green fischer's rump. I'm sure if you googled around, you'll find some breeder who has posted pictures for identification SOMEWHERE on the net.

I'd first start looking at the males, since it's more likely that the female cheated if she was the only one laying eggs. Look for boys that are a darker shade of green than normal, then check their rumps too see if they're also "darker blue" or more "violet blue." That's how I'd guess to proceed.

If you have multiple nest boxes up, it's also possible that she took over a nest and incubated the egg(s) of another female, or another female snuck one or more in, but I don't know how many of your birds actually bred this time, and how common that behavior is among fischer's.


ETA -- the more I look at your pic, the more I wonder if it's really only a SF violet, as opposed to a DF violet. If that's the case, it'd need only one parent with a violet gene (parent could be SF, could be DF). I'm not as familiar with the subtle shades of blue in Fischer's, and internet pictures are notorious for affecting color representation....and it's a baby, so maybe it's not fully colored yet...

ANYWAY, I first posted on here because I wanted you to know that Violet is an incomplete dominant mutation, not a recessive. So if you get a violet chick, SOMEONE else in there has at least one copy of the violet gene. If the chick is a DF violet, then you've got 2 SOMEONES.

Here is some information I found regarding violet fischer's lovebirds. If something is vague on there (in genetics-speak), I can possibly help. For example, the D and DD refer to SF Dark (Cobalt in a blue-bird) and DF dark (Slate in a blue bird), respectively. But don't ask me about how to name a shade of blue in a live bird.

 

[onthespot]

Quote:
I do have one young double dark factor in there, paired with normal blue. Hopefully next year I will have some cobalts to cross on the violet. I have several green pieds, about half are split to blue, paired with blues, just by luck. They are flock breeding in a flight, and all paired up optimally as if I assigned partners. The excess blues all paired up together, so that's good too.

 

[AquaEyes]

Quote:
I do have one young double dark factor in there, paired with normal blue. Hopefully next year I will have some cobalts to cross on the violet. I have several green pieds, about half are split to blue, paired with blues, just by luck. They are flock breeding in a flight, and all paired up optimally as if I assigned partners. The excess blues all paired up together, so that's good too.

It's possible that the Slate you described also has one or two violet genes. Birds with two dark factors can't show the effect of the violet gene, and are often the by-product of breeding for violets with one dark factor when both parents have a dark factor. Sometimes they slip into pet sales without mention of their genotype, and then get bred to a regular blue and SURPRISE! you get a violet baby. Is it possible the Slate is a parent of your violet? Or perhaps another bird in there has a violet gene but isn't showing it very well -- violet isn't very obvious except in blue birds, and more-so if there's one dark factor, but invisible if there are two.

BTW, if you bred a DF Dark Blue (Slate) with a SF Violet, you'd get half SF Dark Blue (Cobalts) and half SF Violet SF Dark (Violet Cobalts...even more "violet" than SF violets without a dark factor, and virtually as "violet" as a DF Violet SF Dark).

That's one of the headaches of flock-breeding, but it's mitigated by the joy of seeing a flock together in an aviary. If you really want to make violet pieds, you'd best try controlled breeding with birds that have known pedigrees, since it's a jumble of genes to make them.

Either way, your baby is very beautiful.

ETA -- I found this link with pics showing Violets and non-Violets for comparison. And this link has baby pics of various mutations and combinations. Perhaps they will help.

 

[rebel-rousing-at-night]

I love the color!