Zebra Finch

["Philip Veerman" <>]

There are lots of colour variants in captivity but this picture certainly shows a wild type bird, so that doesn't prove either way. This bird appears to only have one upper tail covert, so hardly shows the barred pattern on top of the tail. Zebra Finches have unusually long upper tail coverts (not as much as chickens and peacocks) and these are barred. The tail appears to be barred but it isn't. 

 

This is what Immelmann's book says about the differences (I'm not sure how helpful this is):

 

Wild birds                                                                    Domestic ones

Red eyes                                                                      dark brown eyes

pale brownish grey above                                               ashy brown above

Females are as white below as are males                        Females are pale creamy buff below 

(but HANZAB doesn't agree)  

                     

Philip