> Purcell's wrote:
>
> Watching the Eastern Rosellas at our feeder (Gisborne Vic), it is
> interesting to observe the extent of red on the breast. In a number of
> birds, there is a small amount of bleeding of the red into the yellow
> breast area.
>
> I could see that aviculturists would find it relatively simple to
> selectively breed a fully red chested bird. Has this been done?
>
I don't believe this has been done by aviculturalists for the Eastern
Rosella, although selective breeding of both Turquoisine and
Scarlet-chested parrots has resulted in full red fronted birds from the
chest to the vent.
However there are a lot of colour mutations of the Eastern Rosella in
aviculture, from lutinos through various cinnamons to a black melanistic
variety. One mutation - the red opaline - has resulted in a dominantly
red bird rather similar to a Crimson Rosella, with the yellows and
greens of a normal Eastern being replaced by a strong red colour, the
blue and white being retained as per a normal Eastern.
The full range of colour variety is shown in "Australian Broad-tailed
Parrots" by Sindel & Gill - ISBN 0-9587727-6-2.
cheers,
Mike Owen
Sunshine Coast
Queensland
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