The Recessive Pied budgerigar mutation is one of approximately 30 mutations affecting the colour of

budgerigar The budgerigar ( ; ''Melopsittacus undulatus''), also known as the common parakeet or shell parakeet, is a small, long-tailed, seed-eating parrot usually nicknamed the budgie ( ), or in American English, the parakeet. Budgies are the only spe ...

s. It is the underlying mutation of the Danish Pied variety, aka Harlequin. It is believed by Inte Onsman of MUTAVI to be the same mutation as the Anti-dimorphic Pied (ADM Pied) found in some parrots.Martin (2002) p 259 The Dark-eyed Clear variety results when the Recessive Pied and Clearflight Pied characters are combined.

Appearance

All pied budgerigars are characterised by having irregular patches of completely clear feathers appearing anywhere in the body, head or wings. Such patches are devoid of the black melanin pigment and show just the ground colour—yellow in green-series birds and white in blue-series. The remainder of the body is coloured normally. In the Recessive Pied the clear areas are very extensive and many Recessive Pieds are predominantly clear with quite small irregularly shaped areas of normal pigmentation. Although normally coloured, these areas seem to carry a heightened brilliance which is particularly attractive in the stronger colours such as Cobalt, Violet and Dark Green. As with all pieds, there is a large variation in the position and extent of the variegated patches, but the typical striations are almost always present around the eyes. In general, hens are more heavily marked on the wings than cocks.Taylor & Warner (1986) p 88 File:Melopsittacus undulatus male.jpg, Light Green cock File:Melopsittacus undulatus - Recessive Pied mutation - pet on carpet.jpg, Light Green Recessive Pied hen in nest feather File:Melopsittacus undulatus - pet female recessive pied mutation 1.jpg, Light Green Recessive Pied hen

Genetics

There is no universally accepted genetic symbol for either the

locus Locus (plural loci) is Latin for "place". It may refer to: Entertainment * Locus (comics), a Marvel Comics mutant villainess, a member of the Mutant Liberation Front * ''Locus'' (magazine), science fiction and fantasy magazine ** ''Locus Award' ...

or mutant allele, so the simple symbol ''r⁺'' for 'recessive' will be adopted here for the wild-type

allele An allele (, ; ; modern formation from Greek ἄλλος ''állos'', "other") is a variation of the same sequence of nucleotides at the same place on a long DNA molecule, as described in leading textbooks on genetics and evolution. ::"The chro ...

at this locus, and the symbol ''r'' for the Recessive Pied mutant allele, in keeping with the symbol used by Taylor and WarnerTaylor & Warner (1986) p 128 and Martin.Martin (2002) p 257 The factors governing the distribution of the residual pigmentation are not known.

Notes

References

* * *

External links

World Budgerigar Organisation (WBO)

MUTAVI
{{budgerigar mutations budgerigar colour mutations