Yellowface? Parblue? Turquoise?

By Sam Gibbs
www.agapornis-personatus.com
www.facebook.com/personatus

Lots of people have asked me to write an article about the parblue mutation, and finally its
here. The reason it took so long is because there is a lot of confusion over this mutation and
to truly understand it, one must understand several other topics. Theres a lot to explain, and
it will get somewhat side-tracked, but stick with it because it should all make sense at the
end.

1 mutation with many different names!

This is not a difficult subject. Its actually very simple. We have made it difficult ourselves by
using multiple names and refusing to work together with a logical naming system. People say
names dont matter but they do, and I hope to prove that with this article.

turquoise
whiteface
whiteface parblue
whiteface aqua
blue
pastel blue
yellow face
yellow feathered
parblue (par-blue)
This is a list of common names used for one single mutation. There are more, and of course
abbreviations and native translations of these names. Its madness! This mutation is currently
found in A.roseicollis, A.fischeri and A.personatus. The only suitable name, in my opinion, is
turquoise, and so thats what I will use for the rest of this article.

Multiple alleles.

Multiple alleles are alternate forms of the same gene.

It can be tricky to understand, but a good understanding of alleles can really benefit breeders
and their results. I will try and explain it and keep it as simple as possible.

When a young bird is created it receives a copy of its parents genes (half from the mother
and half from the father). Genes are made up of code. When a copy of the gene is created,
a small part of the code may change, thus the gene has mutated and we have a mutation.

The same gene (not mutated) can mutate in a different manner and at a later date, in further
generations. When I say a different manner, I mean maybe only the beginning or the end of
the code has changed.
So basically the same gene can mutate in various ways. When we have various mutations of
the same gene, they are called alleles.

In Agapornis we have several cases of multiple alleles.

Blue
-turquoise
-aqua

NSL-ino (non sex-linked ino)

-pastel
-DEC
-bronze fallow

SL-ino (sex-linked ino)

-pallid

* turquoise and aqua are multiple alleles of blue.

* pastel, DEC and bronze fallow are multiple alleles of NSL-ino.
* pallid is a multiple allele of SL-ino.

How do they inherit?

Agapornis can carry no more than 2 copies of the same gene.

Lets take a blue bird for example; the blue mutation inherits autosomal recessive therefore a
visually blue bird would have 2 copies of the blue gene, one on each chromosome.
If the bird has 1 copy, it would be green split blue.
Keep in mind alleles are mutated forms of the same gene.
Therefore a bird can carry 2 alleles and both will visually express themselves.

For example: What If a bird carries 1 turquoise gene and 1 blue gene?
As we have just covered, turquoise is a mutated version of the blue gene! - so naturally they
cant be split to one another, because that would be like saying blue split blue, which of
course is not possible!
When 2 alleles are combined both are visually expressed, producing a colour somewhere
between the 2 alleles. In this instance:

The blue mutation removes 100% of the psittacin pigment (red/orange/yellow pigment).
The turquoise mutation removes average 75%* of the psittacin pigment (red/orange/yellow).

(* its not precisely 75%, it varies and I will talk more about that later, but to make it easier to
explain now, I will stick with 75%)

So a bird with 1 blue gene and 1 turquoise gene will visually have a colour between blue and
turquoise, so we would expect it to have around 87.5% (a middle figure between 100 and 75)
of the psittacin pigment removed. These birds that carry 1 turquoise gene and 1 blue gene
are called TurquoiseBlue.
According to the international naming scheme, when we are talking about a combination of 2
alleles we write both mutation names as one word, but start each mutation name with a
capital letter. For example:

TurquoiseBlue
AquaBlue
AquaTurquoise
If we put one of these TurquoiseBlue birds back to a pure green bird, the alleles will go their
separate ways. You will end up with a green young that are split to blue or split to turquoise.
They can never be split to both blue and turquoise; because that would mean the bird has 1
blue gene and 1 turquoise gene and therefore it would be visually TurquoiseBlue!
Half of the offspring are given 1 blue gene whilst the other half of the offspring are given 1
turquoise gene.

Heres some outcomes:

TurquoiseBlue x green =
50% chance of green/blue
50% chance of green/turquoise

TurquoiseBlue x blue =
50% chance of TurquoiseBlue
50% chance of blue

TurquoiseBlue x TurquoiseBlue =
50% chance of TurquoiseBlue
25% chance of blue
25% chance of turquoise
A big problem when breeding this mutation is the difference between turquoise and
TurquoiseBlue is not easy to recognise. The difference in pigment levels is quite small and
other factors can also make it harder, such as dark and violet factors.

Whats parblue then?

Parblue is short for partial blue. As the name suggests, this is referring to mutated forms of
the blue gene, aka blue alleles! So in Agapornis we currently have 2 parblue mutations;

-aqua
-turquoise

In the 1970s the turquoise mutation first appeared in A.roseicollis and many names were
used, the most popular been whiteface, obviously because the face was white.
The same mutation was then discovered in a hybrid from an A.fischeri x A.personatus pair by
Felix del Valle in Tampa, Florida. It was given the name yellowface, obviously because the
face was yellow.

In personatus the face is not yellow, the bird still maintains the black mask, and so neither
yellowface nor whiteface are suitable names? Oh dear, dilemma!
By this time it was clear we are dealing with an allele of the blue gene. In other words, it was
clear that this was a parblue mutation.

A new name was needed but whiteface wasnt exactly suitable, considering in fischeri and
personatus neither have a white face.

Yellowface wasnt suitable either because in roseicollis and personatus the face was not
yellow.

It was also conveniently unknown what parblue mutation it was, whether it was aqua,
turquoise or something new. The solution was giving it the name parblue, which in my
opinion is a very bad decision as it added yet again a new name for an already established
mutation:

So that is how the other names then followed, like yellow feathered and parblue.
See the problem here? All these names for one single mutation!

If its hard enough figuring out the mass array of mutation names used these days, so is it no
surprise that people struggle to learn how the mutation works, learn about alleles and learn
about the connection between turquoise and blue? Can you imagine me trying to explain this
whilst calling the mutation parblue or yellow feathered? Nightmare!
<< You may be wondering how its the same mutation when it looks visually different
between fischeri, personatus and roseicollis. The answer to that is quite simple. The feather
structure and pigmentation distribution is different between the species, so whilst the same
gene is involved and the mechanics are the same, the visual changes can be different.
Again, more about that later >>

This is why I believe turquoise is the only suitable name. It fits the mutation in ALL species;
roseicollis, fischeri and personatus. It also makes sense when differentiating between
turquoise and TurquoiseBlue.

Why cant all the other names be abolished and we can then have 1 uniform name and lose
about 15 unnecessary names!? This is not aimed at you breeders/hobbyists, because you
have to follow the nomenclature your club/societies use. I dont expect you to suddenly start
calling it turquoise, but hopefully you now appreciate why the international name turquoise is
a little more fitting and this knowledge will help you understand future articles regarding this
mutation.
Maybe this is an eye-opener for the leading clubs out there to review the names they use
and truly understand just how simple it could be? After all, a simple naming system that
makes sense is the foundation for learning mutations and genetics. A better understanding of
these topics would mean better quality birds and a better hobby for us all.

It can all be avoided if we stop naming mutations based on how they first visually appear,
and this is a prime example of that. First we must reference the mutation against other
psittacine species and see if it already exists. Its important to analyse a feather sample and
do necessary test breeding BEFORE giving a name to a mutation. Its down to the governing
bodies of our hobby to promote and enforce this though, not the breeders.

Another example of this: The avocado mutation that is exclusively found in Australia. It was
called avocado based on the green body colour. When combined with blue the name just
didnt work, it seemed stupid calling a blue bird avocado when there was nothing remotely
green about it, so it was given a new name in the blue series. So unnecessarily confusing!

I will now go into more detail about breeding this beautiful mutation in part 2.

Cheers,
Sam.