The Cockatiel

The Cockatiel is a monotypic (having no close relatives) species of moderate size whilst being robust and hardy. Its gentle nature and generally quiet demeanour make it ideal as a first introduction to parakeet keeping. However, in some circumstances the shrill and piercing whistle of the cock bird can become trying and these birds do have a distinctive and quite pronounced odour. True pairs usually breed readily without being too demanding about accommodation and there is a growing range of colour varieties to add to the interest.

This is a sexually dimorphic species in which there are very noticeable differences between adults of the two sexes:

• the male’s plumage is mainly medium to dark grey, rather paler and possibly tinged brown on the underparts; the head area comprising forehead, crest, cheek-patches, and throat, is a bright yellow except for the ear-coverts which are orange; there is a large area of white on the wing coverts and secondary flights; the tail is dark grey; the beak is grey, as are the legs, and the iris is dark brown/black.
  
  
• the female has a generally duller colouration in which the bright hues of the head are largely obscured by a strong overlying wash of grey; but this is partly compensated for by the lateral tail-feathers having a distinctive irregular barring of alternating dark grey and yellow, together with a pale wash of yellow on the lower underparts and central tail-feathers.
  
  
• immatures are similar to the female.

Unlike the majority of parrots, the Cockatiel cannot display bright greens or blues since its feathers do not have the necessary cloudy layer possessed by these other species. In this respect it is, in effect, a naturally occurring Grey variety. In addition, the distribution of yellow psittacin ground colour is noticeably restricted and bears comparison to that seen in certain Yellowface budgerigars. Technically then, the wild-type cockatiel should be considered to be also parblue and, in total, to be equivalent to a Yellowface Grey budgerigar. We need to be mindful of this when investigating the effects produced in its colour varieties by the responsible genes.

Many breeders have successfully concentrated on improving yellow psittacin ground colour by continued selection of the more brightly coloured individuals in their breeding programs. The main aim of this selective breeding endeavour has been to improve the Lutino variety. Various names such as ‘Primrose’ and ‘Buttercup’ have been coined to distinguish these individuals and the best are more fully deserving of the name Lutino.

However, this also has implications for other varieties and in particular for certain dilute varieties. In these the balance between diluted grey melanin and the underlying ground colour may be such as to produce quite a marked olive-green effect. This has been noted over the years and most recently in the American Greygreen or ‘Olive’ cockatiel.