At last: Cobalts, and Violets

The preceding article, which I’m sure betrays frustration at the lack of information available, was written shortly after I became aware of the existence of this variety. During the course of the intervening two years it has been noticeable that the variety has been increasingly referred to as the Violet; the American Violet. There have also been reports of birds of differing phenotype (appearance) being seen at organised auctions and in aviaries containing birds for sale.

I strongly suspect that this gradual name change has come about, not only because of the possible influence of articles written by Deon Smith of South Africa, myself, and others, but also as a result of the breeding results obtained by those breeders who have now been in possession of this variety for many years. However, as far as I know not one of these select few has published detailed breeding results or produced comparative photographs. Such information as has become available has filtered down by word of mouth, or been gleaned from these breeders’ advertisements and their less than informative showcase websites.

At last we have something more definite to go on regarding this Indian Ringneck variety. Two brothers from Louisiana, USA, Kent and Brent Benton, have publicly posted breeding information and photographs onto the Worldwide Web. And since then, at the annual convention of the American Federation of Aviculture during the first week of August 2000, comparative photographs of the birds bred by Brent were shown and created something of a sensation amongst colour breeders.

Budgerigar experience

Kent is a budgerigar breeder and familiar with the idea of single-factor (heterozygous) and double-factor (homozygous) forms of varieties in which the reponsible mutant gene exhibits dominance; whether complete or incomplete. He was also aware of the fact, too little recognised, that the Violet gene in the budgerigar shows incomplete dominance: that the SF (single-factor) Violet Blue is very similar in appearance to the Cobalt, and that the DF (double-factor) Violet Blue is more richly coloured and very similar to the traditional Visual Violet (Violet Cobalt). It is not necessary for the dark factor to be present to produce a budgerigar of Visual Violet appearance, nor one which is quite hard to distinguish from a Cobalt. (see article The Facts About Violet Budgerigars by Peter Bergman in these pages)

Knowing this it was only a short step, when suitable birds became available, for him to persuade his brother to pair together two Indian Ringnecks that each possessed the mutant gene which, it was now suspected, might behave in a similar way to the violet gene in the budgerigar.

The two birds chosen were (using the original names) an American ‘Darkgreen’ cock and a young American ‘Cobalt’ hen. These birds were related and it was known that the same mutant gene was present in both – there was no possibility that one carried the American 'cobalt' gene and the other the European.

Two phenotypes

Four eggs were produced and despite her inexperience the young hen successfully raised the two chicks which hatched. It was quite quickly apparent to Brent, who is now experienced with this variety, that the first chick to hatch was different to anything he had previously seen. And the differences between it and the other chick became even more obvious as they both developed. By great good fortune this late season experiment had every appearance of having successfully produced both single-factor and double-factor forms of the American ‘Cobalt’.

The really gratifying aspect was that the suspected double-factor bird was not of a duller colour (which might be described as mauve and thus indicate a dark gene) but was deeper, brighter, and described as having a touch of purple. Colours are notoriously difficult to define adequately, but Kent describes the single-factor bird as a violet-blue and the double-factor as a dark violet-purple.

This then is the first real and attributable confirmation that this variety really is a Violet type and that it should now be described as such. Meaning of course that, besides the ‘Cobalt’ now being a SF (heterozygous) Violet Blue, the so-called ‘Darkgreen’ will be a SF Violet Green (again heterozygous). When a DF (homozygous) Violet Green is finally produced we can expect it to have an olive green appearance.

The new form gives every indication of being a DF (homozygous) Violet Blue and final proof will emerge when it is old enough to be paired to a Blue and produces 100% SF (heterozygous) Violet Blues.

The question now remaining concerns the status of the European ‘Cobalt’. Can we simply assume that this is brought about by a dark gene, or should we bear in mind the possibility of there being a second violet gene? The ball is now firmly in the court of those breeders who have possessed these birds for many years without producing answers.

Those answers seem to be coming

Inte Onsman of Mutavi reports that he has been able to microscopically examine specimen feathers from both the American Violet (formerly Cobalt) and the European Cobalt. The results of these exminations clearly show that the characteristics of feathers from the American form show a close correlation with those from a Violet Skyblue budgerigar. Furthermore, those from the European form share the characteristics of those from a Cobalt budgerigar. And, as further confirmation of these results, there is news of the first Mauves being produced from a pair of European Cobalts.

It now seems certain that the European form is the true Dark Green variety (single-factor or heterozygous dark), and that the double-factor or homozygous form will be a true Olive Green. In turn, in blue birds, the true Cobalt and Mauve will be produced. The long standing ordinary Blue, without a dark factor, may either retain that name or eventually attract the Skyblue name used for the equivalent budgerigar.

The American form, as indicated above, will eventually become known as the Violet Green in single-factor or double factor form or, in blue birds, single- or double-factor Violet. There will be no need to keep the European or American descriptors.

The interesting, perhaps exciting, possibility now exists for these two strains to be brought together to produce even more brightly coloured specimens. And, apparently, just this scenario is being envisaged in South Africa where reasonable numbers of both types are present.

Copyright: Clive Hesford, August 2000 (with revisions to November 2001)