Abstract
The pied turquoisines are indeed a welcome arrival to the breeder of Neophemas. This mutation was developed in the Netherlands some 12 years ago and it has taken about that long to establish a good strain of sufficient numbers of birds.
The pieds were developed by Bob Fregeres of Den Dolder, Netherlands. He noticed that several of his birds had a few yellow feathers scattered about the normally green areas of the body. Feeling that this should be looked into he mated several of these birds together. After several successful generations and much selective breeding, Bob managed
to produce some of the most beautiful pied turquoisines available in Europe today.
It is interesting to note that the pied genetic factor turned out to be a sexlinked mutation and was therefore quite easy to establish. All one really needed was a pied male mated to a normal hen and the nest results would be pied hens and split males. This also makes it easy to sex the birds in the nest instead of having to wait for the juvenile moult. As in other pied mutations, the amount of pied color varies from bird to bird and a nest may contain some outstanding pieds and other birds that are poorly marked.
One of the problems that comes with the very heavy pieds is the difficulty in sexing the birds even when they get older. On these birds the wing patch that is red on the shoulder of the normally colored males converts to a beautiful orange-red and may be found on both males and females. The hens will usually only show a small patch of orange on the shoulder while in males it extends down the wings. The male's head also seems to get a small band of white at the forehead where the feathers begin whereas the hens seldom have this. With a little practice it becomes fairly easy to sex even the most difficult pieds. But there is always the exception to the rule.
I was very fortunate to be able to meet Bob on my trip to Europe in 1980 when I expressed an interest in the pieds he was raising. Since that trip I have kept in touch with him and in September 1983 I was able to acquire six pairs of pieds. I brought the birds into the government station in New York and they were released in October and sent to me by a friend.
At this writing we have all the pairs set up and are awaiting this spring breeding season. It is hoped we will be able to raise several nests of these beautiful birds.
Ralph Smith of California also brought in four male pied turquoisines from Germany so it is hoped that several strains of pieds will be established for all breeders in the United States to enjoy.