Color ID and color growth stages

My budgie is bolting and is showing some interesting feather coloration. When I first got him( I’m not 100% it’s a male) his head was yellowish white, now it’s showing a turquoise green on the back of his head and upper back. there’s also a purpleish blue near his cheeks. I’d like to know if there is a certain name for his mutation. Also how long do budgies take to achieve their full color. I’m certain my budgie is less than or about a year old, he was tiny when I got him but has grown so much in the 3 months I’ve had him.

Hello, and welcome to the Parrot Forums family!

I'm not an expert on budgie mutations, but just bumping this thread to keep it on the active threads.

I'm not sure of what his mutation is called either, but he is absolutely gorgeous!

thanks guys. You guys have cool birds. I grew up around birds but haven’t kept one since my half moon conure passed away a couple years ago. I visited my grandma late last year and she keeps two amazons and a half moon conure, they sort of sparked the love all over again.

To preface, I’m not expert so this is just an opinion!

While I can’t see that clearly and his colours may change after his first molt (he still has baby bars on his head), to me he looks like a sky blue single factor yellow face, but also may develop into a sky blue double factor golden face.

I initially thought he may be a rainbow mutation, however he does not have the clearwing mutation on his wings.

Take this with a pinch of salt though. I’m still learning myself!

Also he has a blue cere, so it appears that he is most likely male, although depending on his age this may change.

At an assumed year old with eye rings and a cere that color, I would say that that bird has been through *his* first molt already. I vote that you are looking at an "adult" male there.

My Fatty is younger than your bird probably, and certainly he looks it. His eye rings are *much* fainter, but he had his first molt already and lost the baby bars. Perhaps yours just has more barring than is usual for an adult. But I would say your beeeeauuuutiffffuuuul bird is a boy. In my experience the blue that girls have is never that *blue*, and it fades to tannish white around the nare (nose holes), but your bird's does not seem to do that.

I obviously could be wrong about the age, etc, but that's just my vote. By the eyes alone, I vote 8 months+.

As for color mutation, I'm afraid I can't help you there, I honestly never tried learning them, it just wasn't important to me.


Edit: more info on eye ring aging a parakeet: http://kmbreeding.weebly.com/telling-the-age-of-a-budgie.html
From phone

Yes I think you might be right with the age. I wasn’t really looking at the eyes because I was looking at his colours and feathers! His eye rings are definitely quite defined, so I agree that he is a bit older, despite having barring on his head. I have a few birds with a lot of barring despite being adults. Cere colours can change quite a bit even after the first few months - I once had a female who had a very blue cere for a while and then it only turned properly white/brown when she was about 1.5 years old haha. That being said, I am convinced that this is a male.


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I’m convinced he’s a male as well. Mostly by his behavior. He’s always calling out for sparrows and humming birds. I don’t care much about color mutations either, but with budgies it sort of matters since mutated males and females look different than the true budgerigar color. When I first got him his cere was a tannish purple that has turned radically blue.i agree with his age. He’s definitely closing in on a year of life.

marrmarr said:

I’m convinced he’s a male as well. Mostly by his behavior. He’s always calling out for sparrows and humming birds. I don’t care much about color mutations either, but with budgies it sort of matters since mutated males and females look different than the true budgerigar color. When I first got him his cere was a tannish purple that has turned radically blue.i agree with his age. He’s definitely closing in on a year of life.

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Yes, he’s definitely male! Considering that he’s a year-ish old he will have molted a couple of times so he naturally has those little bars on his head which is so cute! It’s a feature I really like. What a gorgeous boy.