Is this a mutation or a dietary deficiency problem?

[Betrisher]

This photo was posted in a birdwatching group I belong to. The bird has become somewhat famous for its amazing colour scheme and hailed as a 'new and desirable mutation' (I don't like it) of the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo.

I keep wondering if the yellow feathers are a result of some dietary problem in the bird. What do others think?

 

[Amsterdam]

i dont know what it is but it looks beautifull

 

[LaManuka]

My guess would be mutation. Do red-tailed and yellow-tailed species ever ... erm ... intermingle?

 

[Betrisher]

I doubt it because they're separate species. Then again, Galahs and Corellas will 'intermingle', or Galahs and Major Mitchells and they're not even the same genus!

The thing is, the weird colouration is not where red feathers ought to be: it's where black feathers normally appear. Y'know? You'd think a mutation would follow an existing feather pattern. Or not? I dunno, but it's fascinating.

 

[plumsmum2005]

uhm interesting.

 

[BirdSquawk]

Looks almost like some kind of pied or lutino mutation.

 

[Rozalka]

I think it's pied mutation but not sure if yellow tailed or Red tailed Black cockatoo (I had seen photos of all yellow colored ytb2)

Wysłane z mojego Redmi 5 przy użyciu Tapatalka

 

[Scott]

Haven't a clue, Trish. What hath nature wrought? Hopefully not a deficiency.

 

[LaManuka]

Maybe he’s the cocky equivalent of Migaloo the white humpback whale

 

[Betrisher]

It's a Red-tailed Black cocky. They live in northern Australia and have a separate race in the south-west as well. Yellow-tailed Black cockies live on the eastern coastal strip (where I live) and so I get them in my back yard occasionally.

The bird in question lives with a flock in southern Queensland, I believe, and has been discussed in a few forums I belong to, including the Zoology Department at my old Uni. There, people are arguing about whether the colouration is because of diet or some other habitat-related problem or whether it's an actual mutation which might be passed on to the bird's young. Of course, everyone's petrified that some dishonest aviculturist will try to capture the bird for its genes!

I've seen other colour mutations where the new colouration replaces an existing pattern (notably the CAGs who were entirely red, or the lutino Galahs where white replaced the normally pink areas). *This* bird's odd colouring doesn't replace any distinctively coloured areas: he's just blotched with yellow feathers at random.

So I wonder what it's all about... y'know...?