What Sub-species Is My Green Cheek?

[Frumpydumple]

Cookie is a normal mutation Green Cheek Conure. When I brought her from the "breeder", I was told she is the Molinae Molinae sub-species, but after looking at this I'm not so sure she is. She seems to have the same features of the Australis AND the Molinae Molinae sub-species.

She doesn't seem as big as the Molinae Molinae, she seems to be the same size as the Australis and her beak looks more like the Australis, but her colours look more like the Molinae Molinae, such as, the patch of blue on the back of her head, the blue wash on her vent, and the tiny amounts of blue on her cheeks and on the top of her head. She is very colourful and has lots of blue in natural sunlight.

She also has a lot of red on her stomach.

BUT what is really interesting is the bright orange barring she has on her chest.

I have only seen orange on a Green Cheek this bright on a yellow sided. Her colours have also gotten much more intense since I put her on pellets, and as she gets older she looks like she is getting more red and orange.

Here are some pictures.





I wasn't holding her only by her head or strangling her by the way.


The flash makes her look dull on some of the photos.
I've been thinking maybe she is a cross between the two sub-species...? What sub-species do you think she is?

 

[RavensGryf]

I wasn't aware the green cheek had any subspecies. She sure is absolutely gorgeous though!

Maybe you do have a different subspecies, she does have a slightly different look and color than most normal GCC. Maybe a hybrid with another conure in the Pyrrhura genus?

 

[Peeko]

I didn't know green cheeks had subspecies either, so I'm afraid I cant be much help, but now you've got me wondering which subspecies Peeko is... o:

 

[Frumpydumple]

Sub-species are rare. Most GCCs are just Pyrrhura Molinae. I know Cookie is some sort of sub-species because of her large size and what the breeder told me. I wasn't looking for a definite answer though, I just wanted to know which sub-species people thought she looked most like.

 

[Kisota]

Sub-species are rare. Most GCCs are just Pyrrhura Molinae. I know Cookie is some sort of sub-species because of her large size and what the breeder told me. I wasn't looking for a definite answer though, I just wanted to know which sub-species people thought she looked most like.

That's not really the way subspecies work. If subspecies exist in a species, then every member of that species will belong to one of the subspecies. Technically NONE of the birds in P. molinae are JUST P. molinae. All of them are a subspecies of some kind, but birds in captivity in particular may be a mix.

Pyrrhura molinae molinae and Pyrrhura molinae australis are some of the most common P. molinae subspecies kept in captivity, apparently. It's tricky to tell the subspecies apart, though. I think your bird looks most like the molinae subspecies after looking at your link, but it's a tough call.

But keep in mind that after years of birds being bred in captivity... it's probably pretty likely that your bird is a hybrid between 2 or more subspecies. Since anything in P. molinae is conspecific, they're completely interfertile and I highly doubt most breeders in the past were interested in trying to keep subspecific lines "pure."

(As an aside, it's not proper to capitalize the species or subspecies names of organisms. The genus name, in this case Pyrrhura, is capitalized but molinae is not, and if there's a subspecies name after it, like molinae or australis, that is also not capitalized.)

 

[yann]

the sub-species of GCC'S should inculde yellow-sided gcc but yours looks like a normal GCC to me still a gorgeous fid tho~

 

[RavensGryf]

the sub-species of GCC'S should inculde yellow-sided gcc but yours looks like a normal GCC to me still a gorgeous fid tho~

Yellow Sided is one of the mutation colors, not subspecies.

 

[witchbaby]

Thank you for posting this! I didn't realize Green Cheeks had sub-species. I guess I've seen a lot of the P. molinae australis and I was wondering why Bandit looked so different from other Green Cheeks. She has a lot of blue and her beak is a lot bigger. She looks exactly like the P. molinae molinae pictured on the website you linked.

 

[Sterling1113]

The red on the chest reminds me of my White-eared conure. Atleast, I was told by the man I bought him from she is a white-eared. I'll post a picture so you can compare.
Here you can see the blue on the back of her neck/head also:


And I don't really have one of her standing up tall, but you can see the red on her chest here:


(The one she's standing next to is a pineapple GCC, so I was told by the breeder.)
I do really love the colours on yours though!! Very unique and beautiful

 

[hacatta]

I do believe that the left one is a yellow sided not a pineapple.

 

[Sterling1113]

I do believe that the left one is a yellow sided not a pineapple.

It wouldn't surprise me, I never looked into it too much.. He doesn't look like most yellow sided ones I see, though. He just has a bunch of colours everywhere XD

You can kinda see more in this one..

 

[hacatta]

I do believe that the left one is a yellow sided not a pineapple.

It wouldn't surprise me, I never looked into it too much.. He doesn't look like most yellow sided ones I see, though. He just has a bunch of colours everywhere XD

You can kinda see more in this one..

Still a yellow sided,i got one too.
Yours does have a bit more color here and there,mabye breeded on it or not pure.
But i have seen more people here that say they have a pineapple that is a yellow sided,quess they make more money on it.
The pineapple has been a dream mutation for mee,4 birds down still don't have one,funny how that works.
But still a pretty bird,colors doesn't say everything about a bird.

 

[Frumpydumple]

The red on the chest reminds me of my White-eared conure. Atleast, I was told by the man I bought him from she is a white-eared. I'll post a picture so you can compare.
Here you can see the blue on the back of her neck/head also:


And I don't really have one of her standing up tall, but you can see the red on her chest here:


(The one she's standing next to is a pineapple GCC, so I was told by the breeder.)
I do really love the colours on yours though!! Very unique and beautiful

Very pretty birds. That is a yellow sided GCC on the left, pineapples(and cinnamons) have the light heads.

Cookie has a big maroon patch on her stomach, but I don't think she could be a hybrid of a White-eared Conure and a Green Cheek, because she doesn't show enough colours of the White-eared, like the purple colour on your birds face, she doesn't have any of that.

Who knows though. I would love one of the rarer Pyrrhura Conures, yours is very pretty. Thanks.

 

[Sterling1113]

Awh, well thank you! And thanks again for the insight on my feathered friend Loki. Like mentioned above, I agree that the colour does not define the bird, but it's always nice knowing what the correct mutation is hehe.

Emily: Honestly I had no idea that she was *rare* or hard to come across.. I got her when she was about 3 months old because a nice gentleman had bought her for her daughter,(Who is 5) and when he realized it's too much work for her, he decided a budgie is better suited and re-homed the conure to me. I found the ad on craigslist, I believe I paid about $300 for just the bird, no cage, which now looking I've yet to see another one pop up, or even a breeder..(In my area, anyway) so I guess that explains the price tag, eh?

 

[Frumpydumple]

Awh, well thank you! And thanks again for the insight on my feathered friend Loki. Like mentioned above, I agree that the colour does not define the bird, but it's always nice knowing what the correct mutation is hehe.

Emily: Honestly I had no idea that she was *rare* or hard to come across.. I got her when she was about 3 months old because a nice gentleman had bought her for her daughter,(Who is 5) and when he realized it's too much work for her, he decided a budgie is better suited and re-homed the conure to me. I found the ad on craigslist, I believe I paid about $300 for just the bird, no cage, which now looking I've yet to see another one pop up, or even a breeder..(In my area, anyway) so I guess that explains the price tag, eh?

White-eared Conures and other Pyrrhura Conures that aren't Green Cheeks are VERY hard to find here in the UK, so I think you're lucky to have one. They're rare to find in other countries too, so, yeah. Even mutation Green Cheeks can be hard to find in the UK. Or at least finding a good breeder is hard to find.

 

[Sterling1113]

Awh, well thank you! And thanks again for the insight on my feathered friend Loki. Like mentioned above, I agree that the colour does not define the bird, but it's always nice knowing what the correct mutation is hehe.

Emily: Honestly I had no idea that she was *rare* or hard to come across.. I got her when she was about 3 months old because a nice gentleman had bought her for her daughter,(Who is 5) and when he realized it's too much work for her, he decided a budgie is better suited and re-homed the conure to me. I found the ad on craigslist, I believe I paid about $300 for just the bird, no cage, which now looking I've yet to see another one pop up, or even a breeder..(In my area, anyway) so I guess that explains the price tag, eh?

White-eared Conures and other Pyrrhura Conures that aren't Green Cheeks are VERY hard to find here in the UK, so I think you're lucky to have one. They're rare to find in other countries too, so, yeah. Even mutation Green Cheeks can be hard to find in the UK. Or at least finding a good breeder is hard to find.

Just don't tell her that-- her already swollen ego will be at the point of bursting!! Hehe.

 

[MangieSun]

Kind of looks like a maroon bellied conure. What a cutie

 

[hacatta]

[/QUOTE]White-eared Conures and other Pyrrhura Conures that aren't Green Cheeks are VERY hard to find here in the UK, so I think you're lucky to have one. They're rare to find in other countries too, so, yeah. Even mutation Green Cheeks can be hard to find in the UK. Or at least finding a good breeder is hard to find.[/QUOTE]

Thankfully white eared are rather easy to come by here,the other mutations too.

 

[Sterling1113]

White-eared Conures and other Pyrrhura Conures that aren't Green Cheeks are VERY hard to find here in the UK, so I think you're lucky to have one. They're rare to find in other countries too, so, yeah. Even mutation Green Cheeks can be hard to find in the UK. Or at least finding a good breeder is hard to find.[/QUOTE]

Thankfully white eared are rather easy to come by here,the other mutations too.[/QUOTE]

Where are you located? I'm in Texas and I haven't been able to find anyone who breeds them, and I haven't seen any listings for them on Craigslist. (I haven't been looking for them in particular, but in all the searching I did for other birds a while ago.. I saw patagonian conure and all sorts of others though.)

 

[KiwiPlusUs1025]

She is beautiful!!! Unique it's all most like she is a combination of a normal, yellow sided, and a black-capped GCC. Love the little orange on her too.