Introduction

Most of what we know about colour formation in parrots is derived from research carried out on the budgerigar (melopsittacus undulatus) at Edinburgh University in Scotland by Professor F A E Crew and his associate Rowena Lamy (? -1959) who published a series of research papers and a book Genetics of the Budgerigar in 1935. Later, in 1941, this was augmented by by further research carried out by Dr. L Auber leading to the submission of his PhD thesis to the same Institution. This fund of knowledge was made available to a wider audience in Genetics for Budgerigar Breeders (Taylor and Warner, 1961), together with a discussion on genetics as applied to the colour varieties then in existence. Much of this book’s content was also very relevant to breeders of other parrot species. Since its publication it has been the budgerigar breeders ‘Bible’ but is now beginning to look increasingly dated; despite the new edition published in 1986.

With regard to the budgerigar we now have a much better understanding of the parblue or Yellowface varieties, we know the information given on the Spangle merely repeated the myths of the time, and new varieties such as the Texas Clearbody have entered the mainstream.

In the wider context the proliferation of new colour forms across parrot species, particularly the Indiam Ringneck (Psitticula krameri), has led to an appreciation of new genetic relationships and the need to categorise these into a coherent system of classification.

Since the 1930s and ’40s, the sciences of genetics and biology have advanced enormously with many more investigative techniques available to the researcher. We can hardly expect huge resources to have been poured into research on the lowly budgerigar; or even the parrot family in general. But surely amongst the enormous body of information stored on the World’s servers we might expect to find information of interest to those breeding or studying these birds at whatever level their expertise.

Unfortunately unearthing such information is not easy. Scientists and researchers form a close-knit and fiercely competitive worldwide community in which publication of highly specialised research papers in one of many scientific journals for peer review is a mark of individual success. The journals concerned have revenue streams to protect in a limited marketplace and rarely make information freely available on the Web; even retrospectively. However, a group of scientists (The Public Library of Science) is challenging this position and calling for all research reports to be freely available six months after initial poublication. (See also A Lament.)

At present, without access to a wide range of scientific journals, perhaps through a University library, it is impossible to keep up to date or even be aware of developments in any given field. And without a broad knowledge of the sciences the glut of detail would be overwhelming. It falls to small number of popular scientific writers, who possess the rare ability to digest and piece together disparate fragments of information, to reach out and captivate the ordinary but enquiring reader.

There remain a number of fundamental questions yet to be answered which aviculturalists are not equipped to investigate. Only scientific researchers have the skills and resources to carry out the necessary investigations.

Nevertheless we can seek to help ourselves and, besides sharing ideas and observations, some special nugget of information may occasionally shine through the dross unearthed by the search engines. I hope these Homepages will encourage you to participate in widening our horizons and I would welcome any suggestions you might have on how they might be improved.

If you are able to help in this way, know of other informative Web sites, or want to discuss some point, please drop me a line at

In return I hope the articles published on these pages will stimulate thought (and maybe even, as one of our lady chat show hosts puts it, a heated debate) as well as providing pointers to other sites of interest.

One thing you should be aware of in reading the articles published here under my name is that they are intended to be accessible to as wide an audience as possible. For this reason, I make free use of what might be called breeders’ terms rather than the language of the professional geneticist. Although this may lead to a small loss in precision and unambiguity, I believe this to be worthwhile in the process of making information available to as wide a range of bird keepers as possible.

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