Yellowface I Budgerigar Mutation - Historical Notes

Historical Notes

In the UK, a yellowfaced bird was first produced in 1934-1935 by E H Stevenson of Cambridge - a yellowfaced Cobalt cock, and Mrs G Lait of Grimsby and J Long of Gorleston-on-Sea both bred them in 1935 . A contemporary report of these latter breedings says, "Mrs Lait mated a dark green cock to a greywing mauve hen, and in their third nest was a pale greywing mauve hen with a distinct (light lemon yellow) mask and bib, with the under tail feathers yellow and with yellow on the wings in the places where the normal blue bird is white. This hen ... was mated with a cobalt/white cock and they have produced five youngsters, all having yellow masks like their mother. Mr Long's birds were bred from a dark green of a somewhat olive shade mated to a rather unusually coloured hen, which appears to be a green but has a turquoise suffusion on the breast, etc. The first nest produced 3 cobalt birds with yellow masks, etc, like Mrs Lait's birds described above, and one green-blue bird like the mother. The second nest produced exactly the same result."

By 1937 several breeders in the UK had yellowfaced birds, and Stevenson and Tucker exhibited one at the Crystal Palace in that year. Yellowfaced birds were also being bred in Europe, as it was reported that W H Higham imported one in 1937, and in Australia. In all, there were at least seven reports of yellowfaced birds appearing between 1934 and 1937, seemingly independently. Some of these were very similar, others were slightly different. It is impossible to tell now which of the yellowface mutations were involved, but as some of the reports mentioned normal-looking birds which bred 100% yellowfaced young it seems likely that these at least were the Yellowface I mutation.