The Beautiful Spangle Budgie
The spangle budgie is one of my favorites! They can look quite stunning, but often the markings are faded and partially missing, which I find very saddening…
sky blue spangle budgie
The spangle comes in two forms, the single factor and the double factor spangle. The single factor has just one spangle gene whilst the double factor has two. For now I will just discuss the physical appearance of each.
The single factor has the markings on the wings, the throat spots and the tail feathers altered. The wing feathers appear to have a black edge with either a yellow or white center, and are often described as having the normal markings reversed. I do not like this description as it is clear when looking at a spangle budgie that the feathers still have the white or yellow edge, then a thin black pencil line, then the center of the feather is yellow or white.
Spangle can combine with any other variety to create many lovely mixes. Spangle Opaline are common and can vary a lot in their appearance. The markings are reduced over the head and shoulders, and the body color is present on the wings. The budgies on the left are a normal sky blue and a cobalt spangle Opaline. The spangle Opaline has lost some of its markings and has a lot of cobalt on the wings.
On the right is a grey green spangle Opaline. It has heavier than usual markings for a spangle (which I really like) and less body color on the wings.
The last picture is a violet cinnamon spangle yellow face. The markings are a lighter brown shade. I usually feel that this detracts from the spangles beauty but this is one lovely bird
Spangle Genetics
Spangle is an incomplete dominant gene. This means it has three forms, the non-spangle, the single factor spangle and the double factor spangle. See the incomplete dominance page.
So the inheritance of spangles goes as follows:
normal x single factor spangle:
- 50% normal
- 50% single factor spangle
single factor spangle x single factor spangle
- 25% normal
- 50% single factor spangle
- 25% double factor spangle
single factor spangle x double factor spangle
- 50% single factor spangle
- 50% double factor spangle
double factor spangle x double factor spangle
- 100% double factor spangle
The spangle genetics look simple on paper but in reality it sometimes does not act as expected. It would seem there is more to spangle inheritance to be discovered, which makes it lots of fun!
