Australian Birdkeeper – June-July 2018

IT WAS AT THE END OF 1980 that
an ‘almost yellow’ Pacifi c Parrotlet was
born^1 in the United States.
The fact that this new mutation had dark
eyes meant it could not be an Ino form.
With an Ino mutation, besides a visual
reduction of the eumelanin (dark pigment
in the feathers) resulting in a yellow bird,
the eyes are also affected, meaning they
cannot have the normal dark colour and
instead are red^2 (p345). The body colour
of this mutation was not yellow like an Ino
but generally described as light yellow-
green. Analogically, with the approach to
colour mutations at that time, the bird was
named ‘American Yellow’.

INTERNATIONAL NAMING PROTOCOL

When the international directions for

naming colour mutations were introduced

in 1999, one of the rules was that no proper

nouns or names of locations could be part

of the name^2 (p.244 & 3, p.100). Naturally,

one cannot randomly apply a name to a

phenotype (physical appearance). Thus we

had to search for a suitable name.

First, we had to discover if the mutation

already existed in another species and,

if so, we would need to use the existing

name. But that did not appear to be easy,

with a long list of options. The fi rst idea

that crossed the mind of many breeders

was Pastel. Pastel is an autosomal

Pacifi c Parrotlet female—Yellam mutation

Pacifi c Parrotlet male—Yellam mutation

Pacifi c Parrotlet—Normal form

BIRTH OF THE Yellam

AUTHOR AND IMAGES DIRK VAN DEN ABEELE (Ornitho-Genetics Vzw, Mutavi Research & Advice Group)

P ODEKERKEN

recessive mutation which causes a visual

reduction of about 50% of the eumelanin

and, importantly, it is an allele from

the NSL Ino locus. The reduction we

observed with this mutation did not quite

fi t the frame of 50% visual reduction but,

nonetheless, several of these birds were

paired with available NSL Ino mutant birds

of Forpus coelestis. If this mutation was

really an allele of NSL Ino, the offspring

had to show an intermediate colour, but