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Color Mutations in Tiels.

Many differnt tiels!!


The above picture is a lutino cockatiel

The below picture is a whiteface silver cockatiel.



The above picture is a normal grey hen.


The above picture is a cinnamon pearl cockatiel.


Unlike some of the color mutations, it is easy to distiguish the male from the female on the gray tiels. The above picture is a gray female. Notice the yellow barring.. The Below picture is gray male. NOtice that his tale is black to gray with no yellow.


There are many different color mutations in cockatiels. Here are some of the different ones that you mayfind.

The first and most basic one is the gray tiels. The male and the female both have gray boddies, gray beaks and gray feet. Mature males will have solid yellow heads and black feathers on the underside of their tails. Mature females will have more of a grayish head and barred yellow and black feathers on hte underside of their tails!

Next we have the Lutino. Lutinos bodies are white to creamy yellow and have orange cheek patches. The differece between male and females is that females will still have the yellow barring in the tail feathers. The male will have none.

That leads us to the Pied mutation. The pied mutations has blotches of color on there bodies. They can be any color that occurs in a solid color cockatiel. The difference between the male and the female is almost unnoticable. A DNA test may have to be done to be able to distinguish the males and the females.

The next mutations is the Pearl mutation. This is when pearl marking occurs over the back and wings of a cockatiel. The male peal will loose his markings over a period of years. The female will not loose her markings.

The next color mutation is the cinnamon. You can think of the cinnamon cockatiel as one that looks like a normal gray cockatiel but only with a warm brown cinnamon color. Some of these birds can have a dirty tan apperance.

There is also the whitefaced cockatiel. The white faced cockatiel lack the yellow coloration, and have no cheek patches. The males will have white head and the females will have more of a grayish head. The females will also have the barred markings undernethe their tail feathers.

Next is the albino mutation. This bird would have no pigment whatsoever. It would have red eyes, pink beak, no cheak patches and pure white feathers.

Now that brings us to the Fallow. The fallow has red eyes and look the cinnamon tiels with a heavy suffusion of yellow.

The silver mutation. There are 2 differnt silver mutations in tiels. There is the recessive silver and the dominant silver. In the resessive silver the tiels have red eyes and the coloring is gray to fawn. In the dominant silver they have dark eyes and a metallic gray body and skull cap of darker plumage.

Last but not least is the yellowface and pastel mutations. The yellow face cockatiels basically don't have the orange cheak patches. The patels have a light peach colored cheak patches. These are rarer mutations but they are slowly becoming more popular.