Green IRN with speckled feathers

[TiffandKari]

I'm new to IRNs and I have owned my first for several weeks now, I thought I'd also post here as I have noticed some speckled feathers on the top of my IRN's head and was wondering if that was anything to do with mutations, my bird is green and I'm also not too sure on the age OR gender, I didn't get much information about the bird from the breeder
I *think* s/he is under a year old...
Here are some pictures anyway:








So is my birdie a typical green ringneck? What causes speckled feathers or is it just random, and nothing to do with any mutations?
Is my IRN a male or female????


(If it helps... the underneath of my IRN's wings are green and bright-ish yellow and the underneath, down-facing feathers of his/her tail are yellow too. I am also starting to notice blue eyes instead of the darker ones she had before, I can also see white around her iris, also different from when I first got her)

If anyone could clear things up for me that'd be great!

[sheyd]

looks like a she to me -- Wildtype Green. Can't tell about the 'speckles' could you take a pic without flash? sounds like "she" is young, and her eyes(irides) are starting to lighten to blue.

here is the underwing pic of a mature Wildtype Green cock:

[TiffandKari]

Thanks for the reply!
Yes, I thought so, she is still beautiful though, just a natural beauty ;)

Here are a couple of pictures of Kari without flash:
(in some of the photos you can see one of her tail feathers is loose, perhaps she is molting?)







'Speckled' was the best word I could think of to describe what her feathers are like, on the back of her head they seem to be darker in places, it should be visible in the pictures without flash)

Thanks again for your help

[Wessel Gordon]

I doubt that loose tail-feather is due to a molt because all the other feathers seems to be in excellent condition. Most of my birds are going through a molt at the moment and in some cases it literally looks like someone pricked them with drinking straws attached to growing feathers. It happens that they do lose the odd feather or two even when they're not molting.

The spots on her head I can't explain so I'll leave that for more experienced owners/breeders.

[TiffandKari]

Yes the dark spots on her feathers are something I haven't seen before, hopefully it's just natural unique colourings rather than anything negative like deficiencies my bird my have I'm very new to owning an IRN so I really am unsure about these things.
Oh okay I see, I only noticed her tail feather looking like that today... so hopefully it's just a random feather loss and nothing more
Thanks for the reply

[Skyes_crew]

She's a very pretty bird

Does she allow you to scratch her on the back of the head? Sometimes from scratching them and the oils in our skin, it can cause the ends of the feather to lose color giving it a brownish appearance or spotty appearance. Is that what you are referring to?

[TiffandKari]

Thank you!
That's an interesting point but she actually doesn't let me touch/scratch her head at the moment, I think she was aviary raised so touching her can be difficult
I'm patient though so soon enough she'll be stepping up

[TiffandKari]

She has recently taken to rubbing her head on one of her natural wood perches though, but I think she had darker feathers on her head on the day I got her so I'm confused

[Wessel Gordon]

It happens that feathers look darker/lighter under different lighting conditions etc.

[TiffandKari]

That's another interesting point, I shall keep an eye on my bird to see if her darker feathers are always visible...
Thanks for your help

[sheyd]

it may just be damaged feathers- my hand-reared chicks had some too- should moult out and grow in normally with the next moult

[TiffandKari]

Okay thanks for the reply!

[Wessel Gordon]

Shey has an interesting threat on perception here:

http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... 26&t=18627

As you'll see I thought it was different feathers.

[TiffandKari]

Thanks, I shall have a read