It was in 1982 that I got my first spangle from the Molkentin stud in Germany; a normal blue spangle. In those days not so many people had spangles .

The first spangle occurred in Australia in the 1970’s. It was a Swiss , Rolf Christen, who brought them to Europe in 1980. Later on it was Reinhard Molkentin who put format into the birds by pairing them to his best Normals and this results in the spangle we all know today.

Spangles seems to be very fertile and many people used the spangle in their aviaries. Fanciers felt that spangles were bringing something “good” because the youngsters out spangle breeding where bigger than most other birds and so they paid no intention to their breeding mates colour. This resulted in poorly marked spangles .

In my opinion spangles should be kept paired to Normals, many breeders pair them to cinnamons, lutino , Opalines etc. and they creating bad marked birds, particularly on the wings .

The spangle mutation is present in a single and a double factor. It is dominant so no birds can be split for spangle . The double factor creates progeny with a marked reduction in pigmentation so beginners can be mistaken when they see the birds in  yellow or white and thinking of ino’s . The difference is that spangles have “black” eyes, ino’s “red” eyes . The cheek patches of the double factor are silvery white. The body and wings should be free from pigmentation marks and clear in colour (white or yellow) no blue or green must be left

The single factor is in colour the reverse of the Normals, in the green series tail and wing feathers are yellow edged with black in blue series white edged with black .

Cheek patch are violet or silvery white, body colour as Normals, spots black edged with yellow or white colour centre .

The problem today with spangles are the wing markings which are very pale, format is very good .

Expectations

© Didier Mervilde 2000/2001/2002/2003/2004
Permission in writing is required to link to or reproduce in any form.