Sex-Linked
Mutations in the Peachfaced Lovebird
By
Doug Bedwell
 There are three different
sex-linked mutations(at the time this article was written, the Opaline mutation did not yet exist) in the Peachfaced Lovebird:
Lutino, American Cinnamon, and Australian
Cinnamon. Though the Lutino mutation is quite
common, and is probably familiar to most lovebird
enthusiasts, the cinnamons are less common, and
consequently less well known.
The Lutino
mutation acts by removing all of the Melanin,
which is a dark pigment, from the bird. The
yellow and red colors we see are caused by
different kinds of pigments, called carotenoids,
which are unaffected by the Lutino gene. In
effect, the bright yellow and red colors are
actually the pigments "left behind"
after the Lutino gene has removed all the Melanin
from the bird.
 The Australian Cinnamon is
a very pale yellow-green, slightly darker than a
lutino, though lighter than an American Cinnamon.
Expensive and hard to find just a few years ago,
Australian Cinnamons are becoming more and more
commonplace. Cinnamon babies of either type are
easy to identify in the nest, because their eyes
are paler than the dark eyes of normal chicks,
though not the totally red eyes of the lutino.
The eyes darken as the chicks mature, and though
they probably still are "redder" than
the normal eye, they appear black, just as in a
normal peachie. Young Cinnamons do have a dark
marking on the beak, though the patch is much
lighter in shade than the deep black mark on the
beak of a Normal Green Peachfaced baby. A Lutino
baby has no dark mark on its beak The Australian
cinnamon to the left has built an elaborate nest
for her brood.
 The bird to the right is an
American Cinnamon (this is a blue Am. cinnamon;
it is also whitefaced).
Some very
interesting effects are created when two of the
sex-linked mutations are mixed. Because each of
these mutations occurs on the sex-determining
chromosome pair, a female can only carry one of
these mutaitons at a time, however, occasionally
a rare genetic "crossover" will occur
when a father bird carries one gene each of
American Cinnamon and Lutino. The result of this
crossover is that both the American Cinnamon Gene
and the Lutino gene end up on the same
chromosome. The new, combined mutation is
referred to as a "Lacewing." They are
quite unusual (photo not available).
 When a male bird carries one
Lutino gene and one Australian Cinnamon
gene, he will visually resemble an
Australian Cinnamon bird, though he will
be slightly paler in color. This bird is
sometimes referred to as a
"Splitcinnamonino." For
example, the Australian cinnamon hen
(top) and the orange-faced lutino male to
the right would produce
"splitcinnamonino" males.
Because both of the mutations are
sex-linked in this pairing to the right,
we will know the sex of each baby by its
color (splitcinnamoninos will be males,
lutinos will be females).We have been
discussing these colors in terms of
"green series" birds. The
appearance of these sex-linked mutations
is different in "blue series"
birds. The bird below is a creamino,
which is the ino mutation in a blue peachfaced lovebird.
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