Reading a Gouldian finch: head, breast and back

The Gouldian finch comes from the tropical north of Australia, and even the wild form looks hand-painted: a coloured head, a purple breast, a green back and a yellow belly. Captive breeding has added colours to each part of the bird, and they are easiest to read one zone at a time.

Head: red, black or orange

Wild Gouldians have red or black heads, plus a rare orange-headed form often called “yellow-headed”. Red is dominant over black and the gene sits on the sex chromosome, so the head colours a pair produces depend on which parent carries which colour. Orange is recessive and only shows on birds that would otherwise be red-headed.

Breast: purple or white

Purple is the wild breast colour. White breast is a recessive mutation, so a white-breasted chick needs the gene from both parents.

Back: green, yellow or blue

Green is the wild back colour. Blue birds lack the yellow pigment, so the back turns blue and the belly white or cream. Yellow-backed birds soften the green toward yellow, and several different mutations produce them.

Young birds

Gouldian chicks leave the nest a plain grey-green, with no hint of their adult colours. The colour comes in through the first moult over the following months, so part of the pleasure is the wait. Several of the young birds in the finch photos are in the middle of that change.