[Josephmatthew]

Lately I have seen a series of photos on Facebook of what seems to be a golden Cockatiel, is its possible or just a good Photoshop job either way its a good looking bird. I did a Facebook search of the watermark and it led me to a Cockatiel breeder in Thailand. I was just wanting to know if its possible? :budgie: :confused1:

 

[Jonah]

Wow....good looking is right. I'll be interested in finding out if this is a new mutation or just a hoax too....

 

[RavensGryf]

WOW! That is stunning. It really does not look photoshopped IMO!

 

[Kate C]

It could be a 100% Reverse Pied Pastel Face Pearl. You can get that deep yellow with the Reverse Pied and the Pearl mutation can strengthen the colour as well. There has to be pastel face in there as the cheek patches are too pale otherwise, pastel face birds have diluted cheek patches. I have seen birds with that deep yellow colour, but the cheek patches have been bright as well.

I agree it does not look like it has been photoshopped. I think to do that they would have to start with an Albino bird and add the colour and if they did that there would be no cheek patches at all.

 

[StarlingWings]

Wow, they are beautiful!

Stunning, and Kate, that's a really interesting answer

 

[Kate C]

I am very rusty on my Cockatiel mutations, especially the newer ones. The Pastel Face was only just coming around when I stopped breeding them.

That is the colour that the Lutino should look like, but with bright orange cheek patches, but after they first bred the lutino they were trying to get a pure white bird so they bred the palest lutino's together. All they succeeded in doing was diluting the yellow and didn't achieve the lovely white bird until the Whiteface mutation came along.

I know some breeders here have been trying to breed the lutino back to that lovely buttercup yellow colour. The bird above does not appear to be a lutino as the eyes appear to be normal in colour and not plum coloured. But if it was a lutino it would be a Pastel Face Lutino Pearl as I can see some pearl markings on the bird. On a lutino bird the pearl makings are a deeper yellow that the rest of the body.