Pretty Birds, Pretty Birds

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago - my mother and I (and my father by proxy) bred budgerigars. We had dozens, and looking into their genetics was endlessly fascinating.

So when a swap was posted on AFA with the theme of "parakeets" (ie: budgerigars), and I saw lots o beautiful art already submitted, I could not resist joining - even though the deadline was between Christmas and New Year - the worst possible time for me to be sending cards anywhere.

It took me longer to make the cards than I expected, because I kept getting distracted by budgie breeding pages. Seriously, budgie breeding is far more interesting to budding scientists than say, fruit flies, and oh, the way in which you need to do test crosses and so forth to work out if your birds are split for danish pied or if they're double spangles or dark eyed clearbodys. Oh, it is bliss for scientists and confusing for the lay-person.

 

Anyhow, I decided in the end to draw (clockwise from top left) a Danish Pied, a Dominant Pied, a YF violet clearflighted and a Rainbow. Some I am happy with than others, but as I really, really need to get these into the post ASAP if they are to have any show of arriving close to the due date, I cannot redraw them.