Gouldian Mutations

Gouldian mutations are very uncommon in the wild as the bright colors are very easily spotted by predators.

There  are many color variations which have have bred in captivity over the years.

White Breast
The first form of gouldian mutation is the white breast.

It is the same as the normal gouldian except it has a white colored breast. It is found in all three head colors.

The white breasted gouldian is recessive. It is either visible or hidden.

The hidden or unseen white breast is what is known or termed as a split.

That is split for the white breast. It is possible that a gouldian may be split for white breast as it is not visible.

The only way you can be sure a gouldian finch has the mutation of white breast is if one of its parents has a visible white breast the other parent can even have no white breast what so ever.

If this is the case no visible white breast will be present as all the offspring will be split for white breast.

The ideal way of breeding gouldian finches for this mutation to guarantee that the white breast mutation is passed on to all of the young is with one parent bird to have a white breast and the other parent bird to be split for white breast.
This theoretically produces half of the young gouldians to have a visible white breast and the other half to be split for white breast.

Gouldian Mutations

The Lilac Breast
The only difference between the lilac breasted gouldian and the normal is the breast color.

The lilac breast first appeared in the United Kingdom from breading split white breasted and white breasted gouldian mutations.

Some white breasted gouldian mutations may have patches of lilac. This mutation is recessive in the normal but dominant in the white breasted mutation.

Gouldian mutations

The Yellow Back

The Yellow back is a co-dominant sex linked mutation. It is only present if you can actually see it not like the white breast gouldian mutation where it may be a split for white breast.

The yellow back can not be a split for this mutation. The male can be either a double factor or a single factor in the yellow back. The female can only be a single factor for the yellow back mutation.

Single Factor Yellow Back
The single factor yellow back can be either purple breasted or white breasted. The purple breasted male looks like a normal except the green on its back is a lighter green and all of the black is not present.

Instead it is a grayish blue as seen in the photo on the right. The hen looks like the double factor in both the purple and the white breast.

Double Factor Yellow back
The double factor is only found in the male. It is found in both white and purple breasted.

The white breasted yellow back has a beautiful bright yellow back color and all the black coloring of the normal is not present. The purple breasted yellow back has a yellow green back color. The black is not present also.

The Blue Back
The green in the blue back is replaced by blue. Their body is a creamy yellow to a white color. The blue back is recessive genetically.

The blue breasted gouldian is quite difficult to breed out of all the gouldian mutations successfully due to it being such a recessive gene.