Euwing Mutation in Lovebirds

The Euwing mutation remains a mystery to most Agapornis breeders in Spain, but thanks to a recent visit to the BVA show and some conversations with Dirk Van den Abeele and Piet Verhijde, today we are able to understand more about this fascinating mutation. Let us make a brief introduction for those who are not yet familiar with it.

This mutation appeared in Holland in Piet Verhijde’s Aviary in 2004 after crossing a pair of green fischeri x lutino. One of its two main characteristics is the dilution of the chest, from the usual green color of the wild form to a very characteristic dark yellow. The other one is an increase of eumelanin in the bird's wings, leaving the mantle normal in color (as such, one can see a paler tone when compared to the wing color), a feature that seems to draw a V on back of the bird between the wings and mantle by the difference in color tone. Due to this increase of eumelanin, it was decided to call this mutation euwing which means "increase eumelanin in the wings" (increase of eumelanin in the wings). ("Aga is", D. Van den Abeele, 2005 and www.aga is.be, D. Van den Abeele).

This mutation has a major problem. The DF birds (do not forget that it is an incomplete dominant mutation) develop problems in the feathers, preventing them to fly and making them look less striking. We sense that something similar happens to young born from two parents possessing double dark factor (DD), so it is recommended only to raise SF birds. Something to consider in this mutation is without doubt, the most beautiful bird occurs in the original wild-type. Mixing with dark factors causes the bird to lose that characteristic beauty based on the dilution of the color of the breast, so birds that have D or DD shades are much duller than the original.

From what I have observed, this mutation in blue series does not show the same beauty as in the green series, so my recommendation is to raise only birds of the green series. Like other incomplete dominant mutations, we can find 3 fairly distinct types: - Less marked: where the characteristics of the mutation could hardly be noticed with the exception of a small dilution in the chest and back V characteristic. - Normal: where the dilution in the chest is more pronounced than in the preceding one. – Prominently Marked: where one sees the chest clearly diluted with a very distinctive yellow color.

Today this mutation can be found in the fischeri (the species where it originally appeared) and the nigrigenis.