Cinnamons and Whites

Cinnamon Pairings

Cinnamon is portrayed as being a hidden evil in a birdroom. I have heard a few people who have brought a cock bird into their stud complaining when a cinnamon appears in the nest. I see it as a very useful and attractive part of canary breeding. The main thing to do is keep comprehensive records so that you do not get any surprises. Cinnamon is a recessive sex-linked gene and can be passed on from either the father or mother and can be used to improve feather quality in normals or reduce feather bulk. Sex linked means that only the father can pass it on in its visual form. The hen however can pass it on to her sons but only in the hidden form i.e. a carrier. This hopefully will become clearer when you have read the pairings below.

One other thing to note is that cinnamon birds have pink eyes and green birds have black eyes. This applies to clear birds as well as visually marked birds. The colour of the eyes is most noticeable when they are up to about 4 or 5 days old. After that it is almost not detectable. This is where confusion can exist in clear birds that have pink eyes i.e. no visual markings - hence keep records of what is in the nest.

Please note in the pairings below a green hen or green cock represents a normal carrying no cinnamon or cinnamon markings)

Parents

Cinnamon Cock x Green Hen

Offspring

50% Green Cocks carrying Cinnamon

50% Cinnamon Hens

All of the cinnamon marked from this pairing will be hens. All of the cocks will be normal marked but will carry the cinnamon gene. The cinnamon marked will have pink eyes and the normal marked will have dark eyes.

Parents

Green Cock x Cinnamon Hen

Offspring

50% Green Cocks carrying Cinnamon

50% Green Hens

The normal marked hens from this pairing will not carry any cinnamon but normal marked cocks will carry cinnamon, no young from this pairing will show any cinnamon markings.

Parents

Green Cocks carrying Cinnamon x Green Hen

Offspring

25% Green Cocks carrying Cinnamon
25% Cinnamon Hens

25% Green Cocks

25% Green Hens

All cinnamon marked from this pairing will be hens and all of the normal marked hens will not carry any cinnamon. It is not possible to tell which normal marked cocks are carrying cinnamon until they are test mated and do or do not produce cinnamon. It could take several years for a cinnamon carrying cock from this pairing to show that he is carrying cinnamon.

Parents	Green Cocks carrying Cinnamon x Cinnamon Hen
Offspring	25% Green Cocks carrying Cinnamon 25% Cinnamon Cocks 25% Cinnamon Hens 25% Green Hens
	The normal marked hens from this pairing will not carry any cinnamon. The cinnamon marked could be either cocks or hens.

Parents	Cinnamon Cock x Cinnamon Hen
Offspring	50% Cinnamon Cocks 50% Cinnamon Hens
	All young from this pairing will be cinnamon.

NOTE

Confusion can arise when the cinnamon gene is in a clear bird. It is a good idea to trim the fluff on the top of a chicks head when it is in the nest and has pink eyes incase it is a clear bird with no cinnamon markings. A note can then be kept on the ring number for future reference

Fawns

The fawn colour occurs when the cinnamon colour is combined with a white ground bird and causes the cinnamon to become lighter, hence it becomes fawn. Within the Fife world it is generally accepted that white birds are of the dominant variety (as opposes to recessive whites). Below are some examples of pairings with a dominant white ground bird that may produce fawns. Please note that a blue bird is a white bird with black eyes i.e. if it were normal it would be green.

Parents

Blue Cock x Cinnamon Hen

Offspring

25% Blue Cocks carrying Cinnamon
25% Green Cocks carrying Cinnamon
25% Blue Hens
25% Green Hens

Parents

Cinnamon Cock x Blue Hen

Offspring

25% Blue Cocks carrying Cinnamon

25% Green Cocks carrying Cinnamon

25% Fawn Hens
25% Cinnamon Hens

Parents

Blue Cocks carrying Cinnamon x Cinnamon Hen

Offspring

12.5% Blue Cocks carrying Cinnamon

12.5% Green Cocks carrying Cinnamon
12.5% Fawn Cocks
12.5% Cinnamon Cocks
12.5% Blue Hens
12.5% Green Hens
12.5% Fawn Hens
12.5% Cinnamon Hens

Parents

Blue Cocks carrying Cinnamon x Green Hen

Offspring

12.5% Blue Cocks
12.5% Blue Cocks carrying Cinnamon
12.5% Green Cocks
12.5% Green Cocks carrying Cinnamon

12.5% Blue Hens
12.5% Green Hens
12.5% Cinnamon Hens
12.5% Fawn Hens

Parents	Fawn Cock x Cinnamon Hen
Offspring	25% Fawn Cocks 25% Cinnamon Cock 25% Fawn Hens 25% Cinnamon Hens

Parents	Cinnamon Cock x Fawn Hen
Offspring	25% Fawn Cocks 25% Cinnamon Cock 25% Fawn Hens 25% Cinnamon Hens

Parents

Fawn Cock x Green Hen

Offspring

25% Blue Cocks carrying Cinnamon

25% Green Cocks carrying Cinnamon
25% Fawn Hens
25% Cinnamon Hens

Parents	Green Cocks carrying Cinnamon x Fawn Hen
Offspring	12.5% Cinnamon Cocks 12.5% Fawn Cocks 12.5% Blue Cocks carrying Cinnamon 12.5% Green Cocks carrying Cinnamon 12.5% Blue Hens 12.5% Cinnamon Hens 12.5% Fawn Hens 12.5% Green Hens

Parents

Green Cocks carrying Cinnamon x Blue Hen

Offspring

12.5% Blue Cocks
12.5% Blue Cocks carrying Cinnamon
12.5% Green Cocks
12.5% Green Cocks carrying Cinnamon

12.5% Blue Hens
12.5% Green Hens
12.5% Cinnamon Hens
12.5% Fawn Hens

Parents	Cinnamon Cock x Blue Hen
Offspring	25% Blue Cocks carrying Cinnamon 25% Green Cocks carrying Cinnamon 25% Fawn Hens 25% Cinnamon Hens

White Ground

The white ground colour in canaries exists in two forms, the Dominant White and the Recessive White.

Dominant White

Dominant white is dominant to the normal (yellow or buff) i.e. a bird that receives a normal producing gene from one parent and a dominant white gene from the other will be a white bird.

Dominant white canaries show a yellow tinge on the shoulder and in the wings. This is due the fact that they are not pure white in that they carry the normal gene. Two dominant whites paired together will produce 25 percent of the young that carry two dominant white genes. This is a lethal combination and those birds will die in the shell or shortly hatching. Because of this lethal combination it is written that two whites should not be paired together, however, this is a statistical fact and many leading fanciers have paired white to white with success in terms of numbers of birds bred.

Matings to Produce Dominant Whites

Parents

Dominant white cock x Dominant white hen.

Offspring

25 percent normal

50 percent dominant white

25 percent non-viable dominant white

Parents

Dominant white cock x Normal hen.

Offspring

50 percent normal

50 percent dominant white

Parents

Normal cock x Dominant white hen.

Offspring

50 percent normal

50 percent dominant white

Recessive Whites

Recessive white as its name implies is recessive to the normal colour i.e. normal can carry recessive white. It follows that for a bird to be a recessive white it needs to get a white colour gene from both parents. This means that two normal coloured birds can produce a white bird.. It is generally accepted that recessive whites do not exist in fife canaries i.e. they are all dominant.

Matings to Produce Recessive Whites

Parents	Recessive white cock x Recessive white hen.
Offspring	All young recessive white

Parents	Recessive white cock x Normal hen.
Offspring	All young normal carrying recessive white

Parents	Normal cock x Recessive white hen.
Offspring	All young normal carrying recessive white

Parents

Normal cock carrying recessive white x Recessive white hen.

Offspring

50% recessive white