Splendid red chests

In an earlier post Ron in Delaware asked about whether his Scarlet-chested parakeet might eventually acquire a redder chest. In thumbing through my copy of "Parrakeets of The World," by Dr. Matthew M. Vriends, I came across this photo representing a typical pair of Splendid parakeets. 

Although my own Splendid males have very splendid red chests (pun intended), obviously not all do. As I mentioned earlier, people are trying to produce other colors in the Splendids. However, even if one has red all the way down his front, or is all blue, I like the contrast of the bright yellow next to the red. This pair doesn't look typical to me. All the Splendids I've ever owned have had brighter colors all over ... red, yellow turquoise and blue.

This photo isn't taken as close, but you can see the brighter colors even at a distance. What I notice most about photos of male Splendid parakeets is that a camera cannot capture the iridescent quality of their cobalt blue faces. In fact, in all the photos I've taken, the males appear to have lighter blue faces than they actually do. In real life they are so much more beautiful than in pictures.

My copy of "Parrakeets of The World" was published in 1979. However, Amazon.com appears to have more recent, inexpensive copies. Here are scans of the front and back cover of my hard copy  book.

I glean valuable bits of information from many bird books, but ignore  any material that I disagree with.  "Take what you like and leave the rest."

To my USA Friends: Have a fun, safe Fourth of July Holiday.

Click to Link to Amazon for this book:  Parrakeets of the World