What were my old budgies' mutations?

[bluejay]

I found some old photos dated back to around 2009-2011 of some of the budgies I used to have. As I tend to second guess myself, I want to double-check that I have their mutations right or if I'm missing mutations they have listed further down the text of this post.

I unfortunately lost the recessive pied who flew away from an accident, and lost the dilute to a tumor years ago. I miss them dearly.

For the mutations:

Soul: Recessive Pied / Sky Blue 

• Black markings have a tinge of dark brown to them
  
• Only one throat spot on left side of face
  

Spirit: Dilute or Greywing(?) / Cobalt 

• Faint blue body color on some of the grey markings on head and back
  
• Her body color is darker than a sky blue greywing budgie I used to have, and the difference was clear when they were side by side. I unfortunately don't have any pictures saved of the other budgie. :c

Soul is definitely a recessive pied sky blue budgie, and confirmed by some people I talked to. So no doubting myself there. As for Spirit, I kept getting differing opinions on whether she's a dilute or greywing.

[yellowfacedviolet]

Yes, Soul is as you describe.

Spirit appears to be a Greywing. Regarding color, I think the reason why she appears a bit darker than a sky is  the violet factor. It's tricky to sort that one out when there's 50% dilution of body color going on but I'd wager she's a Single Factor Violet Sky Greywing.

[bluejay]

Thanks for the assessment yellowfacedviolet .

Are there any photos out there that show the difference between a SF Violet Sky Greywing and a Cobalt Greywing, or a side-by-side comparison of the two? That piqued my curiosity since I've heard SF Violet Sky budgies can be mistaken for Cobalt, and SF Violet Cobalt budgies mistaken for Mauve. I only found photo comparisons of birds with no dilution on Google images instead of comparison of birds with dilution.

[yellowfacedviolet]

Aug 5, 2020 13:13:12 GMT bluejay said:

Thanks for the assessment yellowfacedviolet .

Are there any photos out there that show the difference between a SF Violet Sky Greywing and a Cobalt Greywing, or a side-by-side comparison of the two? That piqued my curiosity since I've heard SF Violet Sky budgies can be mistaken for Cobalt, and SF Violet Cobalt budgies mistaken for Mauve. I only found photo comparisons of birds with no dilution on Google images instead of comparison of birds with dilution.

Yes, SF Violet Sky is easily mistaken for Cobalt. However, if you look at the base of the tailfeathers of a SF violet sky, they will be turquoise (on normal birds), as compared to the inky blue of a cobalt. I've never seen a violet cobalt confused with a mauve, though. Violet cobalts are clearly...violet, as are DF violet skys. 

You're not likely to find the picture you're looking for because most people who have a SF violet sky greywing don't know they have one. So unless a breeder who bred two violet birds, or a DF to a normal, and knows that some or all are SF violet sky, took pictures of that bird, I doubt there will be one correctly identified on the net. Add to that, that until cell phone cameras came along, traditional photography had a devil of a time capturing violet. For some reason--and I don't know the physics of this--cell phone cameras overcame that shortcoming.