Mutation Guides
Lovebird Mutation Guides
A lovebird mutation is a heritable change in a single gene that alters the colour or pattern of a lovebird (Agapornis). Each mutation follows one of four inheritance modes: autosomal recessive, autosomal dominant, autosomal incomplete dominant, or sex-linked. This page covers all 22 mutation groups modelled by our free Fischer's lovebird genetics calculator, verified against the Lovebird Compendium.
Every Fischer's lovebird mutation explained, Opaline, Aqua, Yellow Face, Cinnamon, Violet, Dark Factor and more. Each guide covers inheritance type, visual identification, and the pairings that produce it, backed by the Lovebird Compendium (Dirk Van den Abeele, 2016).
This is the complete lovebird mutations list for Agapornis fischeri. Every Fischer's lovebird colour mutation below is grouped by inheritance mode, so you can see at a glance which lovebird mutations are autosomal recessive, which are dominant or incomplete dominant, and which are sex-linked. Each guide names the gene symbol, the visual identification markers including eye colour, and the pairings that produce the mutation. Every claim is checked against the mutation list published by Ornitho-Genetics VZW on 17 August 2025, which supersedes the 2016 book wherever the two differ.
Where a name in circulation is not on that list, we say so plainly: see turquoise in Fischer's lovebirds, a name OGVZW no longer records for this species, and sapphire, which is a blue1-blue2 crossing-over rather than a gene of its own.
Every lovebird mutation at a glance: the master table
This is the complete reference for lovebird mutations in Fischer's lovebirds (Agapornis fischeri). One row per mutation group: the gene symbol where our own pages publish one, the inheritance mode, whether a hen can hide it as a split, and the link to the full guide with every pairing outcome. The 22 modelled groups match the free calculator exactly.
Notation follows the standard used across this site. A single slash means a split, so Green / Ino is a green bird carrying Ino unseen. A double slash means an allelic compound, so DEC / Ino is a bird holding two different alleles of one locus.
The complete Fischer's lovebird mutation table: 22 modelled groups, plus Violet, Dark Factor and Sapphire documented separately| Mutation | Gene symbol | Inheritance | Hens can be split? | Guide |
|---|
| Base colour series: the blue locus (bl) |
| Green (wild type) | Wild type | The natural Fischer's colour. Every mutation in this table changes this green bird in a predictable way. | Not applicable. There is no mutant allele to carry. | Green series guide |
| Blue 1 and Blue 2 | bl1, bl2 | Autosomal recessive to green. Blue 1 and Blue 2 are co-dominant to each other, so bl1 // bl2 shows as Parblue, a compound, not a mutation. | Yes. A carrier is written Green / Blue 1 or Green / Blue 2. | Blue guide and Parblue guide |
| Aqua | blaq | A blue-locus allele. Aqua Homo behaves autosomal recessive, while Aqua B1 and Aqua B2 are co-dominant compounds with bl1 and bl2. | Yes. A carrier is written Green / Aqua. | Aqua guide |
| Autosomal recessive: two copies to show, splits look normal |
| Yellow Face | of | Autosomal recessive on its own locus, separate from the blue locus. Modelled as the orange face gene, so Aqua Yellow Face and Parblue Yellow Face are legal combinations. | Yes. Split cocks and split hens both exist. | Yellow Face guide |
| Ino (Lutino, Albino) | a | NSL ino, autosomal recessive at the a-locus, allelic with DEC and Pastel. Ino birds keep red eyes for life. | Yes. Both sexes can be split, because fischeri ino is not sex-linked. | Ino guide |
| Dark Eyed Clear (DEC) | adec | An a-locus allele beside Ino and Pastel. Forms the visual DEC / Ino compound often sold as Decino. | Yes. A split DEC looks like a normal green. | DEC guide |
| Pastel | apa | An a-locus allele. Forms the visual Pastel / Ino and Pastel / DEC compounds. Pastel is not the same gene as Dilute. | Yes. | Pastel guide |
| Pale Fallow | pf | Autosomal recessive at its own pf locus. Bright clear red eyes. Not allelic with Dun Fallow or Bronze Fallow, and the three should never be combined. | Yes. | Fallow comparison guide |
| Dun Fallow | df | Autosomal recessive at its own df locus. Bright red eyes on a browner body tone than Pale Fallow. | Yes. | Pale Fallow vs Dun Fallow |
| Bronze Fallow | bz | Autosomal recessive, its own locus. Dark burgundy eyes. Never pair two visuals: Bronze x Bronze gives near-total chick mortality. | Yes. Splits are the safe way to keep the line. | Bronze Fallow guide |
| Dilute | dil | Autosomal recessive at its own dil locus. Macromelanosome mechanism, so eyes and feet stay normal in colour. Not Pastel. | Yes. | Dilute guide |
| Recessive Pied | Recessive Pied | Autosomal recessive. Needs two copies to show and hides completely in a split. | Yes. A split Recessive Pied looks entirely normal. | Recessive Pied guide |
| Red Factor | Red Factor | Modelled autosomal recessive as a modelling choice. No confirmed red gene exists in Fischer's lovebirds. | Yes, under the model the calculator applies. | Red Factor guide |
| Sex-linked recessive: on the Z chromosome, hens can never be split |
| Opaline | op | Sex-linked recessive. A visual Opaline cock paired to a normal hen gives visual daughters and split sons, fully auto-sexing at hatch. | No. A hen is visual or clean, never split. | Opaline guide |
| Cinnamon | cin | Sex-linked recessive with incomplete eumelanin production, so black markings turn brown. Chicks show plum-coloured eyes at hatch. | No. | Cinnamon guide |
| Pale | inope | Sex-linked recessive, a proven Fischer's mutation and an allele of the sex-linked ino locus with SL ino and Pallid. Cuts eumelanin by roughly 15 percent. Red eyes at hatch that darken. | No. | Pale guide |
| Pallid | inopd | Modelled sex-linked recessive, an allele of the same sex-linked ino locus. Cuts eumelanin by roughly 50 percent. OGVZW does not yet list it as formally confirmed in Fischer's. | No. | Pallid guide |
| Sex-linked incomplete dominant |
| Greywing | Greywing | Sex-linked incomplete dominant, the OGVZW name is SL dominant greywing. Cocks can be SF or DF, and DF looks visibly different. | No. No split form exists, and a hen carries one dose at most, never DF. | Greywing guide |
| Autosomal dominant: one copy shows, SF and DF look identical |
| Dominant Pied | Dominant Pied | Autosomal dominant. SF and DF are not reliably separable by eye, so zygosity comes from the breeding record. | No. No split form exists for either sex. | Dominant Pied guide |
| Slaty | Slt | Autosomal dominant. The slate-grey cast reads strongest on blue series birds. SF and DF look identical. | No. No split form exists. | Slaty guide |
| Autosomal incomplete dominant: double factor looks different |
| Euwing | Euwing | Autosomal incomplete dominant. A double factor Euwing looks clearly different from a single factor bird. SF x SF gives 25 percent DF, 50 percent SF, 25 percent normal. | No. No split form exists. | Euwing guide |
| Misty | Misty | Autosomal incomplete dominant with the same dominant arithmetic as Euwing, in SF and DF forms. | No. No split form exists. | Misty guide |
| Documented on this site, not modelled by the calculator |
| Violet | Violet | Incomplete dominant. Documented, not modelled by the calculator. Deepest expression as single factor Violet on a blue background. | No. No split form exists. | Violet guide |
| Dark Factor | Dark Factor | Incomplete dominant. One copy gives Dark Green or Cobalt, two copies give Olive or Mauve. Documented, not modelled by the calculator. | No. No split form exists. | Dark Factor guide |
| Sapphire | Sapphire | A blue1-blue2 crossing-over at the blue locus, not a separate mutation. Documented, deliberately not modelled while OGVZW research stays open. | Not applicable. | Sapphire guide |
- Only four groups are sex-linked recessive: Opaline, Cinnamon, Pale and Pallid. A hen can never be split for any of them.
- No dominant gene has a split form. Dominant Pied, Slaty, Euwing, Misty and Greywing either show in the bird or are absent from it.
- Three alleles share the a-locus: Ino, DEC and Pastel. One bird can hold only two of them at a time.
- The blue locus carries four alleles: bl1, bl2, bl aq and bl tq. Parblue is the bl1 // bl2 compound, so it can never breed true.
- Ino birds keep red eyes for life. Pale and Pallid chicks hatch with red eyes that darken within days, and the three fallows keep red to burgundy eyes.
- Red Factor is applied as a modelling choice. No confirmed red gene exists in Fischer's, so read those outcomes as the model, not settled genetics.
- A visual sex-linked cock over a normal hen is auto-sexing. Every daughter shows the mutation at hatch, and every son is a split.
Sources: every modelled row is cross-checked against the Lovebird Compendium (Dirk Van den Abeele, 2016) and the current Ornitho-Genetics VZW mutation list for Agapornis. Violet and Dark Factor are documented in full guides but are not yet parameters in the engine, so the calculator will not show them in results. Sapphire is deliberately excluded while OGVZW research into its genetic background stays open.
If a trade name is missing from this table, that is deliberate. OGVZW has not published it, and this site never invents a phenotype, a gene symbol or a trade name the reference bodies have not documented. That policy is why every row here can be traced back to a published source.
How lovebird mutations are inherited: the four modes
Every group in the table follows one of four inheritance modes, and the mode decides everything a pairing can produce. It sets whether splits exist, whether cocks and hens get different results, and whether one copy or two copies show. The calculator applies these rules automatically across all 22 modelled groups.
Autosomal recessive: two copies to show
A chick must inherit the gene from both parents before the colour shows. A bird with one copy is a split: it looks normal, and it passes the gene to roughly half of its chicks. Both sexes can be split, which is how Ino, Pastel and the fallows hide inside a line for years.
Autosomal dominant: one copy shows, no splits
One copy is enough to show the mutation, so no split form exists. Dominant Pied and Slaty follow this mode, and a double factor bird looks identical to a single factor bird. Zygosity therefore comes from the breeding record, not from the eye.
Autosomal incomplete dominant: double factor looks different
One copy shows, and a second copy visibly stacks. A double factor Euwing or Misty looks clearly different from a single factor bird, which is what separates this mode from plain dominance. The classic result is SF x SF giving 25 percent DF, 50 percent SF and 25 percent normal.
Sex-linked: the Z chromosome decides
These genes sit on the Z chromosome: cocks are ZZ, hens are ZW. A hen can never be split, because she has no second Z to hide a recessive allele behind. Opaline, Cinnamon, Pale and Pallid are sex-linked recessive, and Greywing is sex-linked incomplete dominant; the full rules live in our sex-linked mutations guide.
Punnett square: Opaline cock x normal hen, the auto-sexing pairing| 1.0 Visual Opaline cock × 0.1 Normal green hen |
|---|
| Hen gamete / Cock gamete | Z op |
|---|
| Z | Z op / Z
Son, split Opaline |
|---|
| W | Z op / W
Daughter, visual Opaline |
|---|
| 100 percent of sons are split Opaline, 100 percent of daughters are visual Opaline. Every visual Opaline chick in this nest is a hen, so the pairing is auto-sexing at hatch. |
|---|
Browse every mutation guide
Each card below opens the full guide for one mutation: inheritance, visual identification and every cock x hen pairing with real percentages, verified against the calculator engine. If you want the whole species in one long read, start with the complete Fischer's mutation reference. For inheritance theory from zero, the complete genetics guide covers loci, alleles and notation step by step.
The Mutations category alone holds 23 full articles. Pairing walkthroughs with engine-verified percentages live in the Pairings hub, and the Genetics basics hub teaches loci, alleles and split notation from zero. Every mutation on this page applies across all four species in the white eye-ring group, so one set of pairing rules covers Fischer's, masked, Lilian's and black-cheeked lovebirds.
Lovebird mutations: frequently asked questions
How many lovebird mutations are there?
There is no single fixed number, because new mutations are still being documented. This site documents 24 mutation groups for Fischer's lovebirds: 22 are modelled by the free calculator, plus Violet and Dark Factor, which have full guides but are not yet in the engine.
What is the rarest lovebird mutation?
Among the mutations covered here, Bronze Fallow is the rarest of the three fallows, because Bronze x Bronze causes near-total chick mortality and the line must be kept through splits. The rarest combinations are Aqua Yellow Face and Parblue Yellow Face.
Are lovebird mutations natural or man-made?
They are natural genetic events. A mutation is a spontaneous copying change in a gene, and the colour forms we breed all started as chance events in wild-type green birds. Breeders did not create the genes; they selected and paired the birds that carried them.
Can two lovebird mutations combine in one bird?
Yes, when the mutations sit on different loci. Opaline Cinnamon, Aqua Yellow Face and Slaty Blue are all real combinations. Alleles of one locus are limited to two per bird, so a-locus alleles like Ino and DEC combine only as compounds such as DEC / Ino.
Why can a lovebird hen not be split for a sex-linked mutation?
Cocks carry two Z chromosomes, hens carry one Z and one W. A split needs a second chromosome to hide the gene behind, and a hen has no second Z. Whatever sits on her single Z shows, so a hen is either visual or clean, never split.
Which lovebird mutations are sex-linked?
Four sex-linked recessives are modelled: Opaline, Cinnamon, Pale and Pallid. Pallid sits on the sex-linked ino locus as ino pd, while Pale sits on its own separate pe locus, so the two are not alleles of one gene. Greywing is the fifth sex-linked gene, an incomplete dominant, so a Greywing hen carries one dose at most and can never be double factor.
Is Parblue a lovebird mutation?
No. Parblue is the compound of two blue-locus alleles, Blue 1 and Blue 2, written bl1 // bl2. It cannot breed true: Parblue x Parblue gives 25 percent Blue 1, 50 percent Parblue and 25 percent Blue 2. Blue 1 x Blue 2 gives 100 percent Parblue.
Do lovebird mutations cause health problems?
Most do not, but the three fallow lines are physically weak, and Van den Abeele advises against combining them. The critical rule is Bronze Fallow x Bronze Fallow, which produces near-total chick mortality. Keep Bronze Fallow through split birds instead of pairing two visuals.
What are the different types of lovebird mutations?
They sort into three families by what they change. Eumelanin mutations alter the dark pigment and include the three fallows, Cinnamon, Pallid and Pale. Psittacofulvin mutations alter the yellow-to-red parrot pigment and include Blue 1, Blue 2, Aqua, Parblue and Yellow Face. Structural and pattern mutations change how light meets the feather or how pigment is distributed, and include Violet, Opaline, Euwing, Misty and the two pieds.
How do I identify a lovebird mutation?
Read three signals together: body colour, wing and mantle pattern, and eye colour. Eye colour separates mutations that otherwise look alike. Bronze Fallow shows dark burgundy eyes, Pale Fallow shows bright clear red, and Dun Fallow shows bright red on a darker laurel-green body. A visual check can never reveal a split, because a split looks wild-type and only shows in the offspring.
What is the difference between a lovebird mutation and a split?
A mutation is the altered gene itself, and a visual bird shows it. A split carries one copy of a recessive mutation hidden behind a normal copy and looks wild-type. On this site a single slash means split, as in Green / Cinnamon, and a double slash means an allelic compound, as in DEC / Ino.
Which lovebird mutations are recognised by Ornitho-Genetics VZW?
Ornitho-Genetics VZW, led by Belgian aviculturist and ornithologist Dirk Van den Abeele, publishes the reference mutation list for the genus Agapornis. The list dated 17 August 2025 is the current authority, and where it differs from the 2016 Lovebird Compendium the newer document takes precedence. This site follows that list and publishes no phenotype or gene symbol that OGVZW has not documented.
Are Fischer's lovebird mutations the same as peach-faced lovebird mutations?
No. Mutation names carry across the genus but the mutations established in each species do not. Ino in Fischer's lovebirds is NSL ino, an autosomal recessive on the a-locus, so both cocks and hens can be split. In peach-faced lovebirds the equivalent gene is sex-linked, where a hen can never be split. This site models Agapornis fischeri only.
How do I predict lovebird mutation offspring?
Enter the cock and the hen, including any known splits, into the free calculator on this site. It applies the correct inheritance mode for each of the 22 modelled mutation groups and returns the percentage for every outcome, split by sex wherever a sex-linked gene is involved.
