Shaft-Tail Finch White

Shaftail Finch White

 Gender not Guaranteed

 Active, comical, nosy. Breeding birds may become aggressive towards more passive species. Grey head, black "bib" extending from chin to the throat, black markings extending from each side of the beak to the eye, brown back and wings, pinkish-brown colored breast and belly, black thighs, white rump, black tail with long tail wires, orange legs. The Long-tailed grass finch has a yellow beak, and the Heck's grass finch (which is considered the subspecies) has a red beak (although sometimes it is more orange, probably due to indiscriminate mating of the subspecies to the nominate form). Juveniles emerge from the nest with a black beak, flesh-colored legs and feet, a smaller bib than the adult, and with duller plumage overall.

Several mutations exist including:

• Fawn (sex-linked): a paler, more tawny brown version overall, where even the black of the throat, lores, and thighs becomes more of a dark brown
• Cream or cream-ino / creamino (sex-linked mutation): the entire bird becomes shades of off-white, with the exceptions of the black areas on the normal bird which are more of a light brown color; irides are red
• White: the entire bird is white and the normally black markings are hardly visible
• Pied: random splotches of white feathering throughout
• Pale-billed (autosomal dominant): beak is very pale in color
• Isabel / Isabele / Isabelle (autosomal recessive): Pale fawn body color, black markings become light brown; looks like a "dilute" version of the fawn mutation
• Grey (autosomal recessive): overall greyer colored bird, but black markings remain black.

The Shaft-tail finch looks very similar to a separate species called the Parson's Finch (P. cincta), but can be differentiated from the Parson's by the color of the bill. The Shaft-tail will have a yellow, orange, or red bill, whereas the Parson's Finch has a black bill (exception: the creamino mutation Parson's finch has a pink bill). The Parson's Finch also has a shorter tail, regardless of color morph.