Pearl

Origin:  Pearl is the third established mutation. The Pearl cockatiel was first bred and established in West Germany in 1967.

The Pearl gene does not have any visual effect on the base color pigments in the bird but instead it affects the distribution of the colors that are already present. It actually decreases the spread of the grey family of pigments (melanin) and increases the spread of the yellow pigments (lipochrome). Individual feathers all over the bird are altered to create a uniform pattern. The mutated gene acts differently than Pied, which is a lack of color or pigment to random areas on the bird. Melanin is absent from the center of each individual feather. This can vary in color from white to a deep golden yellow creating a scalloped pattern. The scalloped pattern will vary per bird. If you look carefully at an individual Pearl feather, it can either be yellow with grey/dark edging, or grey/dark with yellow edging. The pearl pattern may be confined largely to the back and wings, or it can extend onto the breast area, which will appear diluted.

A Pearl can be identified in the nest as it starts to pinfeather. The tail pinfeathers will be yellow, and the pinfeathers on the body will be variegated or striped looking in bands of alternating grey and yellow. The feet will be pink, and the toenails dark.

When young, Pearl cockatiels of both sexes will have a yellow suffusion to the grey of the facial mask and base of the crest. The tails will be yellow with varying degrees of barring and the central vein down the center of the tail feather is dark.

The Pearl mutation is dimorphic, like the Normal Grey. The Pearl cock will lose the pearl markings and yellow tail when he molts into adult plumage, starting at 5-6 months old. The cock does not actually lose his pearl markings and yellow tail. What happens is when the new feather emerges it contains a higher concentration of melanin will mask the pattern on the feather so that it is a solid color. After a molt or two the melanin may not totally mask the entire pattern, thus a slight pale ‘ghosting’ of where the pearling was can be seen on the back.

Patterns and the intensity of yellow can vary per bird. On rare occasions, a Pearl may have only one (1) pearl on the body. Some Pearls may show an incomplete (is a descriptive term) pearl pattern to the center of the back. If the age is unknown, the bird may be mistaken for young cock going through a molt. When this occurs, it is a result of melanin suppressing the pattern from showing in portions of the overall pattern. These oddities in pattern can occur with either sex. Ideally, the Pearl mutation should have a uniform pattern to the entire back from the base of the skull to the rump.

When breeding, if you have a particular depth of yellow and pattern you like you can breed the Pearl to a Normal with minimal to no splits, especially no Pearl splits to create birds (hold back the cocks) that are split to the specific pearl pattern and color. The cock, when mature, should then be paired with a Normal or solid color mutation, which will give you visual daughters.

There appear to be several variations of the pearl pattern. Some pearl patterns may have distinct edges between the light and dark colors, or the colors seem to blend into each other. The edging can be a narrow thin line or color (light or dark) to a wide band of color edging the feather. Many times descriptive words are used to describe pearl pattern, such as Silver or White Pearl, Golden Pearl, Lacewing, Marginated, Bordered, or Incomplete Pearl

Also look at the tail feathers of the pearl.  Pearl feathers will always have a dark/black center vein and some pattern to them.  If the pearl is also pied there will be some ‘Clear’ feathers to the tail.  Clear means the feather will not have any markings or other color aside from a solid yellow or white (if whiteface)