Clearwing Budgerigar Mutation - Historical Notes

Historical Notes

The precise origin of the Clearwing mutation is unclear, but Clearwings almost certainly appeared first among Greywing stock in Australia in the late 1920s.

In the 1920s the Greywing was quite a popular variety, far more common than now. Many studs of Greywings were established in both Great Britain and Australia, but there seemed to be differences between the British Greywings and those being bred in Australia. The British variety had soft grey markings and a body colour of about half the normal intensity, whereas some of the Australian 'Greywings' had a body colour of almost normal intensity, together with very pale wing markings. These brighter coloured 'Greywings' were very popular in Australia and were preferred to the more subdued shades of the true Greywing .

In the mid-1930s there was considerable debate about the nature of these brighter Australian 'Greywings', some maintaining that they were a distinct mutation and others insisting that they were obtained by selective breeding from normal Greywings and/or Dilutes.

The 'Greywings' with almost full body colour and light wing markings were known throughout Australia as Jades in the green series and Royals in the blue series . The latter name originated from a pair of 'Greywing' Cobalts (of the type with intense body colour) which were presented to HM King George V in, it is believed, 1935. These birds came from a strain which had been cultivated by Harold E Pier of Peakhurst, New South Wales, over the previous seven years . More generally these birds were called Australs, and significantly, Yellowwings and Whitewings. They were, in fact, almost certainly the breed we now know as Clearwings or crosses between the Clearwing and Greywing mutations which we now know as Full-Bodied Greywings.

The correct identification and classification of the two quite distinct Greywing and Clearwing mutations was clearly understood by some Australian breeders by 1936, and probably considerably earlier, but the first article to appear in Britain which clearly set out the genetic behaviour of the two mutations was written by R B Browne of Hornsby, New South Wales and published in the Budgerigar Bulletin in June 1937. It was endorsed by Prof F A E Crew in the same issue. In it Mr Browne described the two mutations, Greywing and Clearwing, correctly identified the full body-coloured Greywing as simply a bird bred by crossing a Greywing and Clearwing together, and gave detailed and exact information regarding their genetic relationship.

So, with hindsight, we can see that the Clearwing mutation was being bred in Australia at least as early as 1926, but was not generally recognised as a separate mutation until the mid-1930s due to confusion with the well established Greywings.

Breeders in Britain were unable to contribute much to the Greywing-Clearwing debate, as Clearwings were unknown here until August 1936, when Mr E Walker of Sydney brought over the first Clearwings for Messrs Mott and Marshall, believed to be of Birmingham, and in the same year Mr R J Watts was given a pair by Mr Ernest W Jones, the chairman of the Budgerigar Club of New South Wales .