Recessive Pied Budgerigar Mutation - Historical Notes

Historical Notes

The details of the origin of the Recessive Pied come entirely from C af Enehjelm, a Finnish fancier who spent much of his time in Denmark. Writing in the Budgerigar Bulletin in 1948, he recalled the events leading to the establishment of the Recessive Pied as follows.

The first Recessive Pied budgerigar, a green and yellow cock of unknown pedigree, was seen at a Copenhagen bird show about 1928. It was bought by two Danish fanciers, Kai Riis-Hansen and A Reddersen. It was initially housed with Mr Reddersen and paired to a Dilute Skyblue hen, producing four or five chicks all normal Light Green in appearance. These would, of course, all have been split for Recessive Pied, Blue and Dilute. These young were paired among themselves over the following two years and several pieds in green-yellow and blue-white were bred.

Three pieds, two green and one blue, together with several splits were then taken to the aviaries of Mr Riis-Hansen, leaving the original cock and some pieds with Mr Reddersen. The stock remaining with Mr Reddersen seems to have died out soon after, leaving Mr Riis-Hansen and a few others (unknown) to build up the strain and see it safely through the war years.

After the war, Mr af Enehjelm himself, as well as a few others, obtained stock from Mr Riis-Hansen and the mutation gradually spread, being known as Harlequins at the time. The first Recessive Pieds to be seen in Britain were obtained by Cyril Rogers from Mr af Enehjelm in 1948. The mutation is not known to have appeared anywhere else and all Recessive Pieds are descended from that single cock exhibited in Copenhagen.