Are the visually-purple mutations compatible with the sex linked purple? Could one, in theory, breed for The Most Purple Peafowl, or do the mutations interfere with each other so that mixing them would make non-purple?

So, European Violet and Sonja's Violeta are both sex-linked as well. This means technically you can have a compound heterozygote male (purple/EV or purple/SV) but in the case of sonja's violeta, the bird reverts to wild type if male and the father's color only if female. European violet is an actual allele to Purple, so the birds come out looking like a nicely colored purple or a poorly colored EV.

This photo above is a barred wing pattern EV, and the bird in the back is a compound het purple/EV blackshoulder pattern (the wing color is striped vs solid, but that pattern difference is not linked to either color and either pattern can appear in either color). If you aren't colorblind to the colors involved, you may be able to see a very, very slight difference in the shades of the necks- the front one is purple colored all the way through, whereas the one in back is more blue than purple, even if it's a royal blue. The trains are also different- the het's train is more green and brassy.

So, not really an improvement.

No one has ever crossed purple to Ultramarine (UM is only a few years old), so I'm honestly not sure what it would do. Partly because they could do anything, but also partly because UM might actually be a dominant color (it's being researched right now!), and might supercede purple. They might also co-express, but I'm unsure what the mechanism is for UM. If it's an increase in melanin, purple is a melanin dilute, so they might pretty much cancel each other out rather than making one better.

I have been trying to find someone I can bully into crossing UM and EV, since EV is more purple colored than US purple is. Alas I do not have 10k to spend on birds right now. But if there's a millionaire following me that wants to know what it looks like, hit me up... I would gladly be a renaissance-style bird breeder mad scientist just for the joy of it.

#I've only ever seen ONE of these in person and I've been to bird auctions since i was like eight years old#they really are like#STUNNINGLY purple#It's more common to see the inverted white eyes than it is to see these guys in my part of the bird world#and I've seen a handful of those#I still think the tans are my favourite though#I actually think they're called chocolate#but like most “chocolate” bird colours it means they're slightly dark tan (via @kingsmagiccard)

There's no chocolate morph in peafowl!

My GUESS would be if purple is rare by you, then you saw a cameo

Which is another sex-linked dilute

or bronze (an autosomal recessive) if it was a darker brown

These are two of the oldest color mutations (along with purple, and all are bested in age by the leucistic mutations), and would be the ones most likely to show up in places where mutations in general are rare. Cameo does not have an iridescent neck, and bronze does.

If you live outside of the USA and you saw a purple-colored bird in the last 10 years or so, it's also likely you didn't see a purple, but European violet, which is more common outside the US generally speaking. They are a more vibrant and consistent purple than US purple, which often appear as a paler-winged wild type if the angle of the sun is not right.

It must have been a cameo! I’ve only ever seen them called chocolate here, but they definitely don’t have that iridescence in the neck. I see them maybe three or four times a year in pairs and I’m always stunned with how different they are from the regular iridescent look. I’m guessing cameo is the recognized name and “chocolate” is just whatever random catchy name the breeder came up with.

I saw my purple back in 2004-2006? I can’t remember exactly what year it was, but I remember I was doing my junior poultry shows around then. Absolutely insane to see it beside a whole row of other peacocks and see just how purple they really look. If I had to guess thought you’re absolutely right, it was probably an EV rather than a real purple. The tail eyes were darker, but not quite that indigo colour in your first few pics.

Are the visually-purple mutations compatible with the sex linked purple? Could one, in theory, breed for The Most Purple Peafowl, or do the mutations interfere with each other so that mixing them would make non-purple?

So, European Violet and Sonja's Violeta are both sex-linked as well. This means technically you can have a compound heterozygote male (purple/EV or purple/SV) but in the case of sonja's violeta, the bird reverts to wild type if male and the father's color only if female. European violet is an actual allele to Purple, so the birds come out looking like a nicely colored purple or a poorly colored EV.

This photo above is a barred wing pattern EV, and the bird in the back is a compound het purple/EV blackshoulder pattern (the wing color is striped vs solid, but that pattern difference is not linked to either color and either pattern can appear in either color). If you aren't colorblind to the colors involved, you may be able to see a very, very slight difference in the shades of the necks- the front one is purple colored all the way through, whereas the one in back is more blue than purple, even if it's a royal blue. The trains are also different- the het's train is more green and brassy.

So, not really an improvement.

No one has ever crossed purple to Ultramarine (UM is only a few years old), so I'm honestly not sure what it would do. Partly because they could do anything, but also partly because UM might actually be a dominant color (it's being researched right now!), and might supercede purple. They might also co-express, but I'm unsure what the mechanism is for UM. If it's an increase in melanin, purple is a melanin dilute, so they might pretty much cancel each other out rather than making one better.

I have been trying to find someone I can bully into crossing UM and EV, since EV is more purple colored than US purple is. Alas I do not have 10k to spend on birds right now. But if there's a millionaire following me that wants to know what it looks like, hit me up... I would gladly be a renaissance-style bird breeder mad scientist just for the joy of it.