Lacewing Budgerigar/Budgies
During the Second World War, the Lacewing Budgerigar was being bred in various country areas of Queensland, as indicated by records. In 1959, Mr. Hector Hall of Kingaroy asked Tom Smith, one of the more knowledgeable Queensland fanciers, to visit his aviaries. Mr. Hall had been breeding these birds for the previous ten years but didn’t know what they were. Smith identified them as Lacewings, which had already been reported as a mutation occurring in Britain about 1948. Mr. Hall’s breeding record for the previous five years confirmed Lacewing Budgies are a sex-linked variety.
Image Courtesy of Rod Turnbull and the ANBC
Lacewing Budgerigar/Budgie – Identification
The exhibition Lacewing budgerigar has a general body colour that is solid and uniform throughout the rump and underparts, as stated in The Standard. The back and wing coverts are cinnamon with markings that are symmetrical on the ground color and free of any body color suffusion. The Lacewing features a deep and wide mask that extends beyond two large cheek patches. Six evenly spaced, large, round cinnamon throat spots ornament the mask. In addition, the base of the pale violet cheek patches partially covers the two outer spots.
Meanwhile, markings on the cheeks, back of head, neck, and wings are cinnamon, clearly defined, and symmetrical on the appropriate ground color. They are free from any intrusion of body color or ‘bloom’.
The Lacewing budgerigar features a pale cinnamon tail feather and a neutral tail quill. Its eye is red with a white iris ring, and its feet and legs are pink in color. The cock has a flesh-colored cere, while the hen has a brown cere. Below is a summary of the colors of the Lacewing’s cheek patch, tail quill, and tail feather.
Lacewing Budgerigar/Budgie Pairings
The Lacewing budgerigar is a sex-linked variety. As such, pairing expectations for the Lacewing are below.
Click here to see pairing expectation in full
Suggested pairings for Lacewings include Lacewing to Lacewing, or Normal split Lacewing to Lacewing. Breeding Normal Dark Green or Olive budgerigars further improves the body color of the Lacewing in the yellow series. This serves to enhance the colour, while the opposite is true for the white series Lacewings. With this in mind, fanciers tend to use Greys in the White series where color suffusion is a fault.
