PIED MUTATION

Pied mutation - the areas of body colour and/or wing markings and barring are missing. What's left is a clear patch of white (on white base budgies, like sky blue, violet, cobalt..) or yellow (on yellow base budgies, like dark or light green, yellow or olive). The size and shape of clear patches varies; in some cases budgie has just one or a few white or yellow patches and sometimes it's almost all white/yellow with tiny markings/body colour.

Now - there are three varieties of pied mutation. Dominant, recessive and clearflight. Dominants have white iris around eyes, just like normal budgies when adult. Their markings on the shoulders are usually more uniform and there is a white/yellow band around their lower bellies or in the middle section. They usually have white/yellow patch on the back of their heads. Sometimes - their wings lack any markings and are almost all white/yellow.

There are also another 2 sub-mutations: double factor and single factor. Let's talk about double factor first. It has very little markings and 80% of body is either white or yellow. Adult male cere is PINK or purple, sometimes though it can be mixed colour: pink and royal blue (see pictures below). If you pair up double factor mutation with normal mutation - it’ll give you 100% pied babies. Below are budgie examples of double factor pied mutations. Notice that one of white pieds below have different eyes - one with and one without white iris. It's quite rare feature, occurring only in double factor pieds.

SINGLE FACTOR DOMINANT PIEDS

DOUBLE FACTOR DOMINANT PIEDS

Let's talk about single factor pied mutation now. Adult male cere colour is ROYAL BLUE (like normal budgie mutation) and female cere is tan/brown as usual. They also have white iris around eyes, just like normal budgies when adult. Their markings on the shoulders are usually more uniform and there is a white/yellow band around their lower bellies or in the middle section. There is more body colour than on double factor pieds. Again - they have white/yellow patch on the back of their heads, looking like a gap between head barring. If you pair up single factor with normal - it’ll give you 50/50 pied and normal babies. Below are budgie examples of single factor pied mutation.

An interesting thing is that double factor dominant pied males have pink cere, (or mixed pink with blue patches), while single factor dominant pied males have blue cere, like normals.

RECESSIVE PIEDS

Now - let's move to recessive pieds. Adult male cere colour stays PINK or purplish for all their life, unlike in normal mutations. Female cere is the same as for normal and any other mutations (whitish/pale blue when out of breeding condition and tan/chocolate brown when in condition). There’s also NO IRIS around eyes, unlike in normal budgies when adult (eyes remain black). Their markings on the shoulders are patchy and random and body colour goes from the bottom of their belly, between their legs around to their rump.

Another pied variety is clearflight. It looks pretty much like the Normal mutation. The distinguishing features are the clear primary wing feathers (the longest wing feathers) and long tail feathers. These are either white or yellow depending on the base body colour. There is also a clear patch on the back of budgie's head.
Sometimes the base colour extends down from the face onto the breast of the bird, but there are no patches on the body. Males cere is ROYAL BLUE and adult birds have white iris around eyes.