What Is a Lace Wing Parrot?

With so many types of parrots, from the tiny parakeet to the hefty macaw, that literally come in a rainbow of colors and a multitude of patterns, its hard to decipher all of the names and whether they refer to a type of bird, its color, or its markings. The term lacewing doesn't refer to a certain species or breed of parrot, but rather to a certain color pattern and markings.

  1. Lacewing

    • A parrot with lacewing coloring has red eyes, pale violet cheek spots, and brown or cinnamon-colored markings on its neck and along the edge of the feathers on his wings. The pattern created by the darker color on the wings is what gives the lacewing its name. Originally, lacewings were yellow or white. Additional colors were developed later and yellow varieties come in several shades, from light to dark, that can appear quite different from each other.

    Mutation

    • Lacewing coloring is a mutation that was noted first in the early 1940s in budgerigars, or parakeets, which are a small parrot. This genetic development is believed to have originated from the lutino mutation, which is similar to albino in that it removes the melanin responsible for dark colors. Unlike an albino, however, the bird still has some color thanks to light pigments. Some of the first recorded lacewings were thought to be poorly marked lutinos, but later were bred to firmly establish the mutation.

    Parrots

    • Budgerigars are not the only parrot to exhibit the lacewing mutation. Several of the small and medium parrots also can have the unusual coloring. It is not a common color in any size parrot, but is especially rare in the large ones. Lacewings are found most frequently in budgies, Indian ringnecks, cockatiels, love birds and the Pacific parrotlet. The same color, such as violet lacewing, can look different when it appears in each type of bird.

    Sex-Linked Gene

    • An unusual element of the lacewing mutation is that it is linked to the sex of the bird. For example, a male parrot, or cock, can exhibit normal color but carry the lacewing gene and pass it to his offspring. A female parrot, or hen, however, cannot carry the gene and have standard coloring. If she has the gene, it must be expressed in her appearance. In addition, if a lacewing hen is bred to a normal cock that doesn't carry the gene, she cannot produce a lacewing hen, but may produce cocks that carry the lacewing gene.