cockatiel-black beaks

[Pola]

i observed that some cockatiels have black beaks, but some have light coloured beaks. I am not sure why this happens, is it to do with age or is it normal that they vary ????

does anyone know anything about this???

[bmsweb]

I have no idea Pola. I know our Cockatiel had more black on his beak when we first got him (12 weeks old), but now it's only towards the tip. Its kind of funny because it looks like the tip is broken off and it isn't Then again Jazz is a very funny bird . . he really cracks me up. I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm his mom

We were looking at some in a bird shop and some have very light beaks and some black! Its interesting.

Cheers
Paul

[Kim S]

If I may respond to this one. I breed cockatiels for a while now, and the beak (as wel as the leg colouring) is mutation related. The regular grey and whitefaced cockatiels have dark beaks and legs. Te inos (lutino/albino) have lighter beaks and legs.
You can see this especially well in pied cockatiels. Their beaks are usually pied as wel

This colouring comes in handy when breeding special mutations like the whitefaced dominant silver. They look very much like a dirty albino thats been rolling around in the sand. But their beaks and legs are dark, unlike the real albino (which are lighter).