Curious feather color on my GCC

[Sasha2]

My greenie is a Cinnamon but she has a single bright orange feather that grows on her shoulder.Its a tiny feather but so bright orange like a sun conures color. Its been there forever and she even molted it out once and it grew back.What causes this?

 

[Featheredsamurai]

She probably has the pied gene. If it had suddenly appeared I would of been worried about health issues, but since she always had it I am not as worried. Many African grays that have the gene only have one out of place red feather in the gray. Some don't even have visible signs that they carry the gene. When I was reading up on the pure red African gray I found out that the breeder looked at all the birds for even a single red feather out of place

here is a African gray that most likely carries the gene

 

[Akraya]

My Guapo has a single bright red feather that grows right above his eye, been told it's perfectly ok.

 

[Sasha2]

Thanks.I didnt know that Greencheeks even came in pied.If the feather had been on her chest I probably wouldnt even think about it but the shoulder is an odd place.And yes she has had it the 3yrs Ive had her.

Above the eye is a strange place as well..
Well at least its not something too weird.

 

[MonicaMc]

Pied feathers in green cheek conures are typically yellow, not red. It's also normal for some of them to have red, orange or yellow feathers at the elbow or "bend of the wing", especially in the opaline (aka yellowside) mutations.


Copperarabian, unless the grey was born with those red feathers, I would guess the red feathers are due to plucking, not a mutation. Damaged feather follicles can (not always) result in red feathers as well. I've seen a few photos of plucked african greys with red feathers, and even the famous Alex (Irene Pepperberg) had a red feather, and he wasn't born with it. He had also plucked on at least two occasions.

 

[tokensmom]

Funny you mentioned the yellow at the bend of the wing on a GCC...we have noticed it on Token, its hard to see there on the bend, but when we do its SO pretty. Thanks for the info.

 

[Atwee921]

Sprite's a cinny too and he has one red feather right on his cheek. He also has lots of tiny bright yellow/orange (bright like a sunny!) feathers on the top of his shoulder, but they're kinda blocked by his green feathers. I thought it was normal for cinnys