- Pigeon Eye Colors -
Review of the previous pages:
Let’s review the feather colors and the pattern from the previous pages in order to better understand the eye colors in pigeons. We know that there are 3 base feather colors in pigeons. The 3 base colors are Ash Red, Blue/Black, and Brown, listed in order of dominance. Every cock bird carries two base colors and every hen carries one color and one empty allele for a feather color. The feather color is sex-linked. The pattern on the hand has 4 base patterns. The four base patterns are T-pattern Checker, Checker, Bar, and Barless patterns, again listed in order of dominance. Each pigeon, regardless of gender, carries two alleles for patterns and the pattern is not sex linked. Pattern is also inherited independently of feather color as they are located in different locus.
Pigeon Vision:
Pigeons have far better eyesight than humans, and even though they can see color in the same way that humans do, pigeons can also see ultra-violet light- a part of the spectrum that humans cannot see. Pigeons can see stars during bright day light but their vision goes down at dark and they can't see as well as the humans in dark. To remain alive in the wild, a pigeon needs to keep its eyes open for predators. Having eyes on the side of its head gives it a 340 degree field of view, and in order to fly at speed, its brain can process visual information three times faster than that of a human's. If a pigeon watched a feature film, 24 frames per second would appear to it like a slide presentation. They would need at least 75 frames per second to create the illusion of movement on screen. This is why pigeons seem to leave it until the very last second to fly out of the way of an oncoming car: it appears much less fast to them.
Pigeon Eye Colors:
According to Dr. W.F. Hollander, who is one the foremost authorities in pigeon genetics, there are 3 eye colors in pigeons: Orange, Pearl, and Bull eyes. The Orange and the Pearl eye colors are the only two possible colors known to appear on the outer iris of the eye. Orange and Pearl eyes, which sometimes referred as yellow and white, are the 2 base eye colors in pigeons. Just like the pigeon pattern, each pigeon carries two alleles for eye color and orange eye is dominant to pearl eyes. Unlike feather colors found in pigeons, the eye color is not sex linked and we cannot determine the sex of the offspring by looking at the eye color.
Orange & Pearl Eyes:
The orange color is also referred as yellow and could also be appear as red eyes depending on the blood vessels found in the iris of the eyes. The pearl eye on the hand can appear as white, fish eye or fiery red pearl colors based on the amount of blood vessels found on the iris of the eyes. There is no such color as red eyes in pigeons. Redness of the eye comes from the amount of blood vessels on the surface of the iris. Because the amount of blood found in the different variations of these two eye (Orange and Pearl) colors, some eyes are much lighter and brighter than others and some have far greater amounts of red color in the iris. Sometime this red is so spread that the orange or pearl can barely be seen. We see variation of colors from fishy white eyes to yellow and bloddy red colors because of the amount of blood vessels in the outer iris. In reality, there is only two eye colors: Orange and Pearl.
To determine if the eye is orange or pearl is very simple. Just look at the color right outside the pupil (the black center circle). The color right outside the pupil does not have blood vessels and appears as either pearl (white) or orange (yellow). If you look closely, you can see that the blood vessels are actually on top of the iris and sometimes cover the entire iris making it look like a red eye.
According to Willard F. Hollander, the orange eye is the iris color of the Columba Livia (wild pigeons) and most of the feral pigeons have this color. Pearl, on the other hand, is strictly found in domestic types. Some breeds, like Tumblers, Cumulets, and Nuns, never have orange eyes unless they were crossed with other breeds. All of my Turkish Tumblers have pearl eyes, which shows that they were not crossed with other breeds. Otherwise, a red or orange which is dominant to pearl or white eye would have taken over the pearl eye color.
Here are the examples of Orange eyes: All the red you see in these pictures are the blood vessels. Notice the Iris is yellow.
Here are the examples of Pearl eyes: All the red you see in these pictures are the blood vessels. Notice the Iris is white.
Bull Eyes:
As
the spread white and spread black colors in pigeons, that hides (modifies)
the
true feather color and the pattern of the pigeon, the bull eye is
also not considered to be a base eye color but as a modifier. The
pigeons with bull eyes still carry two additional eye colors that
we can’t see. The reason we can’t see one of the two
possible eye colors in bull eyed pigeons is the result when orange
or pearl
pigment has been genetically turned off. This allows light to pass
into the eye and reflect the darker pigment of the iris's inner surface's
and make the eye color appear to be dark brown. The name "bull
eye" comes from its similarity in appearance to the dark eyes
of cattle. The bull eye is generally seen in recessive white and
pied bald whites. Think of spread white pigeons, most of them have
bull eyes, white feathers, white beak, white skin and white nails.
It's because just like the eye, rest of the phenotype genes for feather,
beak, skin, and nail pigment production is turned off at the surface
level. Because there is no pigment on the surface level, we see white,
but we know at the same time pigment below the surface continues
to be produced. This is why, white is considered to be a modifier
but not as a color. This is also why; pigeons genetically still carry
2 out of 4 possible wing patterns and 2 out of 3 possible feather
colors under that spread white feathers. The bull eye therefore hides
two
additional genetic eye colors under it, and does not allow us to
see it since the pigmentation on the outer iris of the eye is missing
or not produced.
Pink Eyes:
There is
also a pink eye found only in albino pigeons. Albinism is a mutation
that eliminates pigment production (melanin) and without the color,
what we see is the reflection of the light through the blood tissue
that looks like a pink color. Albinism also affects the skin, nail
and feather color of the pigeon and turns the feathers and skin into
white color, and beak and nail into ivory color.
Albinism is a recessive trait and it only presents itself in homozygous stage. Albinism could be carried by number of generations (in heterozygous stage) and never present itself. When two normal looking pigeons both carrying albinism are mated, they can produce albino offspring if they both donate the albino gene. Both parents must be either carrying the albino gene (heterozygous for albino) or both have to be albino (homozygous for albino) to produce albino offspring.
Other Eye Colors:
Orange, Pearl, Bull and Pink eyes we can explain…but what about the green violet or dark brown eyes? No doubt, new mutations happen all the time and the science has not explained or not enough research has been done on other eye colors. These additional iris pigments could be the new alleles to yellow and pearl eyes or could even be the allele of the bull eyes that simply modifies them.
Odd Eyes:
I see this a lot in my Birmingham Rollers where one eye is either Orange or Pearl, but the other is Bull eye. Odd eyes sometimes referred as Cracked or Split eyes (partly colored or part bull) or eyes which are mismatched one side colored and the other dark bull are always the result of no pigment present in of the eyes or in the dark areas of the eyes. The odd eyes are normally seen in pigeons with pie ball markings (bald head, badge mark, bell neck, ring neck, white flights, etc.) or self white. White feather and bull eyes go hand in hand together. We cannot see one eye Orange and the other Pearl in pigeons, at least I have never seen one and I don't think it's possible. Odd eyed birds that I've seen so far always possess Bull eye combinations.
Genetic explanation of the eye colors and possible results
Is the Orange or the Pearl eye dominant to Bull eye? There is no answer to this question, since bull eye is not actually a color but instead is expressed when pigmentation is missing or not produced on the outside. Remember that every bull eyed pigeon still carries two additional alleles for eye color, which we cannot determine until we mate this bird number of times and look at the eye color results of the offspring. When we mate an Orange eye or Pearl eye to a Bull eye bird, depending on the pigment production of the offspring's eyes, we can get bull eyed off spring, orange or pearl eye offspring, or split eye (one of the eyes is bull, the other showing a color). Bull eyes are not a genetic eye color but rather the result of the same modifier that produces white feathers in piebald whites or splashed birds. So the answer to the question is that we cannot determine or compare the dominance of the Orange or Pearl eyes to Bull eyes.
Homozygous Orange Eye - Both eye color pigment alleles are orange, This bird has no choice but to donate one of the orange eye allele during mating. This also means that whichever eye color we mate this bird, the eye color of all the offspring will be orange eyes.
Homozygous Orange Eye X Homozygous
Orange Eye - All the offspring will be
homozygous orange eyes.
Homozygous Orange Eye X Heterozygous
Orange Eye Carrying Pearl - All the
offspring will have orange eyes. 50% of the offspring will be Homozygous
Orange eyes and 50% of the offspring will be Heterozygous Orange
Eye Carrying Pearl.
Homozygous Orange Eye X Bull
Eye - From this mating all we can
say is that all the
offspring will have orange eyes, if pigmentaion is produced or
not turned off. Since one of the mated pigeon has bull eyes,
we cannot determine what
he/she
is actually
carrying under that bull eye which is modified. But we do know
that Orange eye is dominant to pearl and therefore if the offspring
shows pigmentation, then it would be either be Homozygous orange
eye or heterozygous orange eye.
Heterozygous Orange Eye - This bird is expressing (showing) Orange eyes but carrying Pearl eyes. Therefore this bird carrying 2 different alleles for the eye color but showing Orange instead of Pearl is because Orange is dominant to pearl eyes.
Heterozygous Orange Eye X Homozygous
Orange Eye - All the offspring will have
orange eyes from this mating. 50% will be Homozygous Orange eyes. 50%
will be Heterozygous Orange eye carrying Pearl.
Heterozygous Orange Eye X Heterozygous
Orange Eye - From this mating
25% of the offspring will be homozygous Orange Eyes. 50% will be
heterozygous Orange Eyes carrying Pearl eyes. 25% will be homozygous
Pearl eyes.
Heterozygous Orange Eye X Bull
Eye - From this mating we can get all 3 possible
eye colors: orange, pearl, or bull. In addition, we can also get odd eyed
birds where one of the eye or part of the eye is bull eye or dark brown,
and the other eye will be either orange or pearl.
Homozygous Pearl Eye - Both eye color pigment alleles are Pearl. Pearl eyes are expressed only in homozygous stage. This bird has no choice but to donate one of the Pearl eye allele during mating.
Homozygous Pearl Eye X Homozygous
Orange Eye - All the offspring will be
orange eyes. 100 % of the offsprig will be Heterozygous Orange eyes
carrying Pearl eyes.
Homozygous Pearl Eye X Heterozygous
Orange Eye Carrying Pearl - 50% of the
offspring will be Heterozygous Orange eyes carrying Pearl and 50% of
the offspring will be Homozygous Pearl Eyes.
Homozygous Pearl Eye X Bull
Eye - From
this mating we can get all 3 possible eye colors: orange, pearl,
or bull. In addition, we can also get odd eyed birds where one
of the eye or part of the eye is bull eye or dark brown, and the
other eye will be either orange or pearl.
Heterozygous Pearl Eye - No such thing, as pearl eyes can only be expressed in Homozygous stage.
Before
I started to write about pigeon genetics I paid no attention to the
eye color of the pigeons. I keep performing breeds like tumblers
and
rollers and eye color is the last thing I would have looked for in
performing breeds. 
Same
goes with the color and the pattern of the bird, where performance
is number one priority in my pigeons and
color comes second. I understand why an eye color for a show pigeon
would be very important as the judge gives points to eye color of
the bird. However, why the eye color is also important for breeders
of homers, tipplers, rollers and tumblers? Why do some people think
the eye color has a correlation between intelligence and the performance
of the bird? The fact is there isn't enough scientific research conducted
on "Eye Sign" in pigeons and there is no scientific evidence
suggesting the eye sign will affect the performance or the intelligence
of pigeons.
Most breeders
like to see pearl eyes, white beaks and light colors in their breeds
even though in performing breeds the performance and intelligence
comes first. Tippler breeders prefer pearl eyes, as they believe
the pearl eye birds are smarter and more intelligent than the rest.
A Birmingham Rollers judge can only give points for how fast, how
long, and how frequent a roller kit rolls during a competition. Not
only there are no points given to color of the birds, but it would
be pretty darn hard to see the eye and the beak color of the birds
while they are in flight spinning at an inestimable speed. A lot
of racing homer breeders would not breed pearl eye to pearl eye,
as they think it would weaken the eye of the bird and therefore the
performance of the bird. There is no scientific research or evidence
suggesting that however, that the pearl eye colored pigeons cannot
perform as well as the other eye colors. The only thing a racing
homer breeder should care about is how fast a bird comes home and
traps itself. Yet, there are books written about the eye colors and
videos made suggesting “eye sign” and performance are
correlated.
Scientifically
speaking, feather color, eye color, beak color, intelligence and performance
are all different traits of the genes that each pigeon
carries and therefore cannot be correlated with each other. It is like
saying people with brown eyes are smarter than others, or people with
light skin color can jump higher or longer. People with red hair cannot
tolerate sun and heat like other people but they are better in winter
sports! How ignorant did that sound like?
Athletic ability comes from the personal determination, physical type of the body, many hours of practice and training, and the diet in humans just like the performing breeds in pigeons. Intelligence is a trait we get from both of our parents and it has nothing to do with our physical appearance and the same goes for the pigeons. It is therefore a big misconception to draw a conclusion based on the color of the feathers, eyes, or the beak with the performance and the intelligence of the pigeons. If it was that simple, we would only have one eye color, one feather color and one pigeon pattern in all performing breeds, if performance was based on the color. I might be upsetting a lot of people here, but I don’t believe in theories. Unless someone actually scientifically proves this, I suggest we all use a common sense and let’s judge the bird by its performance not by its eye color.
I breed performing pigeons and I have a goal. My goal is to breed the best performing birds with exceptional feather colors and markings, beak and eye colors. I would reach my ultimate goal when I breed birds that have show type quality and a top performance at the same time. In this page my goal is to simply explain the genetics of the eyes which was solved many years ago, although there are still some unanswered questions. I believe, understanding the genetics of the eyes will make all of us to breed better quality of birds, weather it is show quality birds or performing birds.