Greywings & Clearwings 1985

Greywings & Clearwings

How many of you find it difficult to distinguish between a poor Greywing and a heavily marked Clearwing? There are differences, and if we study them, at no time will you be in doubt as to the variety you are judging.

By studying The Standard for both of these birds, a comparison chart can be established which clearly indicates the variety. Let us look at the basic differences.

Comparison Table

Feature	Greywing Light Green	Clearwing Light Green
Mask	Yellow	Buttercup
Spots	6 Grey throat spots	Nil
Cheek Patch	Pale Violet	Violet
Body Colour	Grass Green – 50% or more normal body colour	Bright Grass Green
Markings	Cheeks, back of head, neck & wings, Light Grey & distinct, as in Normal Light Green	Absent
Tail	Long feathers Grey with a Bluish tinge	Long feathers Bluish

The mask, spots, and cheek patch are the main clues, as body colour appears deceptively in both varieties.

By now you should be able to determine whether or not a bird is in the wrong class. However, take a tip from an old hand and use W.C. only in extreme cases. Rather place the bird at the end of the line and say nothing, because the easiest way to start a controversy, to put it mildly, is to wrong class Greywings or Clearwings.

Conformation and type, of course, is 60 points as in all varieties, but colour and marking make the Greywing. This variety, in my opinion, is one of the hardest to judge because of the scope The Standard gives. It says 50% or more body colour of a Normal bird. This phrase is the key to judging Greywings.

Fifty per cent or more body colour in itself gives a very wide scope, but the next phrase is all important — of a Normal bird. If you look at a Normal bird’s wing markings, you will find that the demarcation line between the black pigment and the ground colour is quite sharp, something you will find extremely rare in a Greywing with only 50% of colour, and much more likely to be found on an 80% coloured bird.

So the dilemma. An 80% coloured bird with sharp, clear markings is much easier to breed than a 50% coloured bird with the same clear markings. You will have to solve this problem when you come to it.

Clearwings

The first thing, of course, is to be certain they are Clearwings (refer Comparison Chart). Having satisfied yourself on that issue, judge them out as you would any other class, remembering 60 points for conformation and deportment and 40 points split two ways, namely depth of body colour and clearness of wings, being freedom from marking and suffusion.

As a general rule with these varieties, the smaller the bird, the clearer the wing, and so you have to weigh the loss of points for conformation, size and perhaps type in the small bird against the lack of colour and clearness of wing in the larger bird. If you have a large bird of good type and bright colour and clearness of wing, you will have it made — won’t you?

George Duffield
January 1985