Pigeon Eyes and Colors.

[ChrisMunro1980]

What's the Best eye Color for Pigeons? I have a Saddle Homer with black eyes , and another homer with Opal colored eyes and another with reddish color. What do the eye colors mean?

and a Flight Pigeon with Opal colored eye. Can you explain the Genetics in the eyes?

[AdamArcher]

I don't believe there is a "best" colour. There are certainly some mutations that can cause poorer vision (extreme dilute, albino, sometimes barless etc) but most of the eye colours found in common flying breeds are perfectly fine. If anything, the wild type orange might be "best", but pearl, bull, and most of the other colours are fine to see with.

Some "breed standards" for exhibition pigeons require certain coloured eyes in their shows.

The black eyes of your saddle are called "bull eyes", and they're caused by the white/pied on the head. The pied genes have prevented the normal colour expressing in the eye.

There are a lot of eye colours that haven't been investigated genetically yet, but Pearl/Orange eyes have. Orange (the wild type) is dominant over pearl.

[ChrisMunro1980]

Thank You. Love watching Your Videos. I really enjoy Seeing Your Birds and Kurt Mannys birds all of them are Beautiful birds.

[KSpigeons]

I learned that pied on the head causes bull eyes.

How to breed pigeons with a bull eye without white on the head? For instance, a blue bar with a bull eye.

[AdamArcher]

I learned that pied on the head causes bull eyes.

How to breed pigeons with a bull eye without white on the head? For instance, a blue bar with a bull eye.

The closest you can probably get is dark eye.

[blackbun]

My ASR certainly have a very deep eye colour, the photo doesn’t seem to capture that depth. Not sure what this colour is. Any thoughts please?

[AdamArcher]

That is the wild type orange. I am probably wrong, but I thought most of the show racer breed standards called for pearl eyes?

[blackbun]

Here’s the American ASR standard re eye colour. As a geneticist, I’m sure you’ll appreciate this but to me it lacks clarity in the, and I quote, “eye colour to be compatible with the colour and associated genetic factors of the bird.” What would any beginner make of that?

[AdamArcher]

Ahh nice. Happy to see that, as most of the other show racer breeds are pearl eye and I personally think orange eye is nicer.

They mean that although a red or orange eye is preferred, in some colours (ie, brown and to an extent white) these eye colours are impossible so exceptions are made for them.

[octavian]

A few blue eyed birds - Romanian Barred Highflyers