A Guide to Colour Mutations and Genetics in Parrots

Terry was born in 1965 at Bankstown in Sydney, New South Wales and grew up at Macquarie Fields. His interest in birds started at the age of 10 when Terry was given his first pair of Zebra Finches by his father and thus started a continuous history of aviculture up to the present day. Having started with Zebra Finches and all their different colour mutations, naturally his interest in genetics also began early and this allowed him to form a sound basis of knowledge to work upon in later years. Terry began his secondary schooling at Hurlestone Agricultural High School. To this day Terry can remember his English teacher Mrs Llewelyn informing his parents that he would never write a novel, but that he had adequate language skills to write a technical manual! At the age of 16 he moved to Brisbane, Queensland and finished his schooling at Sunnybank High School where his Biology teacher Mr O’Driscoll found it difficult to adjust the genetics course for Terry. His solution was to give Terry his university textbook on genetics, a move which opened the door of knowledge even further, resulting in even more difficult questions for the teacher! In 1984 Terry began studying Veterinary Science at the University of Queensland and he graduated in 1988. His training at university level expanded Terry’s genetic knowledge once again and taught him how to use scientific method to expand his knowledge. Upon graduation, Terry moved back to Sydney to work. His interest in birds naturally led to adding avian medicine to his veterinary skills. He was asked regularly to speak at local bird club meetings and in 1990 began studying parrot mutations and genetics in depth. In 1995, Terry was a speaker at the first Grass Parrot and Lorikeet Society convention held in Sydney. It was at this time that Nigel Steele-Boyce first suggested that he write a book on parrot mutations and genetics. Also in 1995, Terry decided to move back to Brisbane. He married Sharyn in 1997 and later that year they purchased the Sunnybank Veterinary Clinic. The stability of married life provided the last ingredient required to begin work upon this book in 1998. Writing the genetics book became an even greater stimulus for knowledge and has led to contact with experts in parrot genetics worldwide. In 1999 Terry initiated the formation of an international genetics discussion group (Genetics-Psittacine@ yahoogroups.com) which operates via e-mail. The existence of this group has helped Terry make his book the most up-to-date and comprehensive book ever produced on colour mutations in parrots. In 2000, Terry presented three papers on avian genetics and colour mutations at the annual scientific meeting of the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists. Later that year he also spoke at the Birds 2000 conference held in Melbourne by the Post Graduate Foundation in Veterinary Science University of Sydney. In 2001 he spoke at the Aviculture Federation of Australia (AFA) conference in Adelaide on colour mutations in parrots. Terry has written a number of articles for Australian Birdkeeper Magazine as well as for various club magazines. He also has written a significant number of papers currently available through the internet. Currently Terry keeps a wide range of parrots including Neophema species, Red-rumped Parrots, Eastern and Western Rosellas, Indian Ringnecked Parrots, Peachfaced and Masked Lovebirds and, of course, Zebra Finches. As always, his main interest is genetic understanding of the behaviour of colour morphs and he currently has breeding experiments under way to learn more about complex gene interaction in Zebra Finches, Red-rumped Parrots and Peachfaced Lovebirds.