The real connoisseur, when asked to describe the colour of his chicken replies, "Nankin spangled".
- Barring: Stripes of light and dark across each feather.
- Bay: Browny red colour.
- Brassiness: Yellow colouring on the back and wing feathers.
- Cuckoo banding: Stripes where the boundaries are indistinct.
- Daw eyed: Pearly eyes like a Jackdaw.
- Double laced: Two stripes running round the edge of the feather.
- Dusky: Yellowy black colouring.
- Foxy: A rusty red colour.
- Frizzled: Feathers that curl back on themselves, with the end eventually pointing towards the bird's head.
- Gay: Plumage with too much white in the marking.
- Ground colour: The main plumage colour.
- Lacing: A thin stripe of colour running all the way around the edge of a feather.
- Lustre: Shiny plumage. When the feathers are black this is described as a sheen.
- Mealy: Ground colour mottled with a paler colour.
- Moons: Round spangles at the tip of the feathers.
- Mossy: A muddled marking.
- Mottled: Plumage marked with spots of different colour.
- Nankin: A yellowy colour named after nankeen cloth.
- Pencilling: Fine line markings on the feathers.
- Peppering: A dark colour stippled over a lighter one.
- Self colour: A uniformly coloured bird.
- Sheen: Green surface shine on black feathers.
- Spangled: The pattern produced when there is a spot of colour at the end of the feathers differing from the ground.
- Splashed: Contrasting colour to ground randomly splashed over feathers.
- Ticked: Feathers with a v-shaped marking at the tip.
- Undercolour: The colour of the fluff under the main feathers.
- Wing bar: A line of colour across the middle of a wing.
Comments
Fiona, 20 November 2021
Thank you for this great post. I found it to fresh and helpful in this day and age of quick and wrong is king.
Hansell, 6 April 2020
Interesting info for new owner of chickens
Claudia, 9 July 2016
Very nice colour! Does Rosalyn Serex sale chickens? How can we contact her? Thank you!