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Representation of the adult E locus colour patterns on a wild-type background for the feather colour genes.

E (dominant extended black) birds are black in all areas in both sexes. Males that are e+, eb, ewh or ey (wild-type, partridge or brown, dominant wheaten or recessive wheaten, respectively) all have the black-breasted red feather pattern. The only difference is that the wheaten males have a white or cream feather under- colour and the e+ and eb males have a grey under-colour. ER (birchen) males are different in the wings. The flight feathers are all black instead of the half-red half-black feathers of the recessive alleles. Birchin females have black bodies and gold hackle feathers. Both male and female birchins have black melanin in the epidermis of their shanks. The brown (eb) females have brown stippled backs and wings and brown stippled breasts, where the wild-type (e+) females have brown stippled backs and wings and salmon breasts. Both females have a grey under-colour. Dominant wheaten (ewh) and recessive wheaten (ey) females have the same phenotype, having the salmon colour of the wild-type breast extended into the plumage of the back and wings. They have a white or cream under-colour and black is diluted in the female plumage.