Re: most popular strains That is some Smoky! He is much darker than a straight Smoky Blue Bar. By "straight" I mean with no other modifiers involved except Blue Bar and Smoky. It seems to me there's something else involved besides just Blue Bar Smoky. In this case, I would say they are simply using "Smoky Blue Bar" as a common name for the bird's color and not attempting to break down all of the color genes involved in the bird.
Here's a picture of a typical Smoky:
If you spread the flights of your "Tuffy" you will see ember color in them. That's the results of him having the Ember modifier along with Smoky and Blue Bar. See picture below:
Even within my Tuffies there's variation between the Blue Bar Smoky Embers. Look at these two pictures:
Member of the National Pigeon Association, Flying Oriental Roller Society, Horseman Pouter Club of North America, Voorburg Shield Cropper Club and the Tucson Pigeon Club
Re: most popular strains There's simply a modifier in there that we don't know what it is, that makes the difference. Not that it's not yet discovered by man. We just don't know what it is. Genetic gurus need to know everything and will go to great lengths to find out by doing all kinds of breeding experiments, breaking down the genes. The fact that no matter how much you know and study, you will never know it all is one of the attractions people have towards Pigeon color genetics. But like I said, that's no reason to give up. Personally, I don't need to know it all or even why the differences occur with my two Tuffs. To me, that's trivial. I just need to know the basics, so I have enough knowledge to get by and maybe help someone else.
Member of the National Pigeon Association, Flying Oriental Roller Society, Horseman Pouter Club of North America, Voorburg Shield Cropper Club and the Tucson Pigeon Club
