This was the first known mutation of the wild green budgerigar. It has been seen in wild flocks as a heavily suffused version of the mutation; the reason for the heavy green suffusion being the absence of selection for the colour modifiers that breeders use to improve the colour of this variety for exhibition. It also pops out of the birds imported from the UK, again as a heavily suffused version of the mutation, but with the excellent body conformation, including size and balance, associated with the recent imports from the UK. These are often referred to as grey yellows, or yellows. Intercrossing proves that this is the same mutation as the smaller but more colorful buttercup yellow seen on the Australian showbench as the blackeyed yellow. The mutation is recessive to wildtype, clearwing and greywing. The mutation must not be confused with the rare cinnamonwing yellow, which, I understand, is recessive to even the blackeyed yellow. The Australian blackeyed yellows are derived from yellow imported into Adelaide from the UK about 1900. From about 1870 onwards the German and Belgian breeders had begun selection for colour to fix those modifier genes now present in the exhibition form of the blackeyed yellow. Blackeyed whites, the blue series equivalent of the blackeyed yellow, were first seen in the UK and France in 1922, being bred out of blues with yellow ancestry. These are rarely seen, and one suspects that this is because they are not as attractive as the yellows, or else breeders have not been as successful in producing unsuffused whites as compared with buttercup yellows. Most of this article therefore relates to the blackeyed yellow. The position of blackeyes in The Standard is immediately after the normal green and normal blue. Cheek patches are white but can be suffused violet to grey. The colour required for exhibition is buttercup yellow; common faults are green body suffusion (introduced from outcrossing) and mustard yellow (caused by introduction of grey factor if grey-greens rather than greens are used as outcrosses). Although mustard yellow is regarded as an exhibition fault, it is not necessarily a fault from the perspective of any breeder who happens to like the colour, especially in a sunlit aviary. There are faint markings on the cheeks, back of head, neck and wings. To keep these markings faint, and indeed to reduce body suffusion, blackeyed selfs are bred on a cinnamon background, which has important implications for selection of outcrosses. Dark factor enhances colour, as in lutinos, which is another consideration in the selection of outcrosses. Presumable, if one were to breed blackeyed whites, the choice of outcross would be cinnamon greys, since the grey should mask any tendency towards blue suffusion. Opaline is not allowed – opaline blackeyes are in the opaline AOV class, but they are non-competitive with cinnamon and greywing opalines. This year the ANBC voted to include opaline in the blackeyed class, which would necessitate moving the position of blackeyed self below opaline on the matrix. However, this change is not yet in force for reasons that I won’t go into, and it is being challenged. The challenge confronting the breeder of blackeyes is considerable and similar in magnitude to that confronting the breeder of clearwings. Anyone attempting to breed either of these varieties needs to be truly dedicated! The commonly encountered faults in blackeyes are poor head qualities, dark markings and suffused body colour. The task of the blackeye breeder is to correct these deficiencies. Outcrosses used must be of exceptional quality, a principle that applies to the improvement of any of the rare varieties. Richness of the yellow colour in the mask of the outcross is a futher consideration, as this is likely to be indicative of the underlying quality of the yellow ground colour in the outcross. One might as well attempt to import these desirable colour modifiers into the blackeye family, in addition to genes for size and head qualities. It is easy to breed good type with body colour suffusion, easy to breed good colour with poor type but extremely difficult to breed good type with good colour. Wastage is high, with many of the blackeyes bred suitable only for the pet shop. Of the remainder, you need to be very selective in what is used in the breeding team. After all that, the best of your blackeyes will not have a hope in hell of being considered for the major awards in a show when there are other varieties present (but oldtimers tell us that this wasn’t always the case – so perhaps there is some hope) Good luck in trying to breed them. Their golden colour when sunlight falls on the aviary and availability of a separate class in the National Show makes breeding blackeyes worthwhile. If you get a good one, and you can trace its ancestry back a few generations to all birds bred in your own aviary, then this will truly represent a great personal achievement