Almond   Standards
By Ken Davis

A rich yellowish, buff, burnt-orange colored ground, the body liberally sprinkled with dark flecking, with the flight and tail feathers showing three distinct colors,  black (kite) buff (ground), and white a distinct patch work ensemble. It is also possible to create the exact dilute of this color.

These are the almonds referred to as "sprenkels". The ground color resembles a washed out gray or gun metal type base, with rich dark, black flecking, The flight and tail feathers will only show two distinct colors. It is also possible to create the dilute of this color, resulting in a dun almond, with dun break.

   DeRoy:

A DeRoy is a recessive red almond. Its body color resembles a shade in between red and yellow, (darker or lighter, the intensity varies), and may or may not exhibit darker red break here and there. The dilute of this color is something the Oriental Roller breeders are calling "Cream".  This very pale or pastel buff-yellow shade is actually a dilute DeRoy.

The ground color for an Ash-Red almond is very light to near white. the flecking color is ash-red. The dilute of this would be an ash-yellow. The ground color would be very light to near white, and the flecking would be ash-yellow colored. (The bird pictured is actually a young classic almond.)

   Brown- Almond:

 The ground color of a brown almond would also be very light to near white. The flecking would be brown in color. The dilute of this would be a khaki almond, the ground color being very light to near white with flecks of break being khaki colored. (The bird pictured is NOT a brown almond. It's a blue series almond, but I'm trying to hunt down a correct photo.) 

   Homozygous - Almond:

"Two Almonds should generally not be mated together if possible. One quarter of the youngsters will be white, will have defective eyes and usually will be of reduced vigor, if they hatch at all. There are some exceptions from this rule. that does not mean that is would be impossible to breed beautiful Almonds from two Almonds." Axel Sell in "Breeding & Inheritance in Pigeons" 

  Kite
"Kites are genetically dark checkered (Ct) birds with a trait for rich bronze which can be seen at the breast, in the wings and in the base of the tail. This trait (K) or perhaps better the complex of  genetic factors behind that coloration is also called "kite". Kites with a very rich bronze in addition are heterozygous recessive red." A. Sell in "Breeding & Inheritance in Pigeons"

The standard way to make the classic almond is to pair a kite with a classic almond. You can make any color of almond you want. the point is, what do people want; what's attractive to them, and then to classify it for what it is.

All photos are used by permission of Axel Sell

Back to Index