Feathering on an Ameraucana

[Lindsay Helton]

Someone asked about feathering on an Ameraucana. An Ameraucana should be neither soft/loose feathered nor hard/tight feathered. It is a medium/moderate bird in all respects, including feathering.

I am including a photo of a Cornish by Anthony Anthony which is representative of a bird with hard and tight feathering and a photo of a Cochin by Tom Roebuck which is representative of a bird with soft and loose feathering in case you are confused about what is meant by hard/tight feathered vs soft/loose feathered.

[Lindsay Helton]

In this particular post, feathering applies to factors such as how they fit against the body (loosely vs tightly), whether they are compact or fluffy, etc. If you open up an APA Standard on page 29, it goes over some feather descriptions. If you look closely at the verbiage, the Ameraucana standard eludes to the type of feathering our birds should have. Take for instance the description for the muffs/beard, which uses terms like medium, well-rounded and forming three separate lobes. If we compare that verbiage to for instance that of a Faverolle, which is a soft feathered breed, we observe the difference in feathering via the written Standard. The description for the muffs and beard of a Faverolle states the beard should be elongated, muffs full, feathers projecting from face, extending to and covering ear-lobes. It’s neat to think about the differences in the standard writing of different breeds with traits in common, and why the verbiage is different.

[kkdossey]

Thanks for the great info!

[Birdcrazy]

Another great job Lindsay!

[Lindsay Helton]

Thanks guys!