[1][2] All pied budgerigars are characterised by having irregular patches of completely clear feathers appearing anywhere in the body, head or wings.
The nape spot is almost always present, but it varies considerably in size, affecting just one or two feathers in some birds or extending well down the back and round into the breast on others.
The eye is a solid jet black (which can in some lights appear a deep plum colour) with no visible iris ring like Recessive Pieds.
When mated to an unrelated hen in 1933 this cock produced 14 young over three nests, of which 5 showed some clear feathers on the nape of the neck.
Several similar pied birds were reported around the same time in Germany, bred by Herr Krabbe and separately by Herr Schucke,[4][6] by Madame Lecallier in France,[4] by G Wilson and T L S Dooley in England,[4] in Holland[4] and in Scotland,[4] but detailed descriptions and the mode of inheritance are unknown.
[1] Some birds, almost certainly from this strain, had been imported to England well before 1947, as F W Wait of Hemsby, near Yarmouth, advertised Whiteflights and Yellowflights for sale in that year.
The extent and distribution of the clear areas shown by both single- and double-factor Clearflight Pieds are variable.
The range of variability of the two genotypes appears to be identical, so it is not possible to determine the genetic make-up by considering the extent of the clear areas.
This combination appears to result in the complete suppression of the melanin pigment in all the feathers, yet leaves the eyes jet-black.
The two forms, with one or two Clearflight Pied alleles, are indistinguishable visually, but differ in their breeding behaviour.