Red feathers on rainbow lorikeets nape?

[Jack]

Hi, I'm handrearing some rainbow lorikeets and they're weaning at the moment but now that their feathers have come through I've started to notice that one has some red/orange feathers mixed in with the green feathers on the nape. Both parents have green napes, is it possible that one was crossed with a red collared lorikeet down the track? It still has blue and purple feathers where the red collars have black though. Or is there another reason lying behind the colouration?

[avinet]

See how it develops, but it is likely that a bit of Red-collar Lorikeet has crept into it's history. Sometimes that hint of red will disappear with the first moult.

cheers,

Mike

[Jack]

Thanks Mike. I was just curious as I hadn't seen or heard of the rainbows having red in their napes.

[Jack]

The older he gets the more red seems to be coming through