The Pigeoncote Standards

The Chinese Owl: NPA Standard 1993

HEAD (6 pts.): Arched from back of the beak, forming a smooth profile Width equally proportioned. Should be bold in appearance.
EYE AND CERE (2 pts.): Alert and clear. Bull in white; red or red-orange in colored birds. Any color in pied or AOC, except split, cracked or one of each color not permissible. Eye cere fine and smooth, following the contour of the eye. Dark color in black, blue, and checked. Light shade in other colors, but flesh in white.
BR /> NECK AND GULLET (2 pts.): Neck short, rather thick at shoulder tapering to back of head, forming smooth profile. Gullet well developed, commencing at tip of the lower mandible and terminating at the top of the breast frill.
BEAK (2 pts.): Dainty, yet large enough distinguish it from the African Owl. Color for blacks, blues, and blue checkers is black; for silvers,, silver duns, duns, and silver checks is light horn; for reds, yellows, and whites color is flesh.
WATTLE (2 pts.): Fine in texture, neat and heart-shaped.
NECK FRILL (17 pts.): A smooth and even collar of reversed feathers fitting loosely in relation to the neck, breaking behind the head in a vertical line leaving no less than a quarter inch gap on the back of the head. Should be as high as the lower part of the eye cere.
BREAST FRILL (17 pts.): A profuse display of reversed feathers completely covering the breast. There should be a horizontal part in the center of the breast, directing feathers up to the neck frill and down towards the pantaloons. Breast frill should cover forepart of wing down to pantaloons, including the wing butts. Should be evenly proportioned on both sides.
PANTALOONS (17 pts.): Two large distinct puffs of fine feathers protruding from the lower breast in front of the legs.
CARRIAGE (10 pts.): Bold, alert, and upright, the eye is a perpendicular line above the toe of the foot; the breast thrown out prominently; balance in length, height, and width, with all these qualities giving the bird grace in composition, movement, and expression. Cocks should measure about ten inches from beak to tip of tail, eight inches from floor to crown of head. Cocks should weigh ten ounces. Hens should weight eight ounces.
FLIGHTS AND TAIL (8 pts.): Wing feathers should be smooth and the flights should be tight, resting on the tail, with tips nearly meeting. Secondary feathers are to be smooth over the back. The tail should be fairly narrow and carried just clear of the floor. More or less than twelve feathers, even thought they have the two outside feathers, shall be penalized in points.
LEGS AND FEET (5 pts.): Legs short, but long enough to give grace to the carriage. Be free of feathers below the hock. Feet should be rather small and neat. Toes well spread apart. The color bright red.
COLOR (10 pts.): All colors should be sound, clear, and even, including rump, thigh, and belly.
DISQUALIFICATIONS: A Chinese Owl possessing African Owl-type head, which is in reference to the extremely short beak setting. Forked or split tail. Tail must contain the two outside feathers, in the opinion of the judge, or be disqualified. Grouse legs of excessive feathers below leg joint. Excessive trimming or plucking. Birds out of condition at the discretion of the judge. Red eye cere birds. Split or cracked eyes or one of each color.

• COLOR DESCRIPTIONS
• BROWN BAR: Wing shields, breast, and back a clear medium brownish-gray. Head, neck, rump, tail, and flights a darker shade of brownish-gray with a metallic green and pink luster evident on the neck. Wings to have two distinct dark brownish-gray bars with the shield area free of any checkering. The tail terminating in a dark brownish-gray bar with a narrow final tip of lighter brownish-gray. Beak and toenails horn color.
• BROWN CHECK AND BROWN T-PATTERN CHECK: Same as the brown bar, except the wing shields. See "check pattern notes". Beak and toenails horn color.
• BROWN SELF (Spread Brown): an even shade of dark chocolate brown throughout. Beak and toenails horn color.
• KHAKI BAR (Dilute Brown Bar): Wing shields, breast, and back a creamy light brownish-gray. Head, neck, rump, tail, and flights a slightly darker shade of brownish-gray with a delicate green and pink luster evident in the neck. Wings to have two distinct light brownish-gray bars with the shield area free of any checkering. The tail terminating in a light brownish-gray bar with a narrow final tip of lighter brownish-gray. Beak and toenails light horn color.
• KHAKI CHECK AND KHAKI T-PATTERN CHECK: Same as the khaki bar, except the wing shields. See "check pattern notes". Beak and toenails light horn color.
• KHAKI SELF (Spread Khaki): An even shade of light brownish-gray throughout. Beak and toenails light horn color.
• BLUE BAR: Wing shields, breast, and back an even shade of light blue-gray. Head, neck, rump, tail, and flights a darker shade of blue-gray with the neck feathers showing a rich sheen of primarily green and secondarily purple. Wings to have two distinct black bars with the shield area free of any checkering. The tail terminating in a black bar with a final tip of medium blue-gray. Beak and toenails black.
• SILVER BAR (Dilute Blue Bar): Wing shields, breast, and back a rich, even shade of light silvery-gray. Head, neck, rump, tail, and flights a darker shade of silvery-gray with the neck feathers showing a rich sheen of green metallic luster. Wings to have two distinct dark dun bars with the shield area free of any checkering. The tail terminating in a dun bar with a narrow final tip of silver-gray. Beak and toenails a dark horn color.
• DUN SELF (Spread blue dilute): A smooth even shade of steel gray throughout, with the neck feathers showing a rich sheen of green metallic luster. The shields free of any checkering or barring. Beak and toenails a dark horn color.
• MEALY BAR (Ash Red Bar): Wing shields, breast, body, and tail a light lavender gray. Head and neck a reddish-brown with a light ashy frosting and a rich sheen of copper. Wings to have two reddish-brown bars with the shield area free from any checkering. The tail bar is either very faint or missing due to the "washing" effect of the ash-red. Beak and toenails a dark reddish horn color.
• RED CHECK AND RED T-PATTERN (Ash Red Check): Same as mealy bar, except for the wing shields. See "check pattern notes". the checkering is generally less distinct than in blue and brown checks.
• SPREAD ASH RED (Lavender and Strawberry): An even shade of lavender gray throughout. Beak and toenails a dark reddish horn color.
• CREAM BAR (Dilute Ash Red Bar): Vying shields,, breast, body, and tail a light creamy yellow gray. Head, neck, rump, tail, and flights a slightly darker shade of yellow gray with a light ashy frosting. Wings to have two yellow gray bars with the shield area free from any checkering. The tail bar is either very faint or missing due to the "washing" effect of the ash red. Beak and toenails a light horn color.
• YELLOW CHECK (Dilute Ash Red Check) and YELLOW T-PATTERN (Dilute Ash Red T Pattern): Same as cream bar, except the wing shields. See "check pattern notes". Beak and toenails a light horn color.
• CREAM (Dilute Spread Ash Red Bar): An even shade of light lavender gray throughout. Beak and toenails a light horn color.
• GRIZLE BAR: Body, head, wing shields, and rump an even peppery combination of color and white (each feather should display both color and white, for example, blue grizzled with white). The neck a darker shade of color finely grizzled, producing a frost-like effect. Wings to have two distinct darker colored bars. Blue, silver, brown, and khaki bar grizzles to have flights and tails that are darker and less grizzled. Mealy and cream bars to have flights and tails that are darker and less grizzled and often all white or lavender gray. Beak and toenails colored appropriately according to the color of the bird.
• TOR-GRIZECH: Combine the color classes grizzle check and grizzle t-pattern with the tortoiseshell class as listed in the color descriptions in the Chinese Owl Standard.
• ANY OTHER GRIZLE (AO Grizzle): Anything not fitting above two classifications. (Colored grizzle checks, include all spread factor birds that do not fit into the above first 2 classifications. This would include birds also called Stork marks).
• (NOTE: The above two paragraphs updated August 5, 1991).
• INDIGO (Blue bar with heterozygous indigo): Vying shields, breast, body, and tail an even shade of light blue gray. Head, neck, rump, tail, and flights a darker shade with the neck feathers showing a rich sheen of green. Wings to have two distinct rust-red (bronze) bars with the shield area free of any checkering. The tail bar is either faint or light rust red. Beak and toenails black.
• INDIGO CHECK (Blue check and blue t pattern/heterozygous indigo): Same as indigo bar except the wing shields show a distinct and even checkering of blue-gray, black, and rust red. See "check pattern notes".
• ANDALUSIAN (Spread blue with heterozygous indigo): An even shade of dark blue gray throughout with a delicate black lacing (edging) occurring on the body and shields. The breast and neck lightly laced shading gradually to a solid dark blue gray head. The flights and tail blue gray with black shaft. Beak and toenails black.
• RECESSIVE RED: A deep even shade of chestnut red throughout with the neck showing a rich sheen of metallic copper. Plumage free from any blue tints. Beak and toenails a light horn color.
• RECESSIVE YELLOW (Dilute recessive red): A deep even shade of golden yellow throughout with the neck showing a rich pink sheen. Beak and toenails a light horn color.
• WHITE SELF: A clear white throughout. Beak and toenails very light horn.
• PIED OR SPLASH: Colored bird with between '/s (33%) to Ys (67%) of its plumage an evenly dispersed white. Beak and toenails colored according to the color of the bird.
• BODY MARKS: A colored bird with a white tail. Beak and toenails appropriate to bird's color.
• ALMOND: A rich shade of golden yellow almond with black splashes dispersed throughout. Flights and tail an even variegated combination of almond-yellow, black, and white. Beak and toenails horn color.
• SADDLE: A white bird with its wing shield areas colored. The ten outside wing feathers (primaries) to be white. Beak and toenails colored appropriately to the color of the shield area.
• QUALMOND: Approved 1989. Qualmond bar, qualmond check, and qualmond t-pattern shall compete against each other in the proper sex classes until some future time as the membership feels there are enough numbers to divide them into bar and check classes.
• A.O.C. (Any Other Color): This class to include color and/or patterns not provided for in the official color standard. AOC could, at present, include such colors/patterns as laced, reduced, opals, toy stencil, bronzes, baldhead, tearless, magpie, any indigos except blue heterozygous, tailmarks, etc. When five or more good quality (in the opinion of the judge) AOCs of a single color/pattern are shown, they shall become a judging class with no separation of sexes or ages.
• CHECK PATTERN NOTES: For show purposes, all check patterns of a particular color are combined into one check class for that color. Since there are at least two or three genetically distinct check patterns (actually, probably many more), and because they are all combined into one class, care must be taken to avoid the tendency of comparing one pattern to another and saying that one is better than the other because its checks are more open or more closed. Openness or closeness of the checks shouldn't be discriminated against in the show room, because one check pattern is not preferred over the other. However, it is important that the checking be uniform over the entire shield and that the checking on one wing is the same as the checking on the other.
• T-pattern or black check is the darker, closed check pattern and can vary from the standard t pattern which shows a light colored "T" in the shield feathers to a bird with a near solid colored shield. The "T"s must be uniform over the shield and not just clumps here and there. If it is a solid shielded t-pattern, the shield must solid overall (the rest of the bird will resemble a check).  Medium and light checks have more open checking and this checking must be uniform over the entire shield area.