It is not hard to breed cinnamons. What is hard is to breed a good exhibition cinnamon. When I first started to breed budgerigars it was with a normal cinnamon hen. I think this is where I first started to take any interest in them. I found them very hard to understand. At that time I did not know that a hen could not be split for cinnamon yet a cock bird could. It was hard to understand that by putting two visual normal coloured birds down to breed, then you could come out with cinnamons in the nest.

First of all what is cinnamon.

Cinnamon is a factor that can be carried in all varieties of birds. Although in some it is most unwelcome. It can be seen in a cock bird or carried in a hidden form. Cinnamon is sex linked so therefore it can not be carried by a hen in a hidden form. If a hen does not show cinnamon then she is not cinnamon. If you have a cock bird that is say, visually a normal grey-green the only way to tell if it is carrying the cinnamon factor is for you breed it. If you breed it with a non-cinnamon hen and you get cinnamon's in the nest then you know the cock bird is split for cinnamon and you should mark your records to show this.

In a cinnamon light green the cinnamon changes the colour of the bird. The feathers take on the colour of cinnamon brown with a yellow edge and the body of the bird takes on a much softer appearance, and is diluted in colour. It has not got the same brightness that a ordinary light green has. The spots on the mask of the budgerigar are a cinnamon brown and although the tail feathers are still dark blue the quill in the center is brown. The feet of a cinnamon bird are pinkish to look at where on a normal light green they are a darkish blue/grey in colour.

The Breeding Chart which I work from which shows the exceptions of the birds you can breed.