Glossary

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This glossary explains common terms of the app and the aviary in plain words.

Aviary

The set of birds, cages, pairs, clutches and records that you manage in the app.

Active bird

A bird that is still part of your current aviary. This includes active, unknown-status and on-loan birds. A transfer in progress does not take the bird out of the aviary until it is completed.

Outside the aviary

Birds that are no longer in your aviary: transferred, deceased, donated and lost ones. By default they are hidden in the lists and do not count in the cages or in the Home totals, although they are kept in the genealogy and the history. The “Out of the aviary (N)” chip in the bird list lets you show or hide them.

Status date

Date when a bird became on loan, transferred, deceased, lost or donated. It is recorded when the status changes (the app suggests today's date), it can be left empty if it is not known, and it appears on the record and in the list.

Ring

Physical identification of the bird. It usually includes year, breeder code and number. In the app you can store these details separately or as a composite ring.

Marking ring

Extra coloured marker to visually recognise a bird in the cage. It does not replace the official ring.

Category

In colour canaries, describes how colour is distributed in the feather. Examples: intensive, frosted or mosaic.

Hatching

The moment when the chick is born and leaves the egg.

F1, R1, R2

Terms used in hybridisation:

• F1: first generation between two species.
• R1: back-cross of a hybrid with one of the original species.
• R2, R3, etc.: later back-crosses.
• F1½: the breeders' convention for crossing an F1 with an R1 of the same species pair. It is a reading label, not a generation: the app shows it but does not store it.
• When a cross fits no series (for example F1 × F2), the app shows the exact cross instead of inventing a generation.

Lineage (of a hybrid)

The chain of ancestors of a hybrid bird. It can be made of birds from your aviary and of ancestors without a record that you declare (pure, known hybrids or broken-down crosses). The generation, the blood shares and the exact cross come from it.

Estimated generation

A generation deduced from the old blood percentage, not from the lineage. The app shows it as “F1 (estimated)” and the list has an “Estimated lineage” filter to review them; you can confirm it or fix the lineage from the record.

Fertile

Egg with embryonic development. Usually confirmed by candling.

Hybrid

Bird born from the cross between two different species.

Incubation

Period in which the eggs receive heat to develop. In the app, starting incubation lets it work out expected dates and reminders.

Incubator

Optional module for managing physical incubators and hatchers. It lets you register machines, send eggs from a clutch, track phases, schedule alerts and check history and statistics.

Inventory

Optional module for keeping track of the aviary's products (medication, food, supplements, hygiene, equipment). Each purchase is recorded as a batch with its price, place, quantity and expiry date; the stock is the sum of the batches, and the app warns you before they expire.

Batch

Each purchase of a product in the Inventory module, with its own quantity, price, place and expiry date. When you consume, the app deducts first from the batch closest to expiry.

Minimum stock

Alert threshold you can set on each product in the Inventory module. When the stock is at that quantity or below, the product shows the Low stock label in the list and on its record, and the app warns you when a consumption crosses the threshold, so you can restock in time.

Expiry date

Date on which a product batch stops being valid. The app shows a colour traffic light in the Inventory list and schedules alerts as far in advance as you set.

Sex-linked

Mutation whose inheritance depends on the bird's sex. In these mutations, males and females do not always have the same chances of being visible or carriers.

Lipochrome

Background colour in colour canaries. Examples: yellow, white or red.

Melanin

Dark pigment that affects feather patterns and tones.

Candling

Inspecting the egg under light to see if it is fertile and if the embryo is developing.

Hatcher

Phase or machine used at the end of incubation, when the egg stops being turned and gets ready to hatch. In the app you can set how many days before hatching an egg moves to the hatcher.

Mutation

Genetic trait that modifies the bird's appearance or some heritable feature.

Autosomal recessive mutation

Mutation that may remain hidden as a carrier. To be visible, the bird normally needs to inherit it from both parents.

Dominant mutation

Mutation that can express itself with a single copy. That is why the app does not treat it as a hidden carrier.

Co-dominant mutation

Mutation in which single factor (SF) and double factor (DF) can be distinguished as doses of the same gene. In the app it is recorded as visible, not as a hidden carrier.

Visible mutation

Mutation that the bird shows externally.

Multiple visible mutations

List of mutations that the bird shows externally. It is used to record birds with several simultaneous mutations without being limited to a single field.

Foster

Bird or pair that raises eggs or chicks from another pair. The biological genealogy is kept even when a foster takes care of them day to day.

Ovoscopy

Inspection of an egg under light to check embryonic development. It is equivalent to candling and can be scheduled as an incubator milestone.

Carrier

Bird that carries a mutation in its genetics but does not show it visually. It is important to record it because it can pass it on to its offspring.

Possible carrier

A suspicion, not yet confirmed, that a bird carries a mutation. In the general carriers selector it is marked with Possible and kept separate from the confirmed data. The calculator does not use that suspicion to work out percentages.

Unsexed

A bird whose sex you have not determined yet. It is independent of its status: a bird can be active and unsexed. Home counts it in its own group, alongside males and females.

Nest

A physical box or support identified inside a cage. It can be assigned to a pair or a hen and keeps the history of the clutches it has held. Assigning a hen to the nest does not yet let you record a clutch without knowing the male.

Breeder address book

A private notebook of contacts, notes, ratings and noted birds involving other breeders. It syncs with the cloud since 6.2.0 and goes into full backups, but it is not included in CSV/Excel. The private rating is different from the public reputation on the board.

Backup and sync

A backup keeps the data from one moment so you can restore it later. Sync keeps the devices of one account up to date and also carries changes and deletions. Google Drive stores backups; Google Calendar only syncs the events you select.

Clutch

Group of eggs from one pair in the same brood.

Base series

Genetic or visual base from which some mutation options are built in the form. In cockatiels, several old bases have been replaced by real factors like Whiteface, Cream Face, Pastelface or Ino.

Single factor and double factor

A way of describing some dominant mutations. SF means single factor and DF double factor.

Ino, Lutino and Albino

In cockatiels, Ino is the genetic factor; in the app it appears as Lutino (Ino). Lutino describes Ino without Whiteface; Albino (whiteface + lutino) describes Ino + Whiteface.

Bird status

Administrative or life situation of the bird: active, on loan, transferred, deceased, lost, donated or unknown. On loan remains in the aviary; transferred, deceased, lost and donated are exit statuses that free the cage without deleting history.

Medical treatment

Health record associated with a bird, a cage or the whole aviary. It includes period, time, status, medication, dose, route of administration, notes and, where applicable, periodicity. In the app it appears in the Health section and generates events in the calendar.

Recurring Health Plan

A treatment or health routine that repeats every so often, for example a six-monthly deworming or monthly vitamins. It is created from Create treatment and appears on the calendar at its upcoming dates.

Health event

One-off health record that does not generate daily events in the calendar. It can represent a check-up, diagnosis, vaccination, deworming, weight check or observation. It supports notes, vet, next review and attachments.

Health

Module where medical treatments, health events, history per bird, attachments and PDF export are managed. Records can be created from the bird's record or from the global Health screen, choosing a bird, a cage or the whole aviary. It is on by default and can be turned off under Settings → Modules without deleting anything; Feeding lives inside it.

Google Calendar

Optional synchronisation that creates a separate calendar called Mis Plumas to check hatchings, ringings, checks, reminders and treatments from Google Calendar. It is off by default.

Breeding status

Situation of a pair or clutch: laying, incubating, with chicks, foster, historical, etc.

Clear

Egg that was not fertilised or shows no visible development.