List of chicken colours

Breeders and fanciers of chickens accurately describe the colours and patterns[1] of the feathers of chicken breeds and varieties. This is a list of the terms used in this context.

Self

Self-coloured chickens are those which display one solid colour without patterning of any kind.

Colour	Cock	Hen	Notes
Black			Green iridescence is desired for "beetle black" show chickens.
Blue	Sumatra	dark blue-laced Andalusian
Splash or Blue Splashed White	Sumatra	Silkie	Splash is the homozygous form of Blue
Buff
Lavender		Red lavender
Red			Red is the intensified version of Buff
White		Silkie

Barred and cuckoo

Colour	Cock	Hen	Notes
Barred		Barred Rock Hen	Divided into Dark and Light in Australian Plymouth Rocks
Crele			The cuckoo pattern with black-breasted red pigmentation
Silver Cuckoo
Golden Cuckoo

Columbian, belted

Colour	Cock	Hen	Notes
White Columbian		Sundheimer	Called 'light' in the Brahma and Sussex[2]
Buff Columbian
Golden Belted			Belted resembles Columbian but the head and neck are solid black, not merely striped
Silver Belted	cock and hen	chick

Duckwing

Colour	Cock	Hen	Notes
Golden Duckwing
Blue Golden Duckwing
Silver Duckwing
Blue Silver Duckwing
Fawn Silver Duckwing

Laced

Colour	Cock	Hen	Notes
Black Laced			not used; black-laced plumage is named after the red series colour instead: "golden laced" for black and red, "citron laced" for black and buff, "silver laced" for black and white
Blue Laced
Blue Laced Red
Buff Laced			also known as Chamois[3]: 447
Golden Laced	Sebright
Silver Laced

Pencilled

Colour	Cock	Hen	Notes
Birchen			Sometimes called Grey in Japanese bantams.
Golden Pencilled
Silver Pencilled

Mottled, spangled, mille fleur

Colour	Cock	Hen	Notes
Blue Mottled
Citron Spangled
Golden Spangled
Silver Spangled
Mille Fleur			Called 'speckled' in the Sussex.
Lemon Mille Fleur
Porcelain			A diluted version of Mille Fleur

Black-tailed

Colour	Cock	Hen	Notes
Black-tailed Buff
Black-tailed White
Black-tailed red

Black-breasted

Colour	Cock	Hen	Notes
Black Breasted Red
Blue Breasted Red
Partridge
Wheaten
Blue Wheaten

Others

Colour	Cock	Hen	Notes
Brassy Back
Blue Brassy Back
Blue Light Brown
Blue-red
Brown
Brown Red			Sometimes called Gold Birchen.
Coloured
Coronation
Cream Light Brown
Dark brown
Exchequer			only in the Leghorn[4]: 187
Ginger Red
Golden Neck
Golden-necked mille fleur
Gray
Lemon Blue
Light Brown
Pyle			Alternatively spelt Pile.
Red Pyle
Quail
Salmon
Silver Blue
Silver Gray
Splash
Tolbunt			Seen only in Polish chickens
White Laced Red
Chocolate			Rare; bred in Orpington bantams in the 1990s[2]: 163 [5]

References

1. All About Chickens: All the chicken colours under the sun. Archived 6 June 2012.
2. David Scrivener (2014). Popular Poultry Breeds. Ramsbury: Crowood. ISBN 9781847979711.
3. Lewis Wright (1902). The New Book of Poultry. With Forty-Five Plates, by J.W. Ludlow, and the Poultry Club Standards of Perfection for the Various Breeds. London; Paris; New York; Melbourne: Cassell and Company.
4. J. Ian H. Allonby, Philippe B. Wilson (editors) (2018). British Poultry Standards: complete specifications and judging points of all standardized breeds and varieties of poultry as compiled by the specialist breed clubs and recognised by the Poultry Club of Great Britain, seventh edition. Chichester; Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 9781119509141.
5. W.C. Carefoot (1996). Chocolate: A sex‐linked recessive plumage colour mutant of the domestic fowl. British Poultry Science. 37 (4): 867–868. doi:10.1080/00071669608417915.