All melanin (grey or brown coloration) is absent from lutino cockatiels’ plumage, resuting in a white bird with the usual yellow face and orange cheek patch. Their eyes are red, and their beaks and feet are pink. The red eyes of the lutino can distinguish it from a “clear pied” (a pied bird that has no grey markings), which would have dark eyes.

Breeders should be aware that combining lutino with cinnamon, which should result in a bird that looks like a lutino (since the absence of melanin should eliminate all cinnamon coloration), instead produces a “dirty lutino” — the white feathers retain a tiny amount of melanin, which makes them look dirty.

Lutino is a sex-linked mutation; males can be split to lutino, but females cannot.