Sebastopol Geese Colors
Sebastopol geese come in white, grey, buff, lavender, lilac, blue, saddleback and splash. White is the only colour recognised in the American Poultry Association standard. Everything else is bred and shown widely but sits outside it, which is why the rest are usually grouped together as coloured Sebastopols.
Colour sits on top of two things that matter more to most buyers: feather type and body type. A bird can be a beautiful lavender and still be a poor Sebastopol if the curl is thin or the body is narrow. What follows covers each colour, then the curly and smooth breasted split, then a chart that puts it in one place. If you already know what you want, the geese page has the whole flock photographed.
Grey is the starting point. It is the colouring the breed carried before anyone selected for anything else, the same pattern a wild greylag shows. Every other colour here is a dilution of grey, a dilution of a dilution, or a pattern laid over the top of one. The breeding guide covers what comes out of which pairing.
Lavender
A dilute of grey and the colour most people are searching for. Soft dove grey through the head and neck, cream breast, slate rather than brown in the wing feathers. Light changes it dramatically.
Buff
Grey diluted toward warm. A fawn head and neck over a cream body, carrying the same scalloped structure. Reads almost cream in full sun and considerably deeper on an overcast day.
Grey
The ancestral colour: grey brown head and neck, a scalloped grey back where each feather is edged paler, and a white belly. Grey shows the feather structure more clearly than any other colour.
Saddleback
A pattern rather than a colour. Colour on the head, neck, back and flanks with a white body beneath, so you get a grey saddleback, a buff saddleback and so on.
White
The classic and the only colour in the APA standard. Clean white throughout with an orange bill and blue eyes, which is one of the quickest ways to tell a purebred Sebastopol from a crossbred.
Not currently in our pens. The page explains the colour.
Blue
A cooler, deeper dilution of grey that reads slate rather than dove. Sits close enough to lavender that the two are regularly confused.
Not currently in our pens. The page explains the colour.
Lilac
Generally described as the dilute of buff, the way lavender is the dilute of grey. Very pale and pinkish, and one of the scarcer colours in the breed.
Not currently in our pens. The page explains the colour.
Splash
A broken pattern rather than a solid colour: irregular patches scattered across a white bird, no two marked the same.
Curly and Smooth Breasted
Feather type, not colour, and it cuts across every colour above. A curly breasted bird carries curl over the breast too; a smooth breasted bird has a flat breast with the curl confined to back, wings and tail. The APA standard calls for smooth breasted.
Sebastopol Geese Color Chart
| Colour | What it is | How it reads | With us now |
|---|---|---|---|
| White | The APA standard colour | Clean white, orange bill, blue eyes | Yes |
| Grey | The ancestral colour | Grey brown neck, scalloped back, white belly | Yes |
| Buff | Warm dilution of grey | Fawn neck over a cream body | Yes |
| Lavender | Cool dilution of grey | Soft dove grey, cream breast, slate wings | Yes |
| Saddleback | A pattern over any base colour | Colour on neck, back and flanks, white body | Yes |
| Blue | Deeper cool dilution of grey | Slate rather than dove | No |
| Lilac | Dilution of buff | Very pale pinkish grey | No |
| Splash | A broken pattern | Irregular colour patches on white | No |
| Smooth breasted | Feather type, not colour | Flat breast, curl on back and wings | Yes |
Are Coloured Sebastopols Rare?
Less common than white, and for a straightforward reason: the show standard recognises white only, so that is where decades of serious breeding effort went. Coloured birds were kept going by people who liked them rather than anyone chasing a title. Grey, buff and saddleback are now reasonably findable. Lavender is harder. Lilac and splash are the ones people wait years for.
Scarcity is also why colour pricing moves around so much between breeders, and why a photograph is a poor way to buy. Two breeders can call the same bird two different colours in good faith. The FAQ covers what drives the price.
Choosing a Colour
If you are starting a flock, pick on temperament and type first and colour second. Every colour here is the same bird underneath: the same calm nature, the same inability to fly, the same need for shade and clean water. Colour changes nothing about how the goose lives, which the care guide covers, or how long it lives, which is on the lifespan page.
Ready to look at birds? Start with adult Sebastopol geese if you want to skip the brooder, juveniles for something in between, goslings to raise from day one, or hatching eggs if you have an incubator. Everything is in the shop.