Araucanas, Ameraucanas and Easter Egg Chickens

I don't have any purebred Araucanas. These rumpless (tail-less) and ear-tufted birds from South America are very hard to find. They are known for laying blue eggs. Most of the so-called Araucanas in the US are mixes that carry some of the original genes and lay variously colored eggs: blue, green, or pinkish. These birds are sometimes (and more honestly) sold as Easter Egg chickens. They come in white and many other colors. The American Poultry Association also recognizes a bird called the Ameraucana, which lays colored eggs and has muffs and a beard, not ear tufts, and comes in standardized color varieties. The Araucana and Ameraucana also come in a bantam form. And if you want to get even more confused, look at the (probably ancestral) Rapanui.

Due to the large number of images, I have divided this page into four parts; a page each for

True Araucanas,

Ameraucanas,

Easter Egg Chickens

and a separate page for

chicks.

And this is not to mention the UK version of the breed, which is found at the bottom of this page. The UK standard calls for a bird that is like an Ameraucan with a small crest.