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Herman van Niekerk
I was born on a small farm on the outskirts of Pretoria, South Africa on 26 January 1946. During those years pit toilets, affectionately known as long-drops, were still the norm. When nature called...view moreI was born on a small farm on the outskirts of Pretoria, South Africa on 26 January 1946. During those years pit toilets, affectionately known as long-drops, were still the norm. When nature called early on that eventful Saturday morning, my mother rushed to the toilet, where I suddenly made my appearance. The farm hand, John Manca, an Italian prisoner of war working for the family, heard mother's frantic calls and rushed to assist her. I was then taken to the maternity hospital for a check-up and a clean-up. As from day 1 I had to learn to stay out of the shit.I attented primary and secondary schools in Pretoria. At the early age of 10 I wrote my first poem about guineafowls, illustrating my lifelong love for and devotion to birds.In primary school I already was an avid reader with an enquiring mind. One book, The Wheel paricularly inspired me. The Wheel took me on an interesting, romantic and exotic journey to places around the world such as the pyramyds of Egypt, the Amazon jungle, ancient Greece, the Himalayas and the Great Wall of China.After school I enrolled at the University of Pretoria and obtained degrees in Antropology in 1967 and Archaeology in 1969. This was followed by nine other formal qualifications in later life in diverse subjects such as training, course development, property, estate agency, tourism and tour guiding. With more than a hint of an artist in me, I also studied graphic art concentrating on the lay-out of publications.The mainstay of my working life was, after a short spell in the Civil Service, at municipalities, in agricultural and tourism marketing and as secretary for an agricultural co-operative.As early as 1970 I started publishing newspaper and magazine articles throughout South Africa, followed later by a number of books in both Afrikaans and English. The books included short stories and a book on the life of Eugène Marais, as well as regional bird guides. I was owner and editor of the magazine, Natura, related to nature and nature conservation and especially the game farming aspect therof, and Aves, a newsletter for cage bird breeders.The flagship project of my books is the innovative and ground-breaking bird book, the 321 page 'SAPPI Birds of South Africa with Callfinder' (English and Afrikaans) as co-author. Apart from various innovative features, this is the first book in the world that conjures up bird calls by pointing the Callfinder instrument to a printed image. Since its publication in 2014, SAPPI Birds of South Africa has consistently been on Briza, its publisher's annual Top 10 list. This book was a sequel to two earlier regional bird guides.During the early 1980's I relocated to the Waterberg Bushveld and bough a small farm where I as a sideline ran a small holiday resort and started breeding cage birds.This led to my discoveries about the creation and changes in bird colours, which culminated in my research laying the foundation for the science of Avichroma and my new discoveries about colour blindness..It was also during my stay in the Waterberg that I introduced into South Africa, together with Marion Dunkeld, the Friends movement of volunteer involvement in and assitance to game reserves by the general public, and was co-founder and first Chairman of the Friends of Nylsvley Association, the first Friends group in South Africa.In Waterberg I intensively studied the changes that occur in bird colours, from the viewpoint that those changed colours were not spontaneously caused by nature, but that they were rather caused by some (unknown) defects.I started to look for patterns. Fortunately I was involved in the printing industry and had a sound knowledge of the CMYK lithographic printing process, wherein each of the three base colours is alloted the saturation number or value of 100. I studied printed images of lovebirds. Then an idea dawned upon me. I determined the colour saturation values for the different base colours of the birds in the printed pictures (as an example the values of cyan and yellow in stead of green), either where the colours stood alone or were in a mix, or fully saturated or less saturated, and then, suddenly, I discovered the pattern!Further research proved to me that there was not only a pattern for colour dilution, but in certain colours also for darkening or intensifying. And as the change of one colour led to changes in other colours elsewhere on the bird, I detected that only the three basic colours and black are responsible for all bird colours. Furthermore I found that each colour is only active in a specific block for each species, and that colour defects can decrease or intensify a colour’s saturation, or even result in patches of different colours in birds.With that knowledge I formulated my different theories of colour in birds, which I published for the first time in the South African bird breeder’s newsletter, AVES, No 21 of October 1988 (see below). It described 5 new and unknown bird genetic colour defects then discovered by me.When I discovered the Laws of Colour in birds, only about 13 of the 18 first level colour 'mutations' for the Rosy-faced Lovebird were known. I predicted the 'discovery' of the 5 other first level mutations - in fact, I even named them, and suggested changes to certain of the other mutations’ names to conform with the patterns that I discovered. Those 5 predicted mutations appeared as I predicted in bird breeder’s across the world's aviaries over the next couple of years.Whilst engaged in writing a series of bird books for the bird watchers in the United States of America, a project I embarked on in 2019, I realised that there were reports of rare sightings of a yellow morph of the beautiful Northern Cardinal. Scientists were quick to respond to this new discovery, but to my astonishment were all barking up the wrong tree in their explanations. Some, as usual, blamed spontaneous mututions. Other vehemently declared that it was as a result of carotonoid intake by these birds - both theories have major flaws - why would only certain birds and only males turn yellow, for instance, if the culprit would be carotonoids.At least three bird species in South Africa from time to time carry the same genetic colour defects, namely the Crimson-breasted Shrike, the Black-collared Barbet and the Red-collared Widowbird, and only I seemed to understand why.I realised that it was time to introduce my knowledge and my discoveries to the scientific world and to the birding and bird breeding fraternity a second time. I systemized my research into two books, one for bird watchers and one for bird breeders, and published them internationally in 2021. These books included my updated research findings in what I now call the Science of Avichroma as my contribution to advance the sciences of biology, genetics, heridity and optics.'Earlier I examed the Ishihara colour plates to determine if I could learn something from them about the bird colour changes. I found them quite illogical and cumbersone, and when I tried to study the science that they were based on, I was astounded to find that they were wrongly created from the additive light wave colours of red, green and blue. As these colours can only occupy space (or air) they are not in the human body. In the human body you find the three pigment based primary colours of cyan, magenta and yellow. The receptors in the eye, I found, changed the additive light to subtractive light in the eye. All forms of colour blindness and colour deficiences are, therefore, caused by defects in the human body's subtractive colour system and the colours of cyan, magenta and yellow. And these defects are exactly the same as those that cause colour changes in birds! This great discovery is disclosed in my book "Colour Blindness Breakthrough."view less
Books by Herman van Niekerk
How to Breed Cage Birds for Colour Colour Blindness Breakthrough Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBird Colours Unravelled Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings