What's the difference between an Ameraucana and an Araucana?

Both are APA breeds that lay true blue eggs, but they look and breed completely differently. The **Ameraucana** is **muffed, bearded, and tailed**, comes in 9 large-fowl varieties, breeds true to color, and hatches normally (recognized 1984). The **Araucana** is **tufted and rumpless** — ear tufts and no tail — comes in 5 varieties, and carries a lethal tuft gene that makes it hard to hatch (recognized 1976).

Do Ameraucanas and Araucanas both lay blue eggs?

Yes — both lay true **blue** eggs, blue through the full thickness of the shell rather than surface-tinted. The Araucana is actually the original source of the blue-egg (oocyan) gene that the Ameraucana inherited. Neither lays green; a green or olive egg indicates Easter Egger ancestry rather than a purebred bird.

Why are Araucanas so hard to hatch?

Because their ear-tuft gene is **homozygous-lethal**. In a tufted × tufted mating, roughly **25% of the embryos inherit two copies and die in the shell**, so hatches of double-tufted, rumpless chicks can fall to about 25–55% versus the ~90% typical of other breeds. It's genetics, not a husbandry problem — breeders avoid it by pairing tufted birds with clean-faced (untufted) birds. Ameraucanas have no lethal gene and hatch like any chicken.

Which breed is better for beginners?

The **Ameraucana**. It breeds true to color, has no lethal gene, is widely available, and hatches like any ordinary chicken egg, so beginners can get predictable blue-egg layers and showable birds without special breeding strategy. The Araucana is better suited to experienced breeders who want to work around its lethal tuft gene.

Are they the same as an Easter Egger?

No. Both the Ameraucana and the Araucana are recognized APA breeds that breed true. An **Easter Egger** is not a breed at all — it's any mixed-breed bird carrying a blue-egg gene, which is why Easter Eggers lay blue, green, or other colors and don't breed true. If a bird sold as an 'Ameraucana' or 'Araucana' lays green eggs, it's almost certainly an Easter Egger.

How do I tell an Ameraucana from an Araucana at a glance?

Look at the face and the tail. The Ameraucana has **muffs and a full beard** around the face and a **normal tail**. The Araucana has **ear tufts** (feather tufts near the ears) and is **rumpless** — no tail at all. Beard plus tail is Ameraucana; tufts plus no tail is Araucana.

Ameraucana vs Araucana

Verified September 2026

The short version

Both the Ameraucana and the Araucana lay true blue eggs and are recognized APA breeds — but they look and breed nothing alike. The Ameraucana has muffs, a beard, and a tail, comes in 9 large-fowl varieties, breeds true to color, and hatches like any ordinary chicken. The Araucana is tufted and rumpless (ear tufts, no tail), comes in 5 varieties, and carries a homozygous-lethal ear-tuft gene: pairing two fully tufted birds kills roughly a quarter of the embryos in the shell, so it is one of the hardest standard breeds to reproduce. Pick the Ameraucana if you want blue eggs with easy, predictable breeding; pick the Araucana if you want the rare original blue-egg fowl and are ready to breed around its lethal gene.

Attribute	Ameraucana	Araucana
Appearance	Muffs, full beard, pea comb, slate legs, and a tail	Ear tufts (peduncles) and rumpless — no tail and no uropygium
Egg color	True blue (light-to-medium pastel), blue through the whole shell	True blue — the original oocyan source, blue through the whole shell
Hatchability & lethal gene	Normal ~90% hatches; no lethal gene, incubate like any chicken egg	Lethal tuft gene: tufted × tufted loses ~25% of embryos, hatches can fall to ~25–55%
Ease for beginners	Beginner-friendly — breeds true to color, no genetic traps	Advanced — requires breeding tufted × clean-faced to dodge the lethal cross
Varieties (APA large fowl)	9 (Black, Blue, Blue Wheaten, Brown Red, Buff, Self Blue, Silver, Wheaten, White)	5 (Black, Black Breasted Red, Golden Duckwing, Silver Duckwing, White)
APA recognition	1984 (All Other Standard Breeds)	1976 (All Other Standard Breeds)
Availability	Widely available from breeders	Critically rare; purebred tufted-rumpless birds are scarce

The verdict

Choose the **Ameraucana** if you want true blue eggs from a bird that breeds true to color and hatches like any other chicken — it's the friendlier choice for beginners, for a reliable egg basket, and for building matched show pairs. Choose the **Araucana** if you specifically want the rare, original tufted-and-rumpless blue-egg fowl and you're prepared to work around its lethal ear-tuft gene by pairing tufted birds with clean-faced ones. Both lay the same beautiful blue egg; the Ameraucana just gets you there with far less heartbreak in the incubator.

The same blue egg, two very different birds

It's easy to see why these two get confused: both lay a true blue egg — blue through the full thickness of the shell, not surface-tinted — and both are recognized APA breeds shown in the All Other Standard Breeds class. In fact the Araucana is the *source* of the blue-egg (oocyan) gene that the Ameraucana and every other blue- and green-egg layer inherited. Neither lays green; a green or olive egg from either breed points to Easter Egger ancestry rather than a purebred bird.

The resemblance ends at the eggs. The Ameraucana was developed in the United States to keep the blue egg while adding muffs, a beard, and a normal tail, and was recognized by the APA in 1984. The Araucana is the older South American original, recognized in 1976, and is defined by two things the Ameraucana lacks: ear tufts (feather tufts sprouting near the ear) and rumplessness (no tail and no tail vertebrae at all). A quick tell: beard and tail means Ameraucana; tufts and no tail means Araucana.

The lethal tuft gene — why Araucanas are hard to hatch

This is the single biggest practical difference. The Araucana's ear-tuft gene is autosomal dominant but homozygous-lethal: a bird that inherits two copies dies in the shell, typically late in incubation. So when you mate a fully tufted rooster to fully tufted hens, roughly a quarter of the embryos get two copies and never hatch. The Araucana Club of America reports that hatches of double-tufted, rumpless birds can fall to somewhere between about 25% and 55%, versus the ~90% most breeds see. Even a single copy of the tuft gene is associated with elevated embryo mortality, so numbers run low even in careful matings.

Experienced Araucana breeders don't fight this with the incubator — it's genetics, not temperature or humidity. Instead they pair tufted birds with clean-faced (untufted) birds, which avoids the homozygous-lethal combination, lifts hatch rates, and still produces plenty of tufted chicks because the gene is dominant. The Ameraucana has no such trap: it carries no lethal gene and hatches like any ordinary chicken egg at 99.5–100°F with lockdown on day 18 and a 21-day hatch.

Which is easier to breed and show?

The Ameraucana is the more forgiving breed on every count. It breeds true to color, so a Blue pen and a Wheaten pen kept separate throw predictable, showable offspring, and there's no genetic mortality to plan around. The main breeder's nuance is that Blue is a dilution of black and doesn't breed true — Blue × Blue gives roughly 50% Blue, 25% Black, 25% Splash — but that's a color-ratio question, not a hatch-rate problem.

The Araucana rewards patience and skill. On top of breeding around the lethal gene, tufts show incomplete dominance, so even 'tufted' parents produce a spread of clean-faced, single-tufted, and the show-ideal double-tufted chicks in one hatch, and rumplessness can slightly lower fertility. Competitive, correctly double-tufted rumpless birds are genuinely scarce — which is part of the breed's appeal to serious exhibitors, but also why beginners are usually steered toward the Ameraucana first.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between an Ameraucana and an Araucana?: Both are APA breeds that lay true blue eggs, but they look and breed completely differently. The Ameraucana is muffed, bearded, and tailed, comes in 9 large-fowl varieties, breeds true to color, and hatches normally (recognized 1984). The Araucana is tufted and rumpless — ear tufts and no tail — comes in 5 varieties, and carries a lethal tuft gene that makes it hard to hatch (recognized 1976).
Do Ameraucanas and Araucanas both lay blue eggs?: Yes — both lay true blue eggs, blue through the full thickness of the shell rather than surface-tinted. The Araucana is actually the original source of the blue-egg (oocyan) gene that the Ameraucana inherited. Neither lays green; a green or olive egg indicates Easter Egger ancestry rather than a purebred bird.
Why are Araucanas so hard to hatch?: Because their ear-tuft gene is homozygous-lethal. In a tufted × tufted mating, roughly 25% of the embryos inherit two copies and die in the shell, so hatches of double-tufted, rumpless chicks can fall to about 25–55% versus the ~90% typical of other breeds. It's genetics, not a husbandry problem — breeders avoid it by pairing tufted birds with clean-faced (untufted) birds. Ameraucanas have no lethal gene and hatch like any chicken.
Which breed is better for beginners?: The Ameraucana. It breeds true to color, has no lethal gene, is widely available, and hatches like any ordinary chicken egg, so beginners can get predictable blue-egg layers and showable birds without special breeding strategy. The Araucana is better suited to experienced breeders who want to work around its lethal tuft gene.
Are they the same as an Easter Egger?: No. Both the Ameraucana and the Araucana are recognized APA breeds that breed true. An Easter Egger is not a breed at all — it's any mixed-breed bird carrying a blue-egg gene, which is why Easter Eggers lay blue, green, or other colors and don't breed true. If a bird sold as an 'Ameraucana' or 'Araucana' lays green eggs, it's almost certainly an Easter Egger.
How do I tell an Ameraucana from an Araucana at a glance?: Look at the face and the tail. The Ameraucana has muffs and a full beard around the face and a normal tail. The Araucana has ear tufts (feather tufts near the ears) and is rumpless — no tail at all. Beard plus tail is Ameraucana; tufts plus no tail is Araucana.

Sources

Ameraucana Chickens (breed overview, varieties & history) — The Ameraucana Alliance (Ameraucana Breeders Club) (Breed club)
Introduction to the Araucana (tufts, rumplessness, lethal gene, hatch rates) — Araucana Club of America (Breed club)
Araucana Chicken (history, egg color, conservation status) — The Livestock Conservancy (Reference)