In terms of feather phenotype in males, which statement is true?

The statement that the hen-feathered phenotype is dominant and the cock-feathered phenotype is recessive accurately reflects the inheritance patterns observed in birds, particularly in the context of feather characteristics in males. In genetics, dominant alleles mask the expression of recessive alleles, meaning that if an allele for hen-feathered traits is present in a genotype, it will express this phenotype regardless of the other alleles present.

Therefore, a male that carries even one copy of the allele for hen-feathering will display that phenotype, while only those with two copies of the recessive allele (for cock-feathering) will express the cock-feathered phenotype. This pattern of dominance is crucial for understanding inheritance and predicting phenotypic ratios in breeding experiments or natural populations.

In contrast, the suggestion that hen-feathered is recessive (as seen in another option) would imply that it can only be expressed when both alleles are the same, which contradicts the observed dominance of the hen-feathered trait in males. Additionally, the idea that hen-feathered is linked to the Y chromosome is misleading since such traits follow different inheritance patterns typically not confined to sex-linkage. Lastly, stating that cock-feathered is