The crossing of a black breasted zebra finch with a Florida Fancy produces a Phaeo, or a Black Breasted Florida Fancy. Then, the breeder can cross the Phaeo with an Orange Breast and Black Faced birds to produce incredibly colored birds which show extensive orange coloring. The Lightback Zebra finch originated in Germany in the mid 1950's, but did not come to the US until the early 1980's. A Lightback has a dilute upper body color and all the underparts, such as the breast and vent region, are white. The tail coverts have bright, white markings in both sexes.
Males have bright cream cheek patches and flanking.
Unlike the rest of the body, the black pigment is not diluted, but fully black. These birds look striking on the show bench. Also seen quite a bit on the show bench and crossed with the Lightback is the Dominant Silver zebra. With this mutation, the male's cheek patches are very dilute, and varies from pale orange or cream to silvery white. The body color of the Dominant Silver also varies from dark gray to very pale silver.