A skin like coating sticks to the bristles as they emerge from thebreastwhere the beard comes out of the skin.As the beard gets longer normal use wears that coating off.The part of the beard that appears lighter has that coating on it and is mainly protected by breast feathers.It has a greyish color to it,making it appear lighter.Takea beard and pluck a bristle from it,you can take your fingernails,or some 220 sandpaper,and scratch that coating off.It will be just as black under that coating as it is at theend of the beard.

As far as the auburn tips go.All young birds have that,some worse than others,you may even have to hold a beard to the light to see them.It is lack of the black pigment that causes that.There are 2 ways it gets there.

1-When a young bird starts to grow his beard melanin production is low,and then increases as the beard lengthens.Melanin production usually stays steady then,and he will have a solid black beard with auburn tips.Until the beard is long enough to drag the ground.As it grows longer theauburn tipswear off.

2-A bird that has beard rot and loses part of it's beard will grow back out,and when it gets long enough to drag again the auburn tips wear back off.Some strands lack melanin,but are still strong enough to stay together like mine,and quicksilver's.

I know the results of beard rot,how a beard grows,but I still do not know exactly what causes the lack of melanin...hormones?genetics?parasites?nutrition?ID K for sure.Hope I helped..[8D]