SEXING & AGING KEPT BIRDS

How can you tell the age of a budgerigar or the sex of a cockatiel? With some species of birds it is relatively easy to tell a bird's sex and age based solely on appearance, while with others there is no way to visually judge the sex or age. The following tips we use to visually sex and age some of the common caged birds at Pretty Birds as well as answering our customers questions about estimating a bird's sex and age.

INTERPRET COLOR CODES

The zebra finch is the most popular finch kept and bred in captivity. On normal grey adult birds, the male has a red bill, orange cheek patches, black band on the chest, and chestnut colored sides. The female has an orange bill, while the rest of her is solid light grey. In white zebra finches, the male and female are solid white, but the bill is still red in the males and orange in the females. And like canaries, only the male zebra finch sings. This is true in all the finch species, but a male will normally only sing with females present (although some canaries will sing long after females are absent). Young zebra finches have orange bills and have a more puff-like look about them. If they are very young, under three months, they will also have some black on the bill, and very young birds' bills are entirely black.

Budgerigars are probably easiest to sex when they reach maturity at six to seven months old. The cere, which is the waxy skin around the nostrils above the beak, will either turn blue for a male, or tan or brown for a female. In babies, the cere is pinkish-purple, but looking at enough of them will give an idea of whether it will be male or female. The cere will have a more bluish hue for baby males and appear more white in females, although this is not always the case. Also observing young parakeets and looking for the ones that seem more talkative could also provide clues as to the males, but until the cere changes color, it is merely a guessing game. Very young parakeets, five to seven weeks of age, will have dark brown to black at the tip of their bill. Parakeets under five to six months will have the stripes on their head go all the way to the cere, while in adults the forehead is a solid white or a yellow color. But if the budgie is an albino or lutino, it will not have any stripes at all, but the cere color will give an indication of age on these birds.

Cockatiels can be sexed easily. Normal grey mates have an orange cheek patch while the females do not, and the adult males have a yellow face. Some of the different colors like cinnamon, silver and even lutino males will have an orange hue in the cheeks. If the bird is a solid color, the tail feathers can be observed through light to tell the sex of the bird. In young birds, the tail has stripes in it which will stay if it is female or will become solid colored if it is a male, usually around the first molt at six months of age. If the bird does any whistle-type of singing, then it is probably male. The female will offer some single notes but will not usually sing. Some breeders pull one tail feather on a very young bird, and by looking for the stripes of the one that replaces it, can tell if it is male or female. Very young cockatiels have shorter crests and a very sweet look about them with large eyes and a puff-ball appearance.

HARDER TO DECODE

Lovebirds and conures, are almost impossible to sex. Aging them is also difficult, but if they are very young, some species will show dark coloring in the bill that in a mature bird is a solid light color, and they may not have full adult coloring. Many conures also have paler coloring when they are very young. Some breeders of lovebirds can sex them by feeling the hip bones for size and spacing. However, it is impossible to tell the sex of most of the commonly kept lovebirds by appearance alone. In fact, what appears to be a pair, with mating going on between the two birds and going into the nest, can be two males or two females. And the females will lay eggs as well, confusing the issue even more. If the true sex is needed, then a blood sample to look at the DNA will give exact identification in both conures and lovebirds.

Lastly, the larger parrots can be extremely difficult to age or sex, except in obvious cases such as Eclectus parrots where the male is green and the female is red. Some cockatoos can be sexed by color differences between the sexes, such as in the black cockatoos or the gang-gang cockatoo. Eye color may be dark brown in males and reddish in females of the pink-breasted, Major Mitchell's, and sulfur-crested cockatoo species. But in Amazons and macaws it is best to do a DNA test to be sure of the sex of the bird. If an Amazon bird is very large and robust, it is probably female as males tend to be smaller and sleeker looking. But to do this type of sexing, which is truly just guessing, there must be a number of birds to look at to compare sizes. Determining age also depends on the species of bird. A yellow-naped Amazon will not have yellow in the back of its head at less than six months old and normally takes over a year to get its full coloring. Most young parrots have darker eyes and generally paler coloring than the adults will have. And most of the larger parrots do not reach sexual maturity till four to five years old so behavior of the bird may be a key to its age.

This is a simple overview. Only practice can help to distinguish age and sex of an individual bird. When trying to sex or age a parrot, I strongly recommend keeping the parrot bible, Parrots of the World, by Joseph Forshaw, close at hand as it gives descriptions of both adult and immature coloring and also a way to sex a bird when possible. There are some excellent books on finches that will help when needed on sexing and aging a finch. You never knows when a green singing finch will be offered, and the most important question is whether it is a male and therefore sings, or female. How can a green singing finch be sexed? (Hint: only the females wear jewelry in these finches.)

Reprinted by Pretty Birds from Robyn Bright-Smith for Pet Business Magazine.

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