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#Post#: 15--------------------------------------------------
budgies male and female pics
DIR By: paul
Date: June 8, 2012, 5:48 pm
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Is My Budgie A Boy Or A Girl?
So you bought yourself a budgie, and now the question has been
nagging at you... Is it a boy or a girl? It's not too difficult
to tell with budgies, but it can be confusing for beginning bird
owners. A guide on how you can tell the gender of your budgie,
with helpful pictures.
Most bird species are not sexually dimorph. This means that you
can't tell what gender it is, simply by looking at it. Luckily,
we're talking budgies here! Although it can be difficult for
beginners and non-bird owners to tell the gender of a budgie,
with a few simple tips, you'll be able to determine if your bird
is a Tweeter or a Tweetine (Dear Lord, please don't actually use
those names...!).
Behavior
Male budgies tend to be the calmer, more social of the species.
The hens, while they can be very sweet, tend to be more
aggressive towards strangers, will be more inclined to defend
their territory, and will nibble on things more. This is due to
their instinct to create and defend their nest. The males also
talk a lot more. Very few hens actually chatter like the males
do.
As mentioned, the males are also more social. They are more
likely to create a strong bond with another male in the group,
whereas females very seldom have a best female friend.
Ofcourse, as far as behavior goes, that is easily modified and
therefore not always very reliable. The above is something
you'll more easily notice if you have several budgies. It's also
possible that you have one female budgie that acts like a male.
This is because it's spent a lot of its life around the males of
her species and learned how to behave from them.
Looks
This is the one that's most often used to distinguish a gender.
Superficially speaking, there is absolutely no difference
between cocks and hens. But take a closer look at the colored
swollen patch on their beak (this is called a cere). The color
of the cere is the key to revealing the mystery of a budgie's
gender.
A male budgie will almost always (except when it's an albino)
have a dark blue cere. If it's a very young bird, the cere will
be purple. Observe the cere of the bird on the left in the
picture above. It's approximately 6 weeks old, and has a purple
cere. Therefore, it is male.
After a couple of months, the budgie's cere will change color,
indicating that it's maturing (but not fertile yet!). So purple
turns to dark blue when it's a male. But what about a female?
Females are the cause of the most confusion. People with male
budgies seldom wind up really being unsure as to the gender. But
females sometimes have blue in their ceres too, and that's
mostly where the confusion sets in.
Females usually begin with a very light blue cere, sometimes
it's almost white. If your bird is very young, you should be
able to see very clear white rings around the nostrils. Not all
hens have this though, so don't let that make or break your
decision. As she ages, her cere will turn to a darker light
blue. Sometimes she'll still have the white nostrils. Sometimes,
her cere will turn a shade of pink. If she's feeling like
breeding, it'll be brown and crusty. It could be beige. But it
will never be dark blue!
So here's how to decide. Does your budgie have a dark blue cere
like the bird on the left in the upper picture? Or does it have
a purple cere like the one on the left in the top picture? Then
it's a male.If it doesn't, you can be almost certain it's a
female!
Many websites and bird owners juggle with lots of cere colors,
saying that different feather colors will often result in
different cere colors. But a male will have a darkblue or purple
cere in 90% of the cases, and a female will not. Don't let
yourself be confused.
The most telling of all...
If your budgie lays eggs, you can be pretty sure it's a female.
Well, that, or you call National Geographic Channel and tell
them to come over.
A small anekdote
As a budgie owner, I began out wondering very strongly as to the
gender of one of the birds I had acquired. I read all I could
about cere colors, budgie behavior and links to gender, and so
on and so on. I put pictures online of the budgie I wasn't sure
on, got the advice of experts and eventually consulted a bird
vet. The guy who sold the bird to me said it was a male and had
put the budgie in a cage with only males. Most experts said it
was a female. Some experts said it was a male. Even the vet
eventually said it was a male.
But I was so sure it was a female. The behavior was that of a
male. The cere was light blue, but I couldn't find the white
rings on it. The websites I checked said, blue for males,
females have white rings and sometimes light blue ceres.
I decided to trust my gut on this. The white nostrils weren't
there, the behavior was male, but the cere was not dark blue.
And so I decided, well, I feel it's a girl despite the evidence,
I'm just going to consider her a female.
Well, to summarize how it turned out... Until male budgies start
laying eggs, I'll know the vet was wrong, I was right.
The morale of this tale: If you're in doubt, it's most likely a
female. Follow your guts.
[IMG]
HTML http://i50.tinypic.com/23vewbr.jpg[/img]
MALE ON THE LEFT
FEMALE ON THE RIGHT
[IMG]
HTML http://i46.tinypic.com/34hxsuh.jpg[/img]
MALE
[IMG]
HTML http://i47.tinypic.com/smca5c.jpg[/img]
FEMALE
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