sexing teils

[citrus]

hi everyone i am very new to this as i only got my first teils today i was just wondering how you tell the males from the females i breed budgies and know they have different coloured ceres but am not sure with the teils thanks melissa

[hillcresttiels]

Hi Citrus and welcome to our forum, unfortunately there are no distinguishing features in cockatiels that help us sex them apart from the normal varieties which hav a bright yellow face mask compared to the dull suffused mask of the hen. Mainly it gets down to the behaviour patterns that distinguish the sex. One little tip though when approaching your aviary give out a bit of a wolf whistle and 9 times out of ten it will be the males that respond to your call! ;D maybe some photos might help

cheers Frank

[josiedownunda]

Congratulations on your new acquisitions! As Frank said some pictures would help us to possibly determine the sex. If you don't have pics then maybe if you can tell us the colours we can suggest things to look for.If the birds are under 6 months old then it will be very hard to tell visually. Some colours like pied are impossible at any age and you have to rely on whistling and behaviour to get some idea. Even these methods can be hard at times as there are always birds out there that don't do what they are supposed to and make life difficult. If you are unsure on what colour they are you can click on my avatar below and there are lots of pictures there that may assist you.
Jo-Anne

[lovemytiels]

Hi Citrus, another couple of thoughts too, in trying to determine the sex of your tiels depending on age is that seeing as it is getting close to breeding season again, the males will start displaying to females. They will have wings slighly spread apart & out & will follow a female with a very insistent song. The females in turn if interested will lower their heads & have their tails up in the air inviting the male to mate with her & while mating will twitter softly. As both Frank & Jo-Anne have said it is very hard to visually sex them unless they are a particular colour & even that is not fool proof. Looking forward to seeing some pics if you can. Hope this helps. Cheers Anna

[mummakook]

Hi,

This is my baby Con who sadly went missing on Friday. I was told he was male but as he is a bit over 6 months now I was starting to have my doubts - not that it bothers me in the slightest (although I will have to rename him). Any thoughts please, while I pray for his safe return?

[lovemytiels]

Hi mummakook, I will keep my fingers crossed that you get your tiel back safely. Yep have to agree, looks more like a female tiel to me. If you get her back why not just name her connie that way it is similar to con. My thoughts are with you for a safe return. Cheers Anna

[mummakook]

Thanks for your reply Anna. Ironic that it took Con's disappearance to find this forum to find out, as my doubts were growing stronger last week before the great escape. Glad I've found you anyway, as one way or another I definitely want another tiel.

Changing the full Greek version of the name is much easier, and Deena is usually the shortening of the feminine but everyone else was leaning towards Connie. Thanks for your wishes. had a false alarm this morning but at least it shows that people are seeing my flyers etc. so I'm still hoping...

[Laraine]

I hope you get your tiel back soon. With the grey tiels the females have yellow barring on the underside of their tails, whereas the males are plain grey. This won't be apparent until they are about 6 months of age. Its a good idea to put the flyers around as they sometimes hang around aviaries in the local area.

[hillcresttiels]

Hi mummakook if your con is 6mths old then I would definately be looking at Connie! asshe looks all hen to me! cheers

Frank

[Viraba]

Would agree Frank, got the bars on the tail by the looks and duller cheek patches.
Hope she comes back to you mummakook.

Viraba

[mummakook]

Thanks everyone for your posts about Con(nie). Still no luck in finding her unfortunately, although word is obviously out as I've had a few false alarms. Meanwhile, I've just collected this gorgeous rescue bird. I know it's probably not the best angle, but I don't want to intimidate the poor thing any further, but any ideas please as I'm not so good with these? I'm guessing male with the bright cheeks and not much colour under the tail.

[beachbird]

Hi Citrus,
Sorry to hear about your lovely Con(nie). I hope she returns to you very soon. I think it's a hen, by the way.

I love this new rescue bird you have. It's really beautiful.
I'm not good at sexing pieds, so I won't try.
My friend has a few baby pieds as well, and we can't work them out either. As said before, I agree that the best way is to watch them, and see how they behave.

[chrischell]

Hi Citrus, hope u find Con (I also think Connie)
If ur new bird is over 6 mths, I would say a girl. The males lose their pearling when they mature & I have noticed they can start doing this at 4mths of age. Lovely bird
Good luck
Shelly

[hillcresttiels]

Hi Citrus any idea on the age of your Pearl Pied all indications is that it's young and possibly male as the pearls are very spasmodic and maybe moulting out cheers Frank

[mummakook]

Thanks everyone for the replies and wishes about Con (I still call her that for short, although I have become accustomed to thinking of her as female). Unfortunately I have no idea about the age of my new bird being a rescued one, but I agree that it is still quite young. I noticed quite a few feathers on the bottom of the cage it was being kept in, so it could be moulting, though my 8 month old girl was moulting a lot too before I lost her (3 weeks ago today). For some reason I have a feeling that this one is a similar age, but I have no real basis (or huge experience) for saying this. Still, whatever this one is it has been eating and chirping at all the wild birds for the last couple of hours, so hopefully it will settle in OKand be happy and we'll just have to see what happens with the colouring and behaviour over the next few months.

Mummakook