What gender is my bird???

Question

how do you tell what gender a pied cockateil is? if u can provide resources of where it says it and pic if available. Thank you so very much! May God bless your day.

Answer 1

You may not be able to tell if a pied is male or female just by looking at its markings; I wouldn't trust the statement that males have more brightly colored faces/cheeks, because I've seen a lot of female 'tiels that I knew were females but whose faces were just as brightly colored as the males. Female cockatiels in general do have wider bodies, since they lay the eggs, and that's how I generally try to s*x a bird, but it isn't an extremely obvious characteristic. DNA sexing is the only way to be absolutely positive of a bird's gender, but the bird's behavior can give you a reasonable degree of certainty too. For example, my female 'tiel never laid a single egg, but I was still certain that she was female because she acted like a female, and had the female cockatiel body shape.

Male and female 'tiels both have certain behaviors that are quite distinctive. A male cockatiel will hold his wings out just a tiny bit (you can say he's "squaring his shoulders") and pace back and forth on a perch, often sideways; he has a number of songs he'll sing that sound like he's saying "I'll be good, I'll be good", or "chew-ee, chew-ee, chew-ee" or an almost-screaming "Da-chewer, da-chewer, da-chewer... Tell me it! Tell me it! Tell me it!" Males will often rap on things with their beaks, and if you let a male cockatiel out on the floor he'll walk around in a kind of "tough guy" swagger with his shoulders squared. Every now and then he'll make an impressively tough hop, and give you a sidelong look to see if you're sufficiently impressed or if he needs to try again.

Females, on the other hand, don't usually do any of that. Instead, if a female 'tiel is presented with a corner between two vertical surfaces (or even better, a covered area, like a shoebox turned on its side), she will back up against it and press her bottom against the wall, with her tail sticking straight up in the air, and will swivel her head to look all around; this is how she "shops" for a potential nest site.

I hope you are able to figure out your bird's gender!

Answer 2

I lucked out with my severe macaw-she laid an egg.Otherwise it's a blood test or a hormone p**p test that you send off to some lab.Contact a breeder association for that last info.

Answer 3

It is possible to visually s*x some cockatiels, Normal Greys, Pearls, whiteface charcoal etc ... but with a pied you will either need to wait until it lays an egg or starts singing...there is also DNA testing.  

Answer 4

Some birds you can visually see that it's male or female, but a cockateil is not one of them...The only way to tell would be through a blood test.  That's how I found out the s*x of my 2 birds, an African grey and a Blue Fronted Amazon.

Answer 5

I have cockateils. I think they are the best birds. No, the only way to officially know if it is a male or female is to take it to the vet and them do a bloodtest.

A way to give you a pretty good guess, is the way the bird behaves. Also, males are alot more colorful, brighter cheeks. My bird is a male and heres a picture of him http://i36.tinypic.com/28qvy4w.jpg sorry the picture is kind of big. But the bright orange in his cheek is an indication that he is a male. Also, females are alot quieter than males. Don't whistle much, and don't normally talk. You will see that a male is alot more active than a female!

Hope I helped!