Help with telling the sex of two budgies??

[Bobigirl]

Hi all. I recently got two budgies from a rescue Center. They were left on the doorstep in a cage so don’t know any history.
My back ground is in cockatiels so I’m not terribly familiar with the details of aging and sexing budgies. I was wondering if anyone can help me with my two. I think the Lutino is a mature bird as it seems to have a white iris. The other one, I have no idea what mutation it is, seems to have some lacing on its wings but also still has some of the batting feathers still on its cap and cheeks so I think it might be juvenile?

Anyway, any help with sexing, aging and mutation if possible is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[TayKiren]

The white/blue one seems like a mature female, but I'm not sure about lutinos

 

[bug_n_flock]

To me they both look like mature females, but another poc of the ino's cere would be helpful.

 

[Bobigirl]

This is another one of the Lutino

 

[Bobigirl]

Are these any better? Other forums are saying the Lutino is male.

 

[EllenD]

They are both mature FEMALES! 100%!

The reason people are mistaking the latino one as being a male is because she has a blue-colored Cere, and most people automatically think that ANY blue-colored Cere on a Budgie means it's a male...But totally untrue, and the most common Budgie sexing-mistake made by-far...So you can go back to the other forums and educate them on this topic so they don't keep making the same mistake...And you can tell them that a 20-year breeder/hand-raiser of both American and English Budgies explained this to you and confirmed that they are both FEMALES!

***What makes her a Female is the fact that she has a blue-colored Cere with white-rings around each of her nostrils...If the Cere was solid-blue in color with no rings around the nostrils at all, then it would be a male...And that's the difference, Male Budgies always have solid-colored Ceres with no rings around the nostrils of any other areas of different color...

Here's the Cere-Colors for Visually-Sexing both American and English Budgies:

Males: Either solid blue, solid pink, or solid purple colored Ceres.

Females: Either solid white/cream or solid tan/brown colored Ceres, OR blue colored Ceres with white-rings around each nostril.

 

[Rozalka]

Ellen: you are right but s(he) is lutino and birds with this mutation never have blue color => male lutino budgies don't have a blue-colored cere. This is the next common mistake

 

[EllenD]

Also, as far as telling the age of your Budgies...

In all Pied-mutation Budgies (as well as some hybrid mutations, but not going into Budgie genetics here, basically all Budgies who have a barred-forehead as babies), you can tell their age up to about 2 years old, sometimes a bit less, by the black barring on their foreheads, and how close it is to their Cere...As babies who have just grown-in their outer feathers, if they have a barred-forehead, the bars are actually touching their Ceres and are covering their entire foreheads...As they get closer and closer to hitting puberty (around a year-old, give or take a month or two), the barring on their foreheads recedes up and away from their Ceres, leaving bare forehead feathers in their place (their foreheads slowly become more and more solid in color, either white if they are white-faced, yellow if they are yellow-faced, or whatever color the rest of their head/face is depending on mutation)...After you breed/hand-raise or own several different Budgies from the time they first hatch or are very young babies forward, you develop the ability to tell the age of ones with barred-foreheads based on how far the bars have receded away from their Ceres/faces...

With Budgie mutations who do no have barred-foreheads, OR with Budgies who are a year and a half or older (give or take a month or two) and who's forehead-bars have already receded completely and left a solid forehead, then you have to use other visual cues to be able to get an ESTIMATE of their age, just the same as you have to do with pretty much all other parrot species who have gone through puberty and grown-in their adult feathering. These are the same visual cues that Certified Avian Vets/Avian Specialist Vets use to estimate the ages of birds/parrots who have been re-homed to/purchased by their new owner, or who are found outside, or in the situation where someone has purchased a parrot or a pair of parrots that were said to be "proven breeders" by their prior owners and who have stated them to be a certain age but who don't supply a Hatch-Certificate along with the birds...It's very common for people selling a "breeding-pair" of parrots to a new owner who is buying them strictly because they want to breed them (and who typically pay a fortune for a "proven-pair" of breeder parrots who must be within the age that they can still be bred) TO LIE COMPLETELY about the age of the birds, and the same thing happens all the time to people buying or paying a "re-homing fee" to someone who is re-homing their pet parrot/bird...They don't want to tell prospective new owners that their pet parrots are actually very old/elderly and only have a few years left, they want them to think that they are adopting/buying a parrot that will be their pet for decades! After-all, the reason a lot of people choose a parrot as their only pet in the first place is because they live very long lives in-comparison to dogs, cats, and most other pets (same reason people buy Sulcata Tortoises as little, tiny babies the size of a 50-cent piece, because they know they'll live to be between 80-100 years old and outlive them)...

So the bottom-line is there are other visual-cues that will allow a CAV/Avian Specialist to estimate a bird's age within a 5-10 year range...They include looking at their feathers/feather follicles, their skin, their eyes/ears, their beaks/toenails, etc. And if their owners will pay for it, a regular X-ray can really help to be much more accurate about a bird's age because you can see their bone-density, the size of certain internal organs, etc.

***So as far as telling how old your two Budgies are, it's impossible to do from photos, except for us to say that they are both at least a year-and-a-half old, probably both at least 2 years-old...That's about all we can tell you about their age...HOWEVER, if you take them to a Certified Avian Vet/Avian Specialist Vet for their yearly Wellness-Exam, ask them to try to estimate their age for you, and they should be able to give you a pretty close estimate... (no "Exotics" Vets for this, because they'd have no idea how to tell the age of a Budgie and most-likely tell you something that is totally false)

 

[Bobigirl]

Ok I’m confused now! First, the Lutino’s cere is definitely not blue! It’s a light browny pink. Secondly, Rozalka, are you saying Ellen is incorrect and the Lutino is male? I have learned that the cere colour is different in lutinos but I wasn’t sure if the cere was ‘pink’ enough to be male.

 

[Rozalka]

Secondly, Rozalka, are you saying Ellen is incorrect and the Lutino is male? I have learned that the cere colour is different in lutinos but I wasn’t sure if the cere was ‘pink’ enough to be male.

I don't know what's gender is lutino, it's harder to say than non-lutino budgies

 

[EllenD]

You've got one Budgie with an obviously brown cere (in breeding-season actually because it's a dark, crusty, thick Cere), so obviously Female...And then your other Budgie has what appears in all the photos to be a blue/pink Cere with obvious white-rings/areas around each nostril...Now if it's the lighting in the photos an that Cere is not blue or pink with light areas/rings around each nostril but instead light brown/tan with white rings/areas around each nostril, then it is also a Female because it's brown/tan/cream...So either way it's a Female...

You described it as a "light browny-pink", if it's ANY SHADE of white, cream, tan, brown, etc., then it's a Female...And if it's any shade of blue/pink with white-rings/areas around each nostril, then it's also a Female! You can clearly see in both photos that there are white-rings/areas around each nostril, and on my screen in both photos the Cere color looks very light blue/pink with the light areas/rings around each nostril. That's a female...

Maybe this is easier for you (since apparently the photos aren't showing the accurate color of the Cere)...The ONLY way a Budgie is a male is if it's Cere is a SOLID blue, pink, or purple...That's it. If there are any white-rings or light-colred areas around each nostril then it's a female. And if the color of the Cere is at all white, cream, tan, brown, etc., as you're describing, it's a Female...So any way you put it, it's a Female, especially how you described it as being a "light browny-pink color", that's a female. Period.

 

[BAMM17]

Usually for budgies the cere is the most indicative; blue is male, brown/tan is female. But I think this is less reliable with special mutations. It's hard to tell with your birds in the picture. If it's really important a vet probably run a DNA test for you