We thought she was a girl, but now we are not so sure..

[Oskenonton]

I adopted 4 Budgies from my work a year ago. They were with us for about 6 months before they came home. We were told that they had been with tier previous owners for a wile and had determined there where 2 males and 2 females based on the vibrant blue ceres of two of the boys and the pink color of the other two ladies along with lack of barring in the forhead. Recently one of the females is starting to show more purpleish almost blueish pink colors in her ceres and I notice her beak is getting some darker colors as well.. She is a very vocal bird and sings up a storm with the other male we have. This made me curious since most females tend to be quieter, and the other female we have only sings quitely when alone in the cage. Is there a chance that she could be a young male?? I thought their colors tend to come in in the first year, could it take longer in some cases?

 

[EllenD]

The barring on the forehead has nothing to do with their gender, but rather their age. The younger the Budgie, the further down their forehead towards their cere the bars will be. The less barring there is, or the further up their forehead towards the top of their head the barring is, the older they are.

Usually all baby budgies start out with a light pink cere, and as they get older the cere will either change color or stay pink. This usually happens around 5-6 months old, and by a year old their cere is the color that it's going to be, and is not going to change. So if your Budgies are a year old or older, as you say, then their ceres are the color they are going to say.

Females are sometimes very tricky to sex, males are typically very easy.

I can't tell from the lighting in this photo if this Budgie's cere is a vibrant pink, meaning it's most likely a female, or if it's changed to a shade of purple, meaning it's most likely a male. It appears at first glance to be a female, but the more I look at the color of the cere and the lighting, I can't really tell for sure if it's pink or a shade of light purple. If it's at all purple, then it's a male...

Could you possibly post a photo of the bird straight-on, looking straight at it's face, rather than at an angle like this photo is? That will help tremendously...

In addition, yes, male Budgies tend to be more vocal than females, and most all Budgies that are able to actually talk and say words are male, but there are exceptions to this...And female Budgies can be extremely vocal as far as singing, chirping, etc., so you can't really go buy that. If you told me that this Budgie was saying actual words then I'd go more towards male, but just because it's a very vocal bird as far as singing, chirping, etc., that doesn't tell us anything...

 

[Oskenonton]

The barring on the forehead has nothing to do with their gender, but rather their age. The younger the Budgie, the further down their forehead towards their cere the bars will be. The less barring there is, or the further up their forehead towards the top of their head the barring is, the older they are.

Usually all baby budgies start out with a light pink cere, and as they get older the cere will either change color or stay pink. This usually happens around 5-6 months old, and by a year old their cere is the color that it's going to be, and is not going to change. So if your Budgies are a year old or older, as you say, then their ceres are the color they are going to say.

Females are sometimes very tricky to sex, males are typically very easy.

I can't tell from the lighting in this photo if this Budgie's cere is a vibrant pink, meaning it's most likely a female, or if it's changed to a shade of purple, meaning it's most likely a male. It appears at first glance to be a female, but the more I look at the color of the cere and the lighting, I can't really tell for sure if it's pink or a shade of light purple. If it's at all purple, then it's a male...

Could you possibly post a photo of the bird straight-on, looking straight at it's face, rather than at an angle like this photo is? That will help tremendously...

In addition, yes, male Budgies tend to be more vocal than females, and most all Budgies that are able to actually talk and say words are male, but there are exceptions to this...And female Budgies can be extremely vocal as far as singing, chirping, etc., so you can't really go buy that. If you told me that this Budgie was saying actual words then I'd go more towards male, but just because it's a very vocal bird as far as singing, chirping, etc., that doesn't tell us anything...

Yes I can definitely share some pictures in better lighting. I meant to mention that I was detemening the bar lines on the for head to indicate age which is why I was wondering why I was noticing this blue more now then before (I have had them a year and my work had them for 6 months). It was much more pink before but has definitely started to change more to show blueish tones. This is what got me wondering if she/he is younger then we originally thought..

 

[EllenD]

It does look blue in the photos...do you notice any very faint white rings around the nostrils? If there are white rings around the nostrils then it's a female for sure, but otherwise I'm almost being swayed to say male now...this is a tough one...

 

[Oskenonton]

It's seems to be pretty uniform in color. There is a very slight paleness around the holes when the light of the camera is close, but with no light directed at this one's ceres, it looks to be all the same color.

Can their behavior help determine gender by chance? I have been told that males are more vocal then females, but didn't rely on that as sound information since this one is very vocal, and spends a large chunk of the day singing, displaying and beak banging. This one is also quite competitive with another male I have who is also a displayer. This one also feeds our older male Budgie that was not eating on his own when we got him. Chicory eats on his own far more now since they were switched to pellets and lots of veggies, but Clover (the one in question) still dotes on Chicory...

 

[MonicaMc]

He is a recessive pied, so he has dark eyes (no white eyering) and a pink cere.

A female at his age would have the typical white with tan/blue, tan, or crusty brown cere. In fact, she would have probably had that coloring a year ago!

 

[Oskenonton]

He is a recessive pied, so he has dark eyes (no white eyering) and a pink cere.

A female at his age would have the typical white with tan/blue, tan, or crusty brown cere. In fact, she would have probably had that coloring a year ago!

Yes, he and my definite female both have dark eyes kunlike my other 2 boys that have deep blue ceres and a white eye ring). My other Budgie with black eyes has a tan (sometimes crusty brown) Ceres and the vet mentioned the crusty Ceres is from hormones. Clover (the Budgie pictured) used to be more pinkish and is only now showing more signs of purplish blue tones. This makes so much sense, thank you Monica!

 

[EllenD]

Yeah, I'm going with male too...

This guy is a good example of a really tough Budgie to sex, though I don't know how much the camera lighting has to do with it. I've had a few throughout the years that I've bred like this, and basically I have had to tell the buyers to wait until they were at least a year old to take a look at the bird's behavior, though that isn't always clear either, lol...

But based on the cere color, the genetics/mutation, and the behavior you describe, I'm pretty sure it's a male...

 

[gillian61]

I would say male as well