# Is wing sexing accurate?



## elenafan23 (Aug 16, 2009)

How accurate is it? I have a chick that has an extremely yellow face but the wings spot point to female my other female doesnt have nearly as much yellow on her face and shes two years old. They are both normal greys. Is spot sexing 90% accurate or is it a hit and miss.


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## sangs_becky (Jun 25, 2012)

Normal grey cockatiels look similar until they undergo their first molt . Only after the first molt the males will loose their tail markings and wing spots and the females will retain then both. So you have to wait until your birds are little older it's difficult to identify the sex in young chicks


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## meaggiedear (Nov 20, 2011)

We wing spot sexed my lutino as a girl, and he turned out to be a boy...

But we wouldn't recommend it if it wasn't mostly accurate. If it was just hit or miss, we wouldn't even talk about it when trying to sex a tiel.


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

the wingspot sexing only works for birds UNDER their first molt...

its mostly accurate, but its not 100%


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## elenafan23 (Aug 16, 2009)

DallyTsuka said:


> the wingspot sexing only works for birds UNDER their first molt...
> 
> its mostly accurate, but its not 100%


What if the baby was serverly plucked would it still count? Or would the new feathers be adult feathers?


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## Dreamcatchers (Apr 17, 2011)

How old is the chick?


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

most birds who are plucked as babies regrow their baby feathers, not adult feathers


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## elenafan23 (Aug 16, 2009)

Dreamcatchers said:


> How old is the chick?


It was hatched may 21st


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Then it should be mostly accurate as the feathers should be baby feathers coming back in. The degree of yellow in a face varies from bird to bird so the baby still could be a girl.


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## Dreamcatchers (Apr 17, 2011)

Yes most babies that age would be regrowing baby feathers. You would also need to be sure they weren't split to pied. In some cases the split could actually produce more yellow even on a girl. A split pied does not always have obvious tick marks, it could be just a simple off color nail or a little stripe on the beak that would indicate split.


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## Mentha (Jul 11, 2010)

DallyTsuka said:


> most birds who are plucked as babies regrow their baby feathers, not adult feathers


That's not true, feathers will grow back as adult feathers. I know a lot of breeders that will pluck a couple tail feathers to sex their birds.


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

How old are the birds when the breeder pulls their feathers Mentha?


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

ok, so when this happened to a few members on here who have birds who are most definitely male now had their birds knock out feathers and they grew back as baby feathers when they were younger, how does that happen? im sorry but its not guaranteed, if a bird knocks out a feather or it is plucked out before it is ready, it often grows back as a baby feather. i can show you proof if you would like.


this thread here it has happened, and we are all quite sure now that Cupid is a boy, and he was older than 3 months i believe here

http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=21968&highlight=cupid+tail+feather


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## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

Cupid actually has one tail feather that got knocked out twice before his first molt ( I think he was around 4 months old the first time) and that feather grew back twice with tail barring. That tail feather still has tail barring because he hasnt molted it out naturally yet.


oops Casey! posted at same time


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## Mentha (Jul 11, 2010)

I don't know how old the birds were. I just know it's common practice to pull feathers to see if they grow back as adult. I would assume the bird would have to be close to 3-5 months though.


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

and this is how old Cupid was, so i dont think its that reliable at all.


myself, i would suspect hormonal changes to influence the change in the plumage. a baby or young bird would likely grow back baby feathers as the hormones havent changed yet. hormones come into play around the same time they start their first molts, which will cause the plumage to change (males). in the wild many different species of birds molt at the start of breeding season into brighter flashier colours to attract mates, and then at the end of it they start molting again into drabber feathers. i know this does not apply to cockatiels as they have only adult and juvenile plumages. however the hormones peak in breeding season and cause the birds to change, and hormones die down after, losing the change... young cockatiels havent hit puberty yet, so the hormones have not started. once the hormones start up and the birds molt and show their true gender, this is where you will see changes in males at least. i believe there is some link between hormones and plumage changes, that is my theory on it. the hormones will cause the feather to change to represent a male feather if the bird is a male and will stay the same if female... thats my point is hormones would influence feather change.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

But elenafan's talking about a PLUCKED baby, which means that it was even two months old when the feathers were pulled out. So the feathers that came back were most likely still baby feathers hence why wing spot sexing could still be used. But yes, many breeders will pull tail feathers to determine sex, except I would expect that if the baby was split pied or a visual pied this may affect the results.


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## Mentha (Jul 11, 2010)

The original post did not say anything about plucked baby, it just asked how accurate wing spot sexing was. It also mentioned the bird having more yellow than her hen, so this implies a little maturity. It did not mention anything about pied either, so with what little info given, my answer could apply assuming that the bird was fully feathered and not a pin feather stage baby.


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

the OP could include more details in the future so its not so difficult to get a straight answer. this would clear up confusion with people who are not familiar with the situation at hand. many members who ask questions often do not provide enough details and if they wish to get a straight answer to their question, they need to be sure to give us as much details as they can, and if still it is not enough detail this leaves room for more precise questions, this goes for all members who post questions. it clears up any confusion.


the bird here in question is still a baby being fed, that has been severely plucked and malnourished by the widowed father bird.


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## elenafan23 (Aug 16, 2009)

The bird i was talking about was always was plucked the dad has a white spot on his head the mother was a pearl if that makes a difference and the baby is weaned now.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

> It was hatched may 21st


The first post did not include this but several posts later did, and then the OP asked "what if the baby had been plucked?" As I said, the amount of yellow in the face of a bird can vary (in hens even) depending on the bird.


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## elenafan23 (Aug 16, 2009)

Peaches shes 2 years old








The baby


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

The baby does look like its getting the yellow face of a male.

I wing spot sexed my normal grey Baby as a girl and he's a boy, so its not 100% accurate.


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

It's only 3 1/2 months old..has it always had that amount of yellow? Luna had that much yellow, even when he was immature.


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## vampiric_conure (Jul 8, 2012)

JUst from visually sexing alone I would say he's a young boy, but with everything, time will tell if they're he's or she's. Mindwipe was originally sexed to be a male but she turned out to be a hen. 


Darn those cockatiels and their confusing sexing.


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## elenafan23 (Aug 16, 2009)

bjknight93 said:


> It's only 3 1/2 months old..has it always had that amount of yellow? Luna had that much yellow, even when he was immature.


I dont know it was always being plucked.


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

I didn't realize they plucked its face feathers too.


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