# Investigation: Male or Female?



## HeMan (Apr 9, 2015)

I get that many cockatiels have genetic mutations, but I really want to know what you guys think the sex of my bird is. I think its a female, but mostly because she has the bars/spots on her tail feathers. However, she has a yellow face where as most females have entirely grey faces and and entirely grey crests. I just want your opinion, because she acts like both a male and female. She screeches, but she also whistles, and when I compared her to a male cockatiel, she seemed to have more color spots like females do. Keep in mind I whistle to this bird A LOT daily

https://sendvid.com/39zydm9g

http://tinypic.com/r/2ljrm9f/9

http://tinypic.com/r/33ljep0/9

http://tinypic.com/r/35cmxvt/9


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## RowdyTiel (Jan 24, 2013)

Could be a young male? How old is the bird?

Here is one example of what a light pied female might look like.


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## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

Looks like a young male to me.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

I agree, looks like a male. It takes time for babies to molt out the bars.


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## HeMan (Apr 9, 2015)

It turned 1 year old in December


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## galactickiwi (Feb 4, 2015)

looks and sounds like a male to me, i do believe that the males are much more eager to sing (not to say females dont, miso likes to freestyle a little tune once in a while, but evven at that i whistled to her every day since the first day i brought her home and she rarely ever does it, our vet said that's pretty much what to expect with females)


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

> It turned 1 year old in December


Being split to pied can also affect how long it takes a male to molt out his baby feathers. My Fuzzy was a pearl split pied and it took him over two years to molt out most of his pearls and baby tail feathers. Pied does weird things to other mutations.


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## HeMan (Apr 9, 2015)

So you are saying that it is normal for a baby male cockatiel to have bars on its tail feathers?


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Yes it is. This is why it's so hard to determine the gender of baby tiels, they all appear to be female until they start molting.


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## Jaguar (Jul 11, 2014)

Phoenix (split pied) is almost 2 and he still has a few barred yellow tail feathers. I agree that you likely have a boy!


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## Janalee (Jul 25, 2012)

*Male or female*

He's a beautiful bird and I love his whistling!


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## gottogo (May 2, 2012)

In my expert opinion, that's a male.

Ok, I'm no expert. But I'm telling you, that's a male.


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