# Can a female White Faced Cockatiel have a white face?



## TheJediBird (Sep 11, 2015)

I am looking at buying a female White Faced Cockatiel whose owner is selling all of their birds because they don't have enough time for them. The owner says that they all were surgically sexed and that she is a female, but she has a solid white face. From everywhere I've looked, it seems like only the males have white faces.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

A female will have paler feathers on the face than on the rest of the body, but she shouldn't have a bright white face like a male. Certain mutations influence the face color however. Normal pearl hens have more yellow on the face than other hens which can give them a rather male appearance, and it's the same with whiteface pearl hens except that they'll have white instead of yellow. A whiteface pied hen can also have a bright white face, since the pied mutation doesn't follow the face color rules.

If you look at my signature you'll see a pearl hen whose face isn't as dark as a normal hen; a whiteface hen whose face is pale grey not bright white; and a whiteface pied bird who is actually male, but a hen could look just like this.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Here's an example of how white the face can be on a pearl hen. This is a whiteface cinnamon pearl chick that I had last year. She is definitely female and about four weeks old, but has almost as much white on her face as an adult male.


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## TheJediBird (Sep 11, 2015)

This is the picture they sent me


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Looks like an adult whiteface cinnamon male to me. There's no sign of any mutation that might make a hen have a whiter face than usual. DNA sexing can be wrong occasionally due to lab error.


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## ParrotletsRock (Oct 8, 2013)

Are their any behavioral cues to go by as well? If the bird is very vocal , beak banging heart winging etc that would pretty much confirm it is a male.


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## TheJediBird (Sep 11, 2015)

I don't think it really matters anymore. The ad was flagged for removal on Craigslist and the seller stopped responding to me. I'm pretty sure the bird was a male, anyway.


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## Rumz (Mar 14, 2016)

Female grey's also have barred tails to them, while males are solid black to the best of my understanding. Anakin might be an Annie, it's too soon to know for sure. Sorry to hear that it was flagged for removal


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## TheJediBird (Sep 11, 2015)

If everything else fails, I can always go to PetSmart. The one near me is really nice and always has very healthy animals. I was just hoping to be able to pay a little less than $150 because I don't have a lot of money to spend all at once.


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## Rumz (Mar 14, 2016)

You can also try holding a mirror to them, females tend to lose interest quicker than males.


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## TheJediBird (Sep 11, 2015)

haha, I had to take Obi's mirror out of his cage because he wouldn't do anything else but talk to it and he was pretty aggressive as well.


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