Sexing Tiels
(with Photos)

Heike H. Ewing -- heike@ionet.net
Bear's Den Aviary

     There are several methods for telling the gender of a cockatiel, depending on the age and color of the bird.

Facial mask:
     For normal greys, cinnamons, and pearls, adult males and adult females are easy to tell apart. The male bird will have a bright yellow facial mask that covers most of the face, surrounding the orange cheek patch. Both sexes have the orange cheek patch, but the hen's is duller. For whitefaces, the adult male has a bright white facial mask; the hen has a slight mask that is a lighter gray but not the pure white of the male's. Whitefaces do not have an orange cheek patch, or any yellow markings.

Adult male normal grey	Adult female normal grey

Adult male whiteface	Adult female whiteface

Pearling:
     Also, the great majority of male pearls "lose" their pearl markings at their adult molt, around 7 - 9 months. An adult bird (10 months or older) that retains good pearl markings is almost certainly a hen.

Immature pearl male. This male will likely end up looking like a normal grey after his first molt. Pearl females retain the pearl markings as adults.

Mutations:
     Cinnamon, pearl, lutino, and albino are sex-linked mutations. If the male parent of a chick is a sex-linked mutation, and the hen is not the same mutation, all chicks that are that mutation are hens and all the chicks that aren't are males, and are split to that mutation. If the male is split to a sex-linked mutation and the hen is not the same mutation, all chicks that have the mutation are hens, but chicks that aren't may be either sex. Mutation sexing is the only 100% accurate method of visually sexing baby cockatiels. Example: If you mate a pearl male to a grey hen, all the pearl chicks are hens and all the male chicks will be grey split to pearl.

Cinnamon	Pearl	Lutino	Albino (Whiteface lutino)

Vocalizations:
     Male cockatiels usually begin to "sing" somewhere between 3 and 9 months. This "singing" is often accompanied by head bobbing, wing flapping, strutting, or marching around the cage with wings spread and head lowered (full mating display). They will also sometimes "sing" into a dish, bowl, bell, or corner, using the acoustics to amplify the song. Both sexes issue the loud, whistle-like, one-note "contact call," but usually only males perform a multiple-note, complicated, repetitive song. Also, male cockatiels can learn to talk; it is unusual for females to do so. Males in general are louder and more vocal than females.

     The "guess and by golly" methods - I'll explain the "theory" behind each briefly:

Pelvic separation:
     The hen's pelvic bones (just in front of the vent) are further apart than the males to allow for egg passage.

Tail bars:
     The female has horizontal (crossways) barring on the underside of the tail feathers; the male doesn't.

Wing spots:
     The female has spots (dots) on the underside of the wing feathers that extend from the flights all the way to the feathers next to the body. The male's extend only halfway to the body, or he doesn't have them at all.

Crest length:
     The male's crest is longer and more curved than the hen's.

Chest width:
     The hen has a fuller, wider chest than the male.

     I call these the "guess and by golly" methods because, in my opinion, none of them are more than 70 - 80% accurate at best. There is just too much variation in all of these things that is genetically determined - some pairs will have babies that have wider chests, more prominent tail barring, or shorter crests regardless of sex. However, it is possible to get fairly good at determining cockatiel sex by combining methods. If I have a young bird with a nice long crest and a narrow chest whose pelvic bones are touching, I will probably be correct in saying that bird is a male. I hope I'm making myself clear -taken individually, none of these methods are very reliable, but in combination they can be useful.

The "difficult" mutations:
     Pieds, particularly heavy pieds, can be very difficult to sex because both genders often have a yellow or white head, and the tail barring and wing spots may be difficult to see. In my experience, behavior and vocalizations combined with pelvic separation will give you a fairly good chance of being right.

     Lutino hens can sometimes be determined by the presence of pale yellow wing spots and tail barring. Note, however, that in lutinos the female's orange cheek patch often looks brighter than the male's - the reverse of the norm!

     Albinos are pure white birds with no markings of any kind. They are impossible to sex visually. Only parentage (if Mom wasn't an albino, this bird is a hen), behavior, vocalizations, and pelvic separation will clue you in.

Babies:
     All baby cockatiels look like hens, right down to the tail barring and wing spots. Often the young males will start trying to sing shortly after weaning, (When you catch one singing, make a mark on the feathers of the underside of the wing with a permanent marker so you'll be able to sort him out later!) and if I have a young bird that has a very wide pelvic aperture (like, I can get my little finger between the bones) I will usually assume it's a hen. In general, however, you simply can't guarantee the sex of a baby unless you can do it by color (sex-linked mutation.) BTW, although early singers are almost always males, don't assume that a quiet youngster is a hen - some males don't start singing until they are older.

Here are some links to some pictures that may be helpful:
This is an excellent picture of an adult grey hen.
This is a good picture of an adult grey male, showing the mask.
A good picture of an adult male cinnamon.
An adult male whiteface, showing the white mask.
A female whiteface pearl. Note how the mask is gray instead of bright white.
A couple of pearl males. Note how the pearl markings of the bird on the right are faded and mostly missing.

-- Heike H. Ewing -- heike@ionet.net --
-- Bear's Den Aviary --

Photos by Pauline Nolet

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Revised: October 10, 1999

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