Parakeets

Parakeet Gender

Is your  parakeet a girl or a boy? It’s often really difficult to tell the sex of your parakeet or budgie. Some birds are sexually monomorphic which means they do not have any visual differences between the sexes and others are sexually dimorphic which means they have some characteristics which vary between parakeet gender.

For example, a female bird may have blue tipped wings and a male bird may have red tipped wings. That’s a very general example however it accurately explains sexual dimorphism.

In the case of a budgie or parakeet, they are only sexually dimorphic on their cere. The cere is the fleshy part just above their beak. It is the area of skin around their nostrils. The remaining areas of a budgie body, whether male or female are too similar, often identical, to be able to tell the difference in gender.

However, if your budgie is younger than twelve months, then it may be impossible to visually identify whether it's gender is male or a female. If that is the case, then you will have to take your budgie to an avian veterinarian to be surgically sexed.

To determine parakeet gender yourself, take a look at the cere. It is sometimes possible to identify the gender of a budgie less than twelve months depending on their maturity and coloration. In normal variety males the cere will be blue or purplish. If your budgie is recessive pied, fallow, lacewing, lutino, or dark-eyed clear then the cere will be bright purple or ping. All female budgie varieties develop a white, tan, or brown cere. The brown ceres tend to be flaky and thick.

Some experts also agree that there are some behavior differences between budgie sexes. While this isn’t scientific evidence that they’re either a male or a female it can help in the parakeet gender identification process. Behavior differences include:

Male Parakeets:

     -Head bobbing
     -More Singing
     -More Active and Social

Female Parakeets:
 
     -Bossy
     -Louder
     -Don’t generally sing

Of course every pet store employee will have their opinion and they’re generally inaccurate. Some people will advise to simply look at the band on the leg for identification.

This band is a breeder band and may not represent accurate information on budgie gender. Generally they’re placed on the budgie’s leg a couple days after they’re hatched to identify where the bird came from, not whether they’re a boy or a girl.

When it comes to accurately sexing a budgie the best bet is to take them to an avian veterinarian for surgical sexing. While behavior and cere coloration are indications of sex, for breeding purposes and pairing, the most reliable method is to actually check their chromosomes. There’s no risk of improper paring when you rely on science!

The bottom line when identifying parakeet sex is that both male and female budgies make excellent pets. With proper care, feeding, and  parakeet training it doesn’t matter if you have a male or a female – they’re both fantastic and fun birds and excellent birds for first time bird owners or long time avian enthusiasts.