Some male and female birds of the same species have very different plumage, with the male usually being more brightly coloured to attract females. Other species show little or no difference between the sexes. As well as having different plumage, birds may make displays to each other during the breeding season. Some dance in elaborate curving patterns, spread their feathers and strut, or sing. Male birds may fight to defend their territories during nesting.
Once a budgie is a few weeks old, you will be able to tell the sex of the bird by looking at its cere (the nose and nostril area). In normal circumstances, a hen’s is brown, and a cock’s is blue. The hen’s cere becomes enlarged and scaly during the breeding season, and the male’s becomes a darker shade of blue. Simple!
But there are a few complications. Hens sometimes have a light blue cere, when their breeding hormone levels are low. It will also be this colour, or white with just a hint of blue, if the bird is ill. In the wild the female’s cere is light blue, turning brown during the nesting season. In young hens, the cere is a light blue with white around the nostrils.
Cock birds, although nearly always sporting a blue cere, may have a brown or brownish-pink one if his breeding hormones dip, or if he is ill. An ill male may develop a yellow-greenish tinge around the nostrils too. In immature cock budgies the cere is a blueish pink or light purple.
Some budgie types are harder to sex. Albino, Lutino and Mottled birds, for example, have off-white, light pink or bluish pink ceres, and males of some of the pied varieties have light pink, blueish pink or white ones. With hundreds of variations on the basic types mentioned in the Budgie types section , there is always a chance that your bird will have an ‘ambiguous’ cere colour. In 90% of cases, however, the brown-or-blue rule applies.
In spite of these complications, cere colour is still the easiest way of sexing budgies. There are a few gender-related differences in voice and behaviour, too; but these are not as consistently ‘male’ and ‘female’ as cere colour. If you inherit an adult bird of unknown sex and with an ambiguous cere, watch out for bonding behaviour – any excessive head-bobbing is likely to be a male and any excessive squawking, rather than chirruping and singing, is probably female.
Picture Credit : Google