Echo's Gender

[SKOShields]

I know there's no definite way to determine the gender of a Senegal besides a DNA test, but ever since I got Echo I've been calling him a boy. Well I went to my local bird store today for some new toys and the owner was holding him and playing with him and looked at his pelvic bone and said that there is a very big possibility that he might be a girl! He said the spacing of his pelvis was wide, which is commonly seen on the females due to the whole egg laying thing.
I mean, its not that big of a deal whether he's a boy or a girl its just kinda mind blowing ya know?
Just thought I'd throw that out there. I'll keep u updated.
Does anyone else have stories like this??

[liz]

I know there's no definite way to determine the gender of a Senegal besides a DNA test, but ever since I got Echo I've been calling him a boy. Well I went to my local bird store today for some new toys and the owner was holding him and playing with him and looked at his pelvic bone and said that there is a very big possibility that he might be a girl! He said the spacing of his pelvis was wide, which is commonly seen on the females due to the whole egg laying thing.
I mean, its not that big of a deal whether he's a boy or a girl its just kinda mind blowing ya know?
Just thought I'd throw that out there. I'll keep u updated.
Does anyone else have stories like this??

Echo can go for both male and female. Good name.

My daughter had 2 quaker parrots that she thought was male and female. The guy she was living with (and I do not approve) killed her female before she could move out. She had them for about 10 years. She moved in with me. A year later I found her little male dead on the bottom of the cage and there was an egg in there with him (her).

[SKOShields]

Aww Liz that's horrible.

[purplepit]

I took my then 4 year old love bird to the vet for a check up. I thought that it was male because there had never been any eggs. The vet examined the bird and said "she's female" when I asked how he could tell he told me exactly what the man told you. I didn't believe him until about 6 months later when I came home to a shiny little lovebird egg

Now I'm missing my evil little Barkley bird

[Natacha]

For the longest time I had gone on the assumption that Piper, Petey and Zuri were females.

Piper - I'm not sure, as a baby I just referred to him as her.

Petey - his nesty behaviors let me to believe a female.

Zuri - I got him when he was rather young and initially he "looked" more feminine. Then as months progressed and he molted, I was switching to believe he was a "he".

Did a DNA test on all of them at once - all came back as males.
Given how Piper was nice and that many horror stories went about female Lovies being terrible, it wasn't a big surprise.
Given how I had started to think of Zuri as a boy, it wasn't a bit surprise.

Petey however...I was a bit more surprised, so was the vet and anyone who had seen him exhibit his nesty behaviours

[SKOShields]

Purplepit- so I guess those pelvic exams are relatively reliable huh? It just totally throws me off that I have to say pretty girl now. Lol.

Natacha- see I don't know enough about Senegal- or even bird on general - behavior to recognize male vs female traits. I just know (s)he's really friendly for what i've read about sennies, but if (s)he doesn't want to step up (s)he'll let u know with hissing and striking but not actually biting but will still step up but let's me know (s)he's not happy about it.
It's gunna take me a while to get used to him being a her.

[Naurthon]

There's a page (http://www.wingscc.com/aps/apsmail/senegal_sexing.aspx)that suggests that if your adult Senegal has any green feathers directly under the tail (the "under tail coverts") that it is likely female. Male poicephalus parrots TEND to have larger, broader heads than the females. Visually determining the sex of most parrots is pretty difficult. I'm confident with eclectus parrots, but that's it! I refer to all my birds as "boys", but since I'm not breeding them it really doesn't matter to me and I've never bothered to have them DNA tested.

[SKOShields]

Naurthon- thanks for that link, but now I'm more confused than ever. Lol. He/she/it (haha) has a purely yellow underside, which says boy. But has a wide pelvis or whatever which says girl.
It's not a super big deal, I'm perfectly happy with him/her being either but since I'm not sure its going to drive me crazy. Lol.

[liz]

I have never had mine tested. The tiels were easy. The female tweeter and the males sing.
Rambo likes women and Myrtle likes men.

Rambo was doing the nesting thing last spring and acting sissy with his butt in the air. We were laughing and calling him Rainbow. He got mad at us because we did not say his name right.

[SKOShields]

Well I got a second opinion on the pelvic spacing thing, and this time they said its narrow, so Echo is more than likely a boy. That info combined with what his tail coverts look like and what the previous owner said makes me believe he his a boy.
So he's gunna be a pretty boy and a good boy until he ends up laying an egg.