Hello everyone- Roy

[Pajarita]

He can't touch the bird, Liz, so there is no way he can move him or put him on a table perch.

[RoyH]

hello Guys, it is been a while since i last posted here about Paul... but first i would like to wish u all a happy Easter.
Paul was doing fine the past month, healthy, and i was trying my best to built the bond; He is still showing stubbornness and hesitation, but i m not giving up yet:)
A new challenge breaking up these days, after watching him for a total 7 month to be certain about his gender... Paul is showing a surprising sexual behavior, very confusing, varying from male "heart wings" posture (specially when he hears a car alarm, or an ambulance siren call), to female mating call and posture ( head down, with tail up, and making whispering-like noise)...
other observations:
- Paul doesn't whistle much, only makes 2 notes... the first is a repeated low squick-squick... the other note is a high pitched scream, as if he s calling for his flock.(we got lots of pet birds in our neighborhood: canaries, budgies, and also suspecting the presence of 1 tiel in the neighbor...)
- as a pied tiel, i v read it s kind of difficult to identify the gender by visual indices... but still Paul has 2 long dark feathers on his tail, the issue is that he doesn't like to be touched, therefore i can't check for any yellow bars or spots on these two feathers from down-side.

i just need an assist or any help with this issue...
Any suggestions?
(As i said before, we lack avian vets here in Lebanon, so running a DNA analysis is not doable.)
here r some pics for paul:)

[Wolf]

Hi Roy;

It has indeed been a long time since we last heard from you, so allow me to be the first to say welcome back.
How old is Paul now? Has he gone through his first molt yet? I am not familiar enough with this color mutation to know whether Paul had any grey on his face and/or crest when he was younger, but if Paul did have grey in these areas, and retains the grey that would be a female indicator as would yellow spots on the underside of his primary flight feathers on his wings. I would also compare earlier photos of him with him now to see if the cheek patches have gotten brighter or more distinct. Other than the yellow spots and bars on the ventral side of his tail feathers I am not aware of any other visual way of determining his sex.
Although vets are out due to your location, have you looked into possible DNA test kits that you can mail directly to the lab?

[RoyH]

hey wolf, thanks for your cheering greetings...
i v been waiting for the right moment, to be able at least to post about some progress:D and here i am, paul on my shoulder hehe...this pic was taken like few days ago, it was the first time that paul let me get in contact with him... i hand-fed him that day while he was sitting on my laps, he kept biting my fingers... and he climbed his way up to my shoulder... i was glad:p but the next day, same old stubborn paul.
i m not certain about paul's age... i bought him from an inexperienced pet store, without mentioning his age... But when i bought him, he was already molting... he lost lots of his feathers the first week, but the plumage pattern didn't change much after the molt. i bet he s around 1 year old aged by now.

[Wolf]

From what I understand they lose these markings when they molt between the age of 6 to 9 months. So they either changed at the time you got him or they should during the molt that will happen shortly.
The dowel perches need to be modified or changed for his feet.

[Pajarita]

Hi, Roy and Paul (Paula?). Pied, especially high pied like Paul, is the hardest mutation to sex because out of all the 'normal' guidelines for sexing (crest, face color, orange patch, chest width, stance, bars, pearls, tail and wings), only two work: spots in the underside of secondary (mind you, not the primaries or longest ones) remiges (wing) and bars in the underside of the rectrices (tail) feathers, but you have to wait until the bird goes through the first full molt (after 12 monts of age) for the first one and you might have to wait years for the second one.

So you will have to wait a bit longer for verification but, for what it's worth and going by what I can see on the pictures, it looks like a male to me.

[liz]

The only way I can tell is if it sings or tweeters.

[RoyH]

The only way I can tell is if it sings or tweeters.

hey Liz, hey pajarita,

this is a video of Paul (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPgq8ShQLd4)... he does that frequently...
Liz, he keeps on making this sound, and sometimes he screams... nothing els.
can we interpret this posture as a "heart wings", or no?
and i forgot to mention one more observation: Paul used to sit on a residual empty food dish, i used to keep it hanged to the cage...until the day i removed it. Nowadays, sometimes i spot him sitting in the corner on the bottom of the cage... is that any suspicious?
thanks guys for ur contribution and help...

[liz]

Lola dances when I talk to her. She also starts calling me at 6:30 am every morning.
He is running back and forth and calling to get your attention.

[Wolf]

No, Roy, I do not see anything like the heart wings, what I do see is that Paul is running back and forth calling to /for you and begging to come out of his cage. Once these birds trust you and bond with you, their biggest thing is to remain right with you, just as they would do with a mate of their own species.