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| Nest box being attached in February to begin new season of breeding, egg laying and raising of young Bourkes. |
On Thu, Apr 16, 2015 at 1:35 AM, David wrote:
Hi Rosie,
I’m trying to sex 2 bourkes. One is the wild type the other being a Rosie.
Hope you may be able to help.
Regards,
David
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| Baby Bourke at 9 days old, ready for banding with Budgie sized bands. His feet are at maximum length. Any bigger and he couldn't have been banded. |
ANSWER:
On Thu, Apr 16, 2015 at 10:53 AM, Rosie Bird
Hello David,
Wild types are easy once they are mature. Males have a tiny
line of blue feathers over the cere (nostrils). Females don't have that. Males
are also slightly brighter in pink and blue areas, with brighter turquoise in
shoulders. However, this feature varies between birds. So, the blue line above
their cere is the main determining factor.  |
| Normal Bourke Parakeet. This is a male. His colors are slightly brighter than the hen's. Male Bourkes of the wild variety also have a tiny line of blue feathers above the cere (nostrils). Difficult to see in this photo. |
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| Normal Bourke hen and chicks. |
As for Rosies, only their behavior will give them away,
short of having them DNA'd. Once mature, males will often display in ways that
hens do not. They also seem to sing more and occasionally wolf whistle.
When I'm going to sell young Rosies and am unsure of their
sex, I've sometimes sent a tiny blood sample in for DNAing. It requires
clipping a toenail slightly short, dabbing a smear of blood on a card, and then
dipping the "injured" toe into corn starch to staunch any further
bleeding. I resisted doing that for years, but once done, I realized how easy
it was and didn't seem to hurt the little birds. I use Health Gene in Canada.
It's only $12 and they send a lovely certificate that follows up after an email
giving the sex of the bird.
http://www.healthgene.com/avian-dna-testing/
Below is a copy from The Splendid Bourke Bird Blog on
BlogSpot. If you go there and enter "Sexing" into the Search Box, you
will get lots of posts on this topic.
http://thesplendidbourkebirdblog.blogspot.com/
"Male Bourkes throw their shoulders back and flair
their wings slightly at the shoulder, standing tall. I call this strutting. You
won't see a hen do this and males do it at a very young age.
Hens take longer to behave like hens. If there is a male
bird present they squat down and raise their tail, cheeping, (preferably for
another Bourke, but I've seen them display for other parakeet varieties when no
male Bourke is around). On rare occasions I've seen a male do this in front of
a hen who doesn't want to mate...I think he's showing her how. :-) Birds have
preferences for their mates too."
Peace and Blessings,
Gail  |
| An Oregon Coast Sunset taken above Larson Slough, about five miles from our home. |