Any way to visually ID non wild type Bourkes? Due to an accident that was entirely my fault I lost one of my son's Bourkes. I bought a pair to replace the one that was lost as any good parent would. What I bought was a pair of pink Bourkes. Both obviously some sort of ino as they are both red/pink eyed. One looks to be some sort of dilute and the other a very vibrant dark pink.

Was a bit distracted at the time and didn't ask which was which. I emailed the place I bought the birds from and was told that the male will be the one with the "good amount of blue on the forehead". Of course neither bird has any blue anywhere on the face and pretty much no blue in them at all.

Dilute of some sort?


Pink Bourke


No blue foreheads that I can see so any help at all would be appreciated.

Although the pictures are awful apparently the top image is the male. I still don't see the blue forehead though.

Blue forehead is only in wild type Bourkes. For example rosa mutation males are more pink (pink color is more intensive) and has less grey head. Here is my rosa male:

And they both aren't ino - this mutation never has any grey/black colors (exception pastelino/palino (I don't remember how it was named))

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Sorry for my English (I learn here )
Our current fids:
GCC: Zenek (M); vids: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...RA9Tqq3oRJa6mf
Bourkes: Jaś (M), Fela (F), Rozalka (F); vids: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...PMioyZWTArwLnj
Budgies: Romek (M); Angela (F)

Rest in peace:
Budgies: Limonka (F; ~January 2015), Szafirek (M; ~December 2013)

It looks like the first bird could be a fallow/ bronze fallow, I can't tell for sure without seeing the wings. I might be able to have someone visually sex them if you could get better pictures of the pair of them. If I'm remembering right, fallow bourkes have different coloring in their wings or back depending on whether they are male or female but I could be wrong.

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According to an Australian site (ASNSW Interview) the first image is a Pastel Yellow and most likely a hen as it has the yellow back mentioned. The second I guess could be the male as it looks very similar to the image posted by Rozalka.

However behaviour suggests the opposite. The fallow/pastel is smaller and shows similar behaviour to the male I have, just no displaying as yet. The rosa is larger and behaves closer to what the lost hen did.

The were sold as Pink Bourkes rather than Rosa which I would assume is some sort of dilute/fallow opaline. I would say that neither quite fit into that category. Time will tell for certain I guess. Could be any combination of male and female. I could get them dna'd but that takes all the fun away.

UPDATE: The bird from the first picture showed some interesting behaviour. Body out horizontally, wings flared at the shoulders making a "static" screech. What does this suggest to you all?

Well both of my "pair" of "Pink" Bourkes are not what they were supposed to be it seems. One is a Pastel Yellow/Fallow and the other is a Rosey. Neither is the "pink" that I was told that they were before going to collect them.

Both birds make the "static" sounding screech that I associate with hens who are receptive. Thankfully I have a male bird still as both seem to be hens. Sadly I will most likely lose the Rosey or the Fallow as he is a normal male with no known splits.

I know nothing about breeding and genetics. I should stop thumbs-upping these posts, too.

The only thing I know , has been said: the blue notches above the nares don't show on the rosies. Although...my male rosie has a very subtle darker grey (slate?) colored feathers in that area.

Is it really true that the males have less grey in their head? Because my male has more grey and his body is more sleek looking than my female, who has a bigger eye and a rounder body.

If you had two females, would one of them assume male behavior and do that screech? I would think they'd have to learn that somewhere first like from another male...?

Birds! It seems like you never stop learning about them.