Confused about sex of cockatiel

When we bought Lily from the pet shop, we were told she was a female. We've always thought this to be true because she behaves like a female.

She's 1 year old, just gone through her first molt and she's never spoken a word despite us repeating many phrases to her constantly. She screeches a lot and isn't very good at singing; she poorly imitates one song and does a couple of other weird songs she invented, again despite us trying to teach her many different songs from day one when she was 4 months old. The pet shop owner used to whistle and talk to her a lot too so she's been taught since being a little baby.

She also gets moody and bites/hisses sometimes if we get on her nerves by mistake (moving something she was chewing, trying to pick her up to put her in her cage, trying to stop her from landing on our heads when we've just showered, etc.). I've heard this is typical of females.

But she does have a quite a colourful face, lots of yellow feathers (see pictures) and bright orange cheeks. A lot of people on the cockatiel subreddit on Reddit have told me she is probably a he, but we're not too sure. We're going to get a vet to check her in the future but until we have time, I thought I'd post here.

OK now...that is what is called a "normal grey" cockatiel I believe that color/mutation is the most common of the tiels. My BB is also that type. BB was 4.5 months old when he picked me and is now about 1.7 years old.
It took what seemed like FOREVER for him to shed his baby clothes and get his first set of adult duds
At first,being so young, I didn't know what sex he'd be. MALES have a completely YELLOW face,except for the orange cheek patches.
Little by little,he started to loose his grey face fluff,and be replaced with yellow. His face is now completely yellow.
Male cockatiels are supposed to be the most talented. It only took maybe less than a week,for BB to learn his first thing...the "wolf whistle"...then it was parts of the Addams Family and Andy Griffith theme songs..then it was WORDS
He now says "little boy...little boy"..."BB a good boy?"..."BB a good little boy?"..."hello"..."Hello BB".. "Beebers"..and a few more. After teaching him "BB a good boy?" he picked up the others all by himself.
I just have him sit on my shoulder,while I'm on my computer,and every 10 or 15 minutes,I'd say "BB a good boy?" and he sat there intently listening
His whistling is nothing short of amazing! I have a couple you tube vids of him performing.

Your Lily looks like a MALE to me ( but what do I know? BB is my first ever cockatiel lol)
But his/her smarts suggests female SORRY LADIES!!!

If you want to be positive about sex a dna would be the way to go I guess...or someone who knows tiels REALLY good!



Jim

Your "she" is a he. Grey tiels, even if they are "mixed" do not have such bold coloring. In a few months you will see his tail will be solid dark color underneath... no longer having any yellow bars. All grey tiels look like females until they have finished their first molt.

It's rare to be able to get a normal grey tiel these days. Rascal looks like a normal grey but he's a pied grey... you can see a tiny bit of the pied in him on the back of his neck he has some white patches.

Not all male tiels are vocal... you mentioned your tiel is already singing a bit here and there (tiels rarely talk unless they are BB... Jim's tiel who is a super star!... most just sing/whistle). Be HAPPY. Male tiels are AWESOME