Sexing white capped pionus

Plasticgoat2012 · Dec 16, 2018

I reach online that males vs the female white capped pionus: "The adult male has a white forehead and crown, the feature which, likened to an old man's white hair, gave rise to the specific name senilis. The throat is white, and the rest of the head, neck and breast are dull dark blue. The belly is light green, and the upperparts are dark green, with a yellow-olive shoulder patch. In flight, the blue underwings and red vent are conspicuous features.

The female White-crowned Parrot is similar to the male, but the blue plumage fades into scaling on the lower breast and the shoulder patch is duller"

Is this reliable?

Can anyone help me sex this white capped at the shop here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ssO1zXBFYatcSk80-1cx45gmTVq-u2dY/view?usp=drivesdk

ChristaNL · Dec 16, 2018

Send in a few feathers for DNA sexing, then you'll know for sure.

Plasticgoat2012 · Dec 16, 2018

Yes i know about the dna part. The pionus is at the shop and I have yet to buy it. I was wondering if the info about visually sexing white caps are accurate.

ChristaNL · Dec 16, 2018

Usually in the shops are the young ones, the sexual dimorphism is for adult plumage only.
Lots of immature birds will look like females (to get spared from territorial agression by adult males) so there is no surefire way in most species (ekkies being a famous different one, they get born showing their true colours).

Laurasea · Dec 16, 2018

It's kinda hard to see the condition the shop keeps them in... Dirty, dowel type perches, looks like only sunflower seeds.. it really breaks my heart. ..... Why do you want to know the sex? Are you going to be breeding? If you are I hope you work hard to have high standards of care, and really educate potential owners of how to properly care for their new pet, lots of fresh veggies, different size perches made of different material, toys and chewable stuff, a diet of low sunflower seeds... Anyway I'm not aware of any visual sexing of these Parrots..

Plasticgoat2012 · Dec 16, 2018

The reason am getting it is because of the poor condition it is in. Here most shops house em poorly. It still cost 1.5k each though. I thought of buying it to provide it with a better life. I now have an empty 1.25m long stainless steel cage with the 4 feet 6 tubes of bird lights setup. I think e most i can get would be two of these birds, will purchase an even larger cage if needed. I want to minimize the possibility of any agression between the 2 birds that i would acquire. I am well aware of bird care etc. My conures are housed separately in other cages. They are on roudybush pellets primarily and are doing well.

Plasticgoat2012 · Dec 16, 2018

Amazons are usually imported and they are favored over pious and usually sells out fast. Its the pious which undergoes long term poor care being stuck in the shops here. I thought of taking in the unwanted and giving em a better life. The reason i want to know their genders is to prevent any form of accidental breeding which happened to my ysc and crimson.

Plasticgoat2012 · Dec 16, 2018

In case you guys are wondering, we have no bird rescues here. Everyone buys birds as its a thieving hobby. For the price of pionus, people would rather get amazons.

Laurasea · Dec 16, 2018

You sound like my kinda person. It's so hard to see them in shops, you just want to save them all.... Of course every one we buy, just makes them stock more. The pet store I rescued my Quaker from, now had a new one in a five gallon aquarium with one perch no toys, mostly sunflower diet, sitting on a dark shelf next to rodents in an aquarium...and there it will sit on it's one perch for months and months before someone will buy it....

EllenD · Dec 17, 2018

Like Christa already said, if it's a younger bird under a year old, you can't tell their sex. You have to wait for the bird to go through their first molt, which happens around a year old...So it looks to be a female now, but they all do until they molt, so they only way to know is by DNA testing right now...

Sexing white capped pionus

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