New budgie, male?

[songlake]

I went looking for a grey or blue male today, hoping Gris would tolerate it better than she does the young green pair I have with her. I found a good male friend for her, dark grey color, no visual mutations and he's older with the ring around his iris so hopefully...! But I also found this budgie and I totally fell in love with it's color



I think it's a young male, what do you think?

I couldn't get any pictures of the mature grey, he was glued to the cage bars and wouldn't show me his pretty colors.

 

[Julianna]

You can't tell what gender budgies are for sure just by looking at the cere; I've heard cases of females with bright blue ceres and males with brown ones. You can make a good guess, but I wouldn't count on it. As for the one in the picture, it's kind of hard to see, but doesn't it still have the immature purple cere?

 

[songlake]

He's still young, his eyes have no ring yet. I'm fairly sure it's a young male not in breeding condition. I had a good look at him today in the sun and no white rings around the nostrils like females have. Plus I caught him chattering/bobbing/talking like Kermit does and I haven't seen the females talk that way. Some colors will not develop the dark blue cere if I understand that right, on males. Maybe he's one of those idk He's a beauty though and I could stare at him for hours.

Sort of good I guess, it gives Gris a choice of males if she will quit beating everyone up and just DO IT.

 

[Julianna]

Males definitely tend to talk more than females so that's a good indication. He's a beautiful budgie no matter what, though!

 

[veimar]

Looks like a male to me - his cere will turn blue soon.

 

[MikeyTN]

I believe it is a female! Males do not get brown cere, the female's cere turns crusty brown when they're ready to mate so it's impossible for males to have brown cere! Females can certainly have light blue cere! They're rather pale light blue. So yes Budgies are able to be sexed by looking at the cere and nostril shape as well!!!

 

[songlake]

MikeyTN there was another budgie very similar color as the one I chose (named him powder). The cere on it was what I think of as a immature female which is purplish but with white rings around the nostrils. I've never heard of anything about the nostril shape, can you tell me more about that?

It really doesn't bother me much if this is a male or female since I chose his name to be Powder and I guess that's general enough to be either male or female

I've named the grey male Sterling.


Gris and Sterling, I caught them as they were drifting off to sleep for the night.
Neat thing I noticed about Gris earlier today, she has a blue ring around her iris rather than the normal white or yellowish. And she's STILL the only budgie I've got or seen who uses her foot much like a parrot does, even though she's a tiny budgie compared to the pure English ones. (I think she's half English and half American)

 

[MikeyTN]

I lost the Budgerigar book I've had from years ago, somehow it got misplaced or got sent off to goodwill by my partner, not too happy about my books being gone. They were old text books I got years ago when I was breeding. It shows the nostril shape as one sex is more oval shaped while the other is more round. They had pictures side by side viewing the differences in nostril shapes. I had done the same thing and it is rather correct and that was the way I used to sex them years ago when I pair them up. IF I remember right, the males are more oval shaped. It's been a LONG time ago since I've bred Budgies so I kinda forgot which one is which.

 

[veimar]

Wow, Mike, that's really interesting!
I thought it was a male because I got two similar budgies about 6 weeks ago and they both had exactly same pick ceres (no white around the nostrils) which are now deep blue. They both turned out to be males (I'm very happy about that!).

 

[songlake]

It is interesting! I'll be out checking the budgies nostrils tomorrow lol

 

[MikeyTN]

I'm going by the forehead on that Budgie as it's fully white so it's rather mature. But I'm having a hard time viewing the picture in clarity to really know. If the picture can be taken from the front side to show it would make it easier.

 

[MikeyTN]

When I come back home Thursday I need to go over to my neighbor's to do beak trimming on their Cockatiel who needs a regular beak trim due to damages she had while she was young. I've been going over to trim it every few weeks ever since they've adopted her. I've given them a male Budgie someone given me and they adopted a female Budgie, so I'll take them out and compare them side by side to refresh myself....lol.....Cause I've got two males but they're hard to catch in the aviary.....

 

[songlake]

I had a good look at Gris and Sterling since both were inside and on the gym yesterday. I could not see a difference at all between the nostril shape on them. Maybe cause Gris is a mutt *gasp*. I didn't want to disturb Razzle who was happily throwing all the wood shavings out of the nest box yesterday. She's my other female.

I do agree though, Powder is older than a baby I still insist it's a he, he has sheathed feathers all over his head and his ring around the iris is still not light colored but it is slightly lighter than a baby's black eyes. He's also camera shy. Every time I point the camera at him he turns his face away. It would be nice if he was a she though. Gris seems not interested in either male or any budgie to be exact. My luck I'll end up with a cage of males and Gris turning her beak up at them all. She seems to hate everyone equally.