How can i specify that my cockatiel is male or female?
If your bird is younger, you may have to wait a while unless you DNA sex them. Some colors are almost impossible to sex because all the normal rules are thrown out the window. Ignore the brightness of the cheek patches – It’s never worked for me and I’ve owned and bred cockatiels for 10 some years. Some birds also may carry genes that change the color of the cheek patches, so a young male could be a yellow cheek, or carry the white faced gene. The same goes for checking for the color of their beak. That’s a budgie (aka Parakeet) thing. The best thing to look for in a cockatiel is singing. Males have an obnoxious repetitive warble that can either be musical (in older birds) or grate on your nerves like nails on chalkboard. Males start to sing at 9 months old. Female are less obnoxious vocally and some may even act mute, LOL! Males like to make a LOT of noise. In most colors, Males have a completely yellow head and females a pale one with small, faint patches of yellow. This is out if yo
