How can I tell if my parret/cockatiel is a male or female?
Most ‘tiels can be visually sexed by 9 months of age, after their first molt (feather shed). Some mutations can be a little more difficult. All adult females have horizontal barring (stripes) on the underside of their tail feathers, including whiteface-lutinos (white/albino). These can be seen when you are in front of your bird, with bright sunlight/light directly behind the bird. The barring is not color, but the structure of the feather itself. Each stripe is actually a transluscent (see-through) gap, without the little feather “hairs”. For example: a lutino (yellow), or whiteface-lutino (white) hen against a blue background, will appear to have thin blue stripes on the tail feathers. Banding on dark hens is more obvious against a white or light colored background. Males have a solid structure along both sides of the quill. In all mutations, except whiteface-lutino, females have a single white pea-sized dot on their primary wing feathers. Males do not. On standard greys, the males ha
