Society Finches, Male or Female?

[wildbird]

Checked out the birds at Petsmart quite awhile ago and saw they had some pretty Societies for sale. Since I don't want to raise them, I only wanted a couple of males. Only one was singing his little heart out and came over to me as close as he could in the glassed in cage. Looked like he was saying "take me, I sing nice!" He is the closest I have seen to a chocolate self around here. All I needed was one more to sing, but they didn't. Went back a few days later and both the chocolate and pretty chocolate and white pied came over and started singing. Now I couldn't think of a reason not to buy them, so I did. After signing papers with all the warnings of diseases you can get from pets, I'm surprised they sell anything there. Now I'm sure the chocolate one is a male, but not sure of the pied. That one doesn't sing as much, so I am wondering, does a female sometimes sing? The other one sings a lot. Does this mean I should start looking for those fake eggs I bought quite awhile ago! Also, I noticed on the fawn pied they had there, that their beaks were black when I first saw them, and turned a much lighter color. Would this happen as they mature? The ones I got had dark beaks always. I'm not sure how old they are. Thank you for any replies.

[Sheather]

Females don't sing at all, some males are not as vocal.
If it did the puffed up song and dance routine at all it's a male

[Fraza]

Yep males song so the one singing less is a male but maybe not as happy or maybe not as mature as of the black beaks that is when the birds are juvenile and young once they get three months old they mature fully and get there full colluration

[wildbird]

Thank you, Sheather and Fraza. The pied one is singing more and has a really nice song. They get along great and sleep in the nest together. I still need a Java though, for the one that I have.

[Fraza]

wildbird really that’s good news society’s are great they are so sociable and hope u find a java for ur lonely one

[Sojourner]

Females - juvenile females at least - DO sing, but it is not the full song. They do not posture at all though, that I have ever seen.

I had a pair I rescued from a pet store about 3 years ago and I was SURE the white one was a male because she sang. But she grew out of it and after the other little hen died I got her a friend who was supposed to be a female but turned out to be a male. He does the complete song and dance. My white hen stopped singing at all once I got him. I guess she was a tomboy, LOL! She did start laying eggs though so - definitely female. Trust me, males NEVER lay eggs, LOL!

But it had been decades since I have had finches so I'd forgotten what the full song and dance was like so at first I thought she was a he because - singing.

[Sheather]

I've had more than sixty societies. Only the males sing. A singing female might exist, somewhere, but it's extraordinarily rare.

[Fraza]

Sojourner this is so weird I’ve never seen this either she could have been doing a long chirp that sounded like a song

[Sojourner]

It was not chirping but it wasnt the full song either. It was easy to tell the difference with another male in the cage but with 2 females, only one of which was singing, it sounded exactly like a male, only incomplete and with no posturing whatsoever. She would do a sort of call and response if I played a male singing in a youtube video. Much harder to see the difference with just a recording with background noise and distractions throwing a monkey wrench into the works. Also the male in the video was not clearly showing the posturing - probably due to the distraction of his owner hanging around the cage filming him.

It is not uncommon in juvenile females but is probably easily overlooked if there is a male in the cage - in side by side comparison the difference is obvious, not so much when all you have to go by is a youtube video, LOL!

It isn't exactly common either but "rare" would be a bit strong.

Because it can and does happen (they usually outgrow it or stop in the presence of an adult male) I now look for posturing when trying to pick out a male. That behaviour in females really IS rare. But it does occassionally happen. The chance of running into a singing female isn't great but the chance of running into a POSTURING female is vanishingly small.

BTW my male alone in his cage now rarely postures and also sings a shortened version of his song. Poor lonely guy needs a friend! But the only societies in the store came in in terrible shape, every single one badly plucked. I'm pretty sure ateast 2 or 3 of them died in the week or so after they came in.

[Fraza]

Sojourner yeh well I’ve actually had a lot of society’s in my short time atkeast over 40 even tho I get a few and don’t keep them and sell them on

But like now I have 5 society’s on a set of eggs and imagine if all those society’s where males and they was sitting on a female chick she would grow up only hearing singing and copy

Or like a few times I’ve had 3 boy chicks and one female and she would have only heard Male songs more than the Mum so would copy I see where ur coming from it maybe isn’t rare but I’ve nver seen it

[wildbird]

I guess We'll have to wait and see!