Sexing Societies

Shadowfax · Post by **Shadowfax** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 11:44 pm

I have a pearl colored crested society. I got it quite by accident thinking it was a mutated and very odd coloerd Zebra. Heh the store owner knew less than I did and went along with me since it was in a cage full of zebras.

Anyway this bird has now been identified for species but I need to determine sex so I can get it a mate. Can anyone give me any clear indicators for male and femal in the species that I can go by?

This bird makes a sound much like a loud cricket. It does not speak a lot and does not strike me as the typ of song intended to attract a mate but I have no idea what a male society sounds like. Anyone have a sound byte I can hear or at least a description?

EmilyHurd · Post by **EmilyHurd** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 3:26 am

When society males sing, it is usually very quite clear. The only way to guarantee sex in societies is if you see singing or eggs. Otherwise, it can by almost impossible.

rottielover · Post by **rottielover** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 10:18 am

Hey a question I have some experiance with

When I was purchasing 2 soceity finches (wanted a pair) we sat in the bird room at the store for about an hour, watching for the males to sing. When the males do sing it is quite distinct.

The male will puff out his chest, fan his tain out and tilt it up a bit and then sing with large beak movements. (They seem only interested in singing to the girls)

Dispite sitting and watching them for an hour, we accidently ended up with 2 males, how did I know? In the morning I got up and uncovered the cage we broght them home in, one bird sang to the other, and then right away the 2nd bird sang back to the first!

So back to the store I went...

I told the owner what had happened (we wanted a pair and they gave us two males, at this store you can point to a bird you want, but the employee's do the catching and it's sometimes hard to tell if you actually got the bird you pointed too or not).

This time they placed a single female into the cage, and both boy's went nutts! They both sang right away, and then within 5 sec one of the boy's jumped on the females back... BINGO! That's the pair that went home with us

So long story, but I think it shows a little personal experance with sexing of society's.

Hope that Helps!

Shadowfax · Post by **Shadowfax** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 6:05 pm

Hmm I am thinking it is a male. I hear singing in the other room that is not my zebra. And sice I will be getting my birds somewhere where staff is prety bird dumb unless I am really lucky I will have to take what I get and hope for the best. Heck since I am not breeding them it really should not matter so much.

Thanks for the experience though. Maybe I'll take my little bird along to use as a test.

jocky · Post by **jocky** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 7:58 pm

hey shadowfax, I think i have the answer to your problem. My uncle has never failed at sexing his bangaleses with this tactic. although i've never really tried.
when you go to the store keep your eye on one bird, next, mimic thier chirping with a whistle. this should really get them singing. listen to the bird that you have your sight on. a male should have a nice high pitch chirp. while a female will have a lower pitch chirp, sounding something like a chickadee when it cries dee-dee-dee

Shadowfax · Post by **Shadowfax** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 9:12 pm

cool Thanks I'll try that. Right now he is prety cozy with my female zebra and everyone seems content in there. the two male zebras actually seem to be buddies. I see then snuggling together at night. So noi rush to add to the flack now mening I can have some time to think over what I really want to do.