FINCHforum

Just purchased two owl finches. The breeders told me the one with the yellow band (on left leg) is supposed to be a hen and the one with purple band on right leg is supposed to be a male. Do any of the owl finch experts want to register their opinions whether these sex assignments are correct?




thanks
Lori

They are cute.
Which one is singing

I would be tempted to agree that purple is male and yellow is a hen but yeah - singing would clinch it.

No singing yet but I will keep listening.
Is that what you generally use to sex the owls?
Lori

The top band is wider on the purple banded bird. That is common in males.

can you get a face shot of the yellow banded one...

Give them some coco fiber or timothy hay and see if one picks up a blade and sings and hops the romance dance to the other.

The black on the males' heads is generally larger as is the breast band and the eye-brow line. Some say the males breasts are a whiter shade of white as well.

Check this link on my website that my daughter created -
http://www.gardenessgardens.com/OwlSexing.html

Some Owls are so close in features that it's almost impossible to tell the gender difference. Then DNA testing is a very reliable method of sexing.

I used Liz's daughter's website, printed the pictures out and took them with me to the show....she is spot on in her description.

The website Liz linked has proven successful for me in choosing my pair. Your owls look like a pair to me! Though I am still fairly new in the finch world.

The band/rings on the breast and neck weren't the greatest way to determine gender for me. However, the eyebrow line on the top of the head works really well and is much more obvious in my opinion.

Good luck! They look really great.

Thanks for the input. I had seen that website but, as this is my first pair of owls, don't really trust my judgement on the size of breast bar and eye-brow. I will listen for singing but I guess I will have to either separate them or put them alone together to know for sure.
thanks
Lori

Usually, if you will separate them for a bit, the male will start to sing very soon. Once in a while, I have had a male that would rarely sing, but most of them are fairly vocal. I'm not the greatest in sexing my Owls, so I have to spend a lot of time getting the males to sing.

males sing more if you get both birds separated on a different cage. hens will just fly around withour singing...males have wider chest band than with females. and larger heads too than with female.

Here is another picture of the "hen"



She looks like a what a hen should look like according to that website.
thanks,
Lori

the head where the widows peak is is narrow....more triangle shaped, looks like a little girl to me!