FINCHforum

I am still trying to get a little more final idea of whether my European Goldfinches are Male or Female. I am pretty certain I have 2 of 1 and 1 of the other (thus 3 birds total). As such I want to get a companion for the 3rd one (as two of the others seem to be somewhat bonded, leaving the third on his or her own at times).

The problem I have is due to one of the 3 missing most of his.her head feathers (they are showing sign of starting to come back though). The one missing the feathers is apparenlt one of the 2 that seem to be bonded or bonding. Thus I have 2 goldfinches that appear to be marked identical, but I cannot compare their markings to the third to determin sex because of the missing head feathers.

So far, I have noticed that 2 of the 3 will sing. But, as I have read European Goldfinches tend to sing regardless which sex they are, just that one sings a longer song than the other. The two that sing tend to sing the same thing, which is a fairly short song. The third I have never heard sing, so again nothing to compare to. One of the two that does sing will swing his body back and forth at times while doing so. As such I am thinking that that one is male, and since the other one that sings, happens to sing the same song, I am thinking that he too is male, however I have never seen him swing his body back and forth (this is the 3rd one, that appears to have no companion).

I am thinking that I do not see or hear much response out of the one with the missing feathers because the two that appear to be bonded or bonding were bought together, so they may have already gone throgh some of that ritual before I purchased them.

Anyways, my questions regarding this are somewhat simple, although I do not know if the answers may be simple.

1. With European Goldfinches, will the females sing on their own, or do they only tend to do so in response to a male singing first? If so this may help me determine which is which. If not, I am back at square one.

2. Does anyone know of a link that offers sound bites of both a male and female song for me to compare to?

As luck would have it, one of my local PetSmart stores actually told me who they get their Europeans from, which is someone local to me (but I havent managed to catch them on the phone yet). So, I should be able to get my 3rd European a companion if I can determine which sex he/she is.

Many thanks to anyone who may be able to offer some more information or even just a link or two that may help.

All I could find on the web were male songs...i wish more people would record birdsongs and post them on the web.

I intend to record the songs when I get the time, for the few that I have and make them available. However, I need to first determine which is which

I will also be hooking up the surveillance cameras in the aviary soon I hope and be able to make them viewable to others who wish to watch them.

Thanks for looking for the info though

One way to determine gender is to look at the wings. Stretch out the birds wings and look at the shoulder/arm. In a male it will be solid black right up to the body, in a female the brown body colour will bleed into the black wings and they will be noticebly browner to at least half way down the wing.

Thanks a bunch for that info. I will probably check that out this weekend. Although being in an aviary they are a little tough to catch. I just went through that eposide 2 days ago to do some nail trimming, so I think I will give them a day or two before I put them through that again. Seems easiest with a net and turning the lights down, but they still dont like it. They are still pretty new to the aviary so I'd rather not repeat it too often right now as I dont want them to start expecting that when they see me

I will certain check that out though. Will be helpful when I finally get in touh with the local breeder to find my 3rd Euro a companion.

Best bird-catching trick I learned from my former boss. If you can get them airborne and turn the light out before they land, they'll go straight to the ground.

interesting method, I may give it a shot.

i have searched all over the place and i can only still find the male song ,why if the female sings do they not put that up also


ken