FINCHforum

PLEASE HELP!!! Please tell me there's more then one way to sex a Society! I have 2 clutches of Societies SOOOOOOO I KNOW I have both males and females BUT none of them sing and have never shown signs of doing the mating dance. Aren't there other ways to tell them apart?
Thanks...........Sandy

Sorry! Seeing a cock sing or a hen actually lay an egg are the only ways I know to accurately sex them. Some sources say you can tell by looking at the upper mandible and the top of the head (hen is slimmer), but I've never been able to do that accurately. How many societies do you have? Do you want to know so you can separate the sexes?

Hilary

northernflirt
i have been breeding these for 25 years and there is no other way...you could try seperating them one by one and the cock birds may sing if they are on there own...they may not! if you have young ,thats another question as the males will start to sing a little as they become sexually mature...but if you are saying you just have eggs then they could be all females

ken

I do what Ken does - I will seperate them into a small cage in another room where they can hear but not see the other birds. Most males will start to sing in 5-15 minutes. But this method is not fool-proof as I have had some that didn't start to sing (I will wait up to an hour) and band them as a hen only to see them singing in the flight cage at some later date.

Good luck!

Thanks for the help; although I was hoping there was a better way! lol Currently we have 10 that are just ready to leave the next and I have people interest in them. I was hoping to be able to positively tell the males from females without having to professionally have them sexed at the outragious cost those things can be. It's a shame they can't be easier to figure out like the owls or stars! How old do they have to be before the males start to sing. To me the greater majority of what I hear from them sounds like the chirping of a frog!!

hi northernflirt

at the bottom of this page is a video of a male society singing..at least it will give you some idea what they should look like

ken

Kenny...

I found no link of singing Societies...can you let me know what page to find it on..........thanks!

I didn't find it at first either. If you click on the "Visit the Photo Gallery" link, you should find the picture in there....just search for 'society singing' and you should find it. (That's what I did.)

hi all
sorry i forgot to paste the link it is here

http://www.singing-wings-aviary.com/societyfinches.htm

ken

Yeah, that always helps Ken.

You had me searching all over for a link that wasn't there!

sorry!

i all...

Althought both sexes seem to make a criket chrip; when trying to seperate the babies it seemed when we took out what we thought were the females the possibly males (and the daddy) not only 'chriped' but seemed to add a wabble sound at the end. Also even though they didn't puff out their chest...the daddy and the others thrust their tails back and forth. Does this sound like normal male behavior to anyone???

Sandy

If you absolutelyhavetoknowrightnow you can DNA sex them--but I guess that's what you mean by "outrageously priced professional method."

Otherwise I recommend banding each one with a different color split band and waiting until they mature and start to sing to sex them. They may start practicing with song at about 3 months of age, some sooner.

There aren't that many behavioral differences between males and females. Some say the contact calls differ between sexes (the female has an "r" sound in her call which the male lacks), but sexing birds by this method requires an experienced listener, and I've never personally known anyone who uses this method. Also, from what I have read, all juveniles souond about the same until around the time they start practicing song, anyway, and it sounds like you're most interested in sexing the juveniles. You could always give your buyers the option of paying for the DNA sexing if they want to be guaranteed the sex of the bird..

hi northernflirt
this is a link to how the males sing i think this has been put on here before but a second time will not hurt at least you will know what to listen for..the recording is about halfway down the page


http://www.singing-wings-aviary.com/societyfinches.htm



ken