FINCHforum

Hello all, can someone tell me how to sex owl finch, please
I have a pair of owl but sometimes I am wondering if they are
really a pair
Thank you
Hélène

I do not own any owls, but according to the Finch Information Center, the females breast band could be not quite as large, and only the cock will sing. Maybe someone else will have more ideas.

I have owls and know many who do. It is very difficult to tell the sex. If you have a male, it will sing. Mine always call to each other, but the song is quite different from the call. They say the breast is whiter on the cock and the black bands are darker and wider. But..... the best way is to DNA sex them.

Thank you for the answer, I haven`t heard them sing but they sure looks like male to me
May be they are too young for singing, these are babies, they are 3 and 4 months old, they are not from the same clutch
It is so hard to tell male from female lol
Thank you
Have a great day
Hélène

I have Owls, and I have a difficult time telling the sexes apart. To me, sometimes the bands look exactly the same, and some of my males have a sooty-looking breast color (of course, I am not known for my powers of observation!). I once had four males, so I thought. I had them DNA-sexed, and two of them turned out to be females. For some reason, my males don't sing very much, so I will rely on DNA sexing in the future. I recently sold some hens without DNA sexing, but they had laid eggs, so no guesswork there!

I didn`t know it was so hard to sex them lol
So, if we don`t do a DNA testing it is very hard to tell, male from female
Around here I am not sure I can find someone who will do the DNA testing
Thank you very much
Hélène

Where are you located? If you update your profile with your location, it makes it easier to offer advice that would work for you.

Helene, I just noticed that you are from Quebec like me. I actually discovered a pet store in St-Jerome that can have DNA testing done for $26, maybe try in your area. Apparently some pet stores do have connections if you ask them.

Hello, I live near Sherbrooke, a little bit far from St-Jerome
As they grow I will see if I have male and female, I did read
somewhere on the web that it could take a while before the male
sing, so I am not in a hurry, I have 3 owl finch and will get another
one in 2 week and in about 2 months I will have another pair, 1 bronw and 1 split brown, so it is a lot of bird to get DNA testing
Thank you fot the info

When I got my Owls from a local breeder she told me she separates the Owls into separate cages and watches for the males to sing for a female.

She also mentioned that the the Owls have to be about two years old before the chest color becomes darker in the male. But who wants to wait that long to sex them...lol.

Hello FeatherHarp, waiting 2 years lol that`s really a long time
That`s what I taught about separating them, I will try it, I will be more
sure if I have male or female
I read on the web that the brown color are much easier to sex, will see lol
Thank you

When I got my pair of owls I seperated them and all they did was the "meep" sound. I even played the songs from singing wings website and they just did their little "meep".

Than I got an owl at the bird fair hopeing for a male. His bars are just barely wider than my females. I still wasn't sure, but I put him in a seperate cage and sure enough he sang. You can really tell the difference that way

Thank you Hope, I will seperate them