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I have an orange cheeked waxbill but I have no idea what sex it is. On paper I know very well "males have darker yellow stripes than females" but how am I supposed to know what a female's yellow stripe looks like? I've seen the picture of both male and female vents on Finch Info, but the flash washes the stripes out and I can't see it clearly. My orange cheek has a sun-yellow stripe on it's vent and very red-orange cheeks, like fire. I am going tomorrow to get a mate for it (insert applause here ) and it would kill me to get the wrong sex. Here's a very rough picture of what it looks like. I was only trying to demonstrate the color of it.



After you are done laughing can you guys let me know what you think it is?

I've seen that somethimes males have a bit of white near the ceck..has him?

love that picture
okay, seriously...sounds like you have a male. Hopefully you will be able to pick a female out..remembr that young males may not have their full color yet Here is a site with a comparison picture of male and female...also more bright white on the chin of the male.
http://www.finchniche.com/f-visuallysexing.mgi

Well, it depends. To me it could be a female, only because the males have a firey red bottom, while the females I believe have a pale yellowish bottom. I remember going to pets mart and seeing males with BRIGHT red orange cheeks AND firey orange bottoms. Here are some links for some research

http://www.nfss.org/articles/article/oc-wax-1.html

http://www.africanwaxbills.flyer.co.uk/emelpoda.shtml

http://www.feathered-friends.co.uk/vb/a ... t-138.html

There ya go! I actually am inheriting a 'pair' of waxbills monday, not for sure yet if they are orange cheeks, but i think they just may be!

Thanks Candace and Brant. The links were helpful but unfortunately I'm still unsure about it's sex!! It has a dull yellow vent but very red-orange cheeks, so which do I sex it with?!? argh

I've seen that somethimes males have a bit of white near the ceck..has him?

I think it does, here's low quality picture. Let me know if this helps.

That looks like a female to me, because you will be surprised at just how red there cheeks are, about 5 shades brighter than this one. So I am going say female, which would explain the lack of the very bright red bottom Oh and its not Dario but Brant! Oh and also the cheek patches in the male besides being A LOT more vivid, will also be larger.

Oh I'm sorry Brant, I put Dario because I took a quick glance at the usernames and must have skipped over your's. When I went to the bird mart I saw about 100 orange cheeks in a cage and I was very surprised at how bright yellow there cheeks were. Mine has dark orange cheeks, perhaps more so than that picture because it is pretty old. His cheeks are redder now, not drastically but still noticeably. You are probably right though, I'm leaning towards female as well. It does make a jingly noise but it doesn't sound anything like a song to me. It also doesn't sound like a regular call though. Does anyone have any song audio for the OC?

Here is the link for the song as well as other vocalizations that they do

http://estrildid.com/orange-cheeked-waxbill/

Thanks Brant that has helped a lot! The closest thing to a song that my orange cheek does is the first audio clip on that website under "Orange Cheeks". It has never made a sound like the songs clips of the orange cheeks. I hope it doesn't start singing when I introduce a mate though. For any who have orange cheeks, how often do they sing?

That explains why mine aren't breeding. I think I have 3 females. I never heard them sing like this either!

I have two males. When I’ve bought them I asked for a pair. It took me about a year to realize that I actually have two males. One male has much brighter cheeks, but they still both males. They both sing and one of them builds nests all the time.
I checked their butts and they are the same - light orange color.

my males

Yep you see his males have a bright orange bottom where as I believe females have a creamy yellow.

Hey Dominic, just saw your new post and picture... Now my guess would be that it is a female also....
Sometimes trying to sex these birds will drive you nuts

ikhom wrote:I have two males. When I’ve bought them I asked for a pair. It took me about a year to realize that I actually have two males. One male has much brighter cheeks, but they still both males. They both sing and one of them builds nests all the time.
I checked their butts and they are the same - light orange color.

my males
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Thanks ikholm! How often do they sing and is it a full blown song or does it sound almost like a short telephone ring? I can't decide if mine sings or calls. I got an orange cheek today and decided to get one with a lot of orange on it's butt. It is pretty close to my other and I'm beginning to think they are both the same sex. The one I got today does have darker orange cheeks though, but I am getting extremely frustrated on trying to sex them. The man I purchased them from is a friend of mine and he had four orange cheeks collectively, so if I decide they are both the same sex I will just swap it out for a new one.

Domenic, my males sing but not often, only when they want to breed.
They run after other waxbills and make sounds like a short phone ring teateatea-teateatea-teateatea.