Sexing Societies?

[mightymarshal]

Hi all! A few weeks back I bought two society finches from a local PetsMart. Since then, I've assumed one is a boy (Ipswich) and one is a girl (Hitchcock). I've only ever seen one sing and he also seems to puff around and bounce up and down. Then, today, I switched them over to a larger cage and thought I saw the one that I thought was a female (Hitchcock) singing as well. So that made me assume that they were both males and that the one I assumed was female was just being docile all along. Then, tonight, the one I always assumed as male (Ipswich) was flitting around the cage frantically and singing his head off and I was watching because it was late and usually they're nestling in to sleep by now and he mounted Hitchcock and seemed to copulate. Would a male-male pair copulate if one of the males was being submissive? Or did I just misinterpret the song I thought I heard coming from the possible female earlier today?

[Hilary]

Males will certainly mount each other. Often it's a sign of dominance (same as with dogs). The puffing and singing is definitely an indication that a bird is a male. Have you found any eggs in the cage yet? If not I'd say it's a strong indication that they're both males, since societies do like to lay their eggs.

[The Nick]

I had the close to the same issue, bought 2 Societies (from PetSmart) and they (well I thought were) both singing. Got them home and after a few weeks, I noticed one would sing alot and the other would have little chirps, but not sing.

Well turns out a week later, 2 eggs, then 3 eggs, next day 4 eggs, and a few days after that a 5th egg showed up. I decided to let nature take its course and see where this would pan out.

Well now its almost two months later I have a larger cage (Hagen Vision L02) and I have 2 parent Societies and 4 little Baby Societies that just left the nest and are learning to fly about.

I am so glad I had the babies now, I can't wait to get my daughter next week and see sees "HER" new birds.

Nick

[KarenB]

When I originally went to pick out a pair of societies, I went to two different places to get unrelated birds. I sat and observed them for a while, and I knew I was taking a chance that I wouldn't get a true pair. Well, the first one I had a hunch was female, because she was sitting on the nest and looked to be a good future mom. The second place I watched and watched and got what I thought was a male, because I thought I saw it singing. Got them home, played the male calls and singing, and knew I had two females.

But that was ok because I really got them for fostering originally. Then I decided I wanted to have society babies, because I fell in love with how charming the societies are, and I'd like to have a positive breeding experience after the RCCBs tosslings have gotten the better of me.

Anyway, I went and picked out a couple of males this weekend. I watched this time more intently. Got them home and......crickets, no singing. So then I was resigned to the fact that I had four females. Sigh. Then on the second day, yesterday, after all had settled down, both new birds started singing and frantically building on the nest. Last night they all slept in there together. I'm hoping to have a nice clutch soon