How do you know if a parakeet is male or female?

Answer 1

It actually depends on what specific bird is meant by "parakeet".

The term "parakeet" is a generalised term to cover numerous species of smaller, long-tailed parrots. The word tends to be used in countries outside of the birds' native lands. For example, the term "parakeet" is never used in Australia to refer to budgies, lorikeets or cockatiels, yet these birds are commonly known as "parakeets" overseas.

'Parakeet' also tends to be a commonly mistaken name for budgerigars, the smallest of the parrot species.

If referring to budgerigars, the top of the bird's beak, called the cere, turns blue on mature males. The female has a pale cere which turns brown during breeding season.

If referring to cockatiels, males tend to have brighter cheek patches than females. Despite common belief, stripes and patterns on the tail feathers are no indication whether the bird is male or female.

If referring to lorikeets or other small parrots, the male and female cannot be told apart except by an avian specialist who can measure the width of the pelvic bones. As this is not necessarily an accurate measure, DNA testing or surgical sexing is the only certain method - but rather extreme.

Answer 2

The color of their ceres (above their beaks) is how you can tell. If it is blue, they are male, if it is brown, they are female.

Blue on the beak is female, beige or lack of color is male.

Answer 3

Well, the most obvious option would be DNA testing, which is performed on some bird species in zoos because it is difficult to tell the genders of certain species. However for a pet owner this is a costly option.
However, if you'd like to choose that option, there are services such as Avian Biotech and BioBest. DNA is of course 99% accurate.



To perform a free gender check yourself, you need to look at the cere. That is the bulbous, fleshy area where the beak meets the head.
An adult male with have a blueish, sometimes purple-ish coloured cere. An adult female will have a brown cere.
A juvenile male will have a pinkish to purple cere. A female juvenile will also have a pink cere until she is about 4 months old, which is when it will turn white with a varying amount of light blue. At 8 months both genders would have developed their adult colour cere.

Beware however that in some species, this method does not work. In pastel budgies for example, the ceres may be pink or tan for both genders, making sexing difficult using the cere method.


Another characteristic is that the males have a more bulbous cere while females have a flatter head. Though this difference won't immediately be obvious to a bird owner unless they are an expert.


Male parakeets will also perform mating dances, sometimes even if no females are present. A male will "dance" by scurrying along the length of a perch while bobbing his head. Males are also the singers.
Female parakeets "chatter" more than males but only sing on the uncommon occasion. Female parakeets also tend to be more aggressive than males and have a stronger nip (bite).

Answer 4

If you mean a budgie look at the color above it's beak Tan means female Blue means male

Answer 5

if it has a b-a-ll s-ack