He or She?

[Diane]

Ive just seen one of my birds doing the mating dance, the shaking of the head and the bouncing up and down. Excellent news one might say.....however this bird is in the hen aviary. I thought it was a good coloured hen, maybe its a pale male.

Can a hen do the mating dance? Or is she just desperate?

[Lukec]

Could it be a lilac breasted cock? Just read about them in just finches and softbills

[Diane]

all the other fledglings produced by this pair have been normal BH PC GB. Will have to get it in a cage with its parents to compare and see if there is much of a difference.

[finchbreeder]

If it's dancing it should be a cock.
Haven't heard of gay Gouldians.
LML

[Diane]

Maybe it wasnt the mating dance after all.
After checking my breeding records thinking I had a cock in the hen cage it can only be one particular BH hen. She lost one of the split leg rings which had confused me for a while.
It is definitely a hen as she dosnt have the blue around the head and bib and as she is the result of a BH male x RH hen pairing, being a BH bird it can only be a hen.

What to do? What to do?

However this now poses another problem, she is such a good colour for a hen Im tempted to keep her but she is from a different head colour pairing. Would using this bird mean a possible split further down the line?

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Diane]

What? No thoughts about this at all?

[Matt]

A black headed bird cannot carry the red headed gene as red is dominant over black. If paired with another black head you can't possibly have any red heads pop up.

[finchbreeder]

We was thinking. (very slowly)
Like Matt said, and if she is good colour go for it.
LML

[Diane]

A black headed bird cannot carry the red headed gene as red is dominant over black. If paired with another black head you can't possibly have any red heads pop up.

That what I thought, just wasnt too sure if it would turn up further down.....thanks. Looks like shes a keeper!

We was thinking. (very slowly)