Young male finding his voice

[winic1]

I have a clutch of six young zebras, and apparently 5 are female, as they are showing no signs of male coloring, while the sixth has his cheek patches, flanks, and breast bar all pretty well established already. They are just two months old. (Is there any chance that any of the girls will suddenly turn out to be male, or, since their brother colored up so quickly, would they have been showing at least some signs of coloring if they were male?)

So, there's all this beeping and meeping from them and my other dozen zebras, and the societies and spices and owls and mannikins and budgies, all this noise going on. And the young male is evidently feeling the urge to try singing, however he has no idea how to do so, because in among all the usual chirping going on, he suddenly produces this loud, "SQUAWK!!?!!" and then looks puzzled at how that sound came out of his mouth! So funny.

[MuzzaD]

Once the beaks change colour you should be sure of what sex they will be. Your cock has nearly gained his full beak colour so the hens should be noticeable as well. Not sure about the sound issue though.

[winic1]

Thanks for the advice on the hens.

I'm sure the SQUAWK is just him trying to find his song. He's the only one doing it. It comes out quite loud, and I swear he looks surprised whenever he does it. He makes normal meeps and beeps, but every now and then just bursts forth with this noise that sounds completely out of control.

[finchbreeder]

He is a nice little pied. Are the siblings pieds too?
LML

[winic1]

No, he's the only pied. And neither parent shows any pied at all.

siblings are two NG, one CFW, and two mysteriously silvery-grey and white ones that look too dark and too much grey to be CFW chicks, but too specifically patterned to be pieds. Have posted the pictures on several places, answers vary from "very dark CFW's" to possible penguins or Dominant Silver (even tho neither parent is DS, that one has come up a lot), so I guess time will tell whether they whiten up or not.

This lot was raised at our high school, I loaned the parents to the biology teacher, all set up in a cage, and the students took care of them and watched the babies hatch and grow. Two students will be taking a pair, each, same sex, and since he's the only male, I get to keep him, unless one of his sisters suddenly colors up and is actually a boy, but they're two months old this week, and none of the other five show the slightest hint of getting male coloring, their beaks have all changed to orange, so I'm guessing it's a safe bet they're all girls.

[finchbreeder]

Sounds like the rest are all girls then. I have had the situation like you, of pieds turning up when the parents were not pied. (Or so i thought) It tends to mean the parent birds have one white feather in an inconspicuous place or one white toe.
LML

[winic1]

So, Little Squawker is now singing a rough song, but he still bursts out with the loud, awkward SQUAAWWWK frequently. More frequently than before. So hoping that he gets it under control.

Or is it that, being the only boy among five sisters, he feels the need to be heard??

[CathyCraftz]

Your young male will be singing soon enough, he is just getting his song perfect.