Colour differences in fledglings

[flap]

We have 3 red emblema fledglings, only been out 1-2 days. One of them seems to have brighter/bigger chest colouring than the other two. Would that be an individual difference (ie better coloured bird) or gender difference (one male and the two lighter ones are females?). At what point do gender differences become obvious with the painteds? we have only had them a few weeks and this is our first clutch.

[Diane]

My emblema chicks have always been just the plain brown for a few a couple of weeks, if your baby is showing red already its one I would be keeping if it was mine.
The cocks will have the red on the chest.

[spanna]

can you post a pic if you get a chance? i think i know what you mean but not 100% sure. if there is one with bigger/brighter spots i would say it is a female.

[shox]

painteds may take a couple of weeks depending on how well the male colours up. The first signs for a male will be some red colouring under the beak and throat area, the hen will not ahve this they will have white spots. The red on the chest normally comes out first on the cock. Breeders can tell the hen when about one week due to the number of white spots on the neck. In a couple of weeks you'll know.

[flap]

Will try and post a pic on the weekend, been flat out so haven't had a chance to even see the birds for a few days!!!!

[Redwing]

Flap I've had 2 young with small amount of red on chest from fledging. One did turn out to be a male but no more coloured than my others, the other I'll never know as it was the one that had the leg ripped off and died. Would be interested in seeing photos of yours to see what you mean.

[Tiaris]

My Painteds are all sexable at fledging. Males all have at least some red flash down the middle of the belly & females more spots normally without red. This is a strong red-fronted strain though, so not all Painted males will fledge with red showing. This usually (but not always) indicates that these birds are going to moult through with strong red plumage features at maturity.

[flap]

All three have the red, one of them stronger than others.

[Diane]

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The pic in the above topic was taken May 2010 unfortunately I cant see the leg bands on the three birds I managed to photograph together so I cant say which bird is which but I can tell you that from this clutch of 4 there was 2 hens and 2 cocks. So its either a pic of the 2 hens and one cock or the 2 cocks and one hen. Hopefully someone else can say which is which.

[flap]

Here is a picture, out of focus but the best I have at the moment. It gives an idea of the breast colour. The third chick has similar or less red on the chest that the chick on the right. They have been out of the nest less than 1 week now.

PS Di just read your post - from your pic yours had no chest colour on fledging, right, whereas all mine had some though not as much as today. And one had more than the other two - I think it is the bird on the left.