Colour differences in fledglings

[Tiaris]

Definitely young cocks. Keep an eye on the one on the left as he matures. I'd be very surprised if he doesn't colour into a very nice adult specimen.

[Diane]

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.

Thats right, wish mine had the red colour that early.

[flap]

it is a female not male as it has the white spots under thraot area a male would have a plain black area there untill the red appers with age

Someone just made this comment on seeing a pic of one of my young painteds. Can someone tell me whether this is accurate? Thanks.

[SamDavis]

Looking at the chick on the left in your photo - if I ignore the red on the chest (which screams "I'm a cock"), I probably would lean towards a hen based on the spotting (and cock on the right). But I'm not sure about using the spots before they've started to colour (and hard to see under the throat clearly in the photo). However I'd suggest within about 4 weeks the small white dots do seem to appear on the hen's throats before the red begins to be obvious on the cocks. Note that mine are all normal type (far less red) so this may not be the case for the red fronted ones (unlike yours, my fledglings rarely show any red on the chest).

[flap]

Ok have just taken a pic of the painted young, from my understanding the red under the chin would indicate a male. However I am new at painteds so still unclear about sexing them early on.

[Tiaris]

He's a cock & I guarantee that both birds in the earlier photo are cocks.

[flap]

Thanks Tiaris. Is it the red under his chin that determines it? I did think it was a cock but still learning to sex them.

[spanna]

definitely a cock in that photo, and i would think the others would be too. i've only ever had young cocks show red at fledging, so i use it as an early sexing method. seems reliable so far! sorry to give you a pair that throw so many cocks

[flap]

No problems, you are not responsible for what your birds do! Maybe next time they will throw all hens! They were put off their previous nest and have built another one so we will see if something comes of that.

[SamDavis]

He's a cock & I guarantee that both birds in the earlier photo are cocks.

Ok Tiaris, I retract. By any measure the latest photo is clearly a cock. And happy to accept the earlier two were also cocks.
What is interesting however, is that here is another example of more cocks from a heavy red pair. There was a thread about this not so long ago. With my "poor red" painteds I tend to get more hens - currently 5 spare hens in my holding aviary. I've sold many pairs during the year so have certainly bred cocks but I have noticed over the last few years that I tend to accumulate extra hens over time. If only this was true for other species!