Aussie Finch Forum

I know it may be a little soon to be expecting this one to show true colours - it fledged last December. However, based on the "beak colour theory" and the eye ring, is this one a hen or is it still too early to tell?

Hen bird would be my guess.

How old is it?

Tintola wrote:How old is it?

Fledged last Dec Tint (as per OP ). Soooo, let's see, that makes it 7 months old.

Nice bird-Hen i think

Probably a hen. If the brown lores around the eyes start to disappear or the tail goes blue, then it's a young male. It should be showing some signs of being a male at 7 months. Good clear pic, by the way.

Tint, I thought the young lacked the eye ring and developed it nearing maturity - that's certainly what Rosemary Hutton says about the Splendids in her book so I have presumed it to apply to Superbs as well. I'm just not sure if that applies either directly to Superbs (given that Splendid hens have a blue tail as the main difference between them and Superbs) or to this bird as I have never got a good look at it up as close and personal as this photograph taken in the last few days.

The tail doesn't seem to be getting any blue (certainly not in that photo at least) although there was a week or two early this month when Dad's tail was just just beginning to darken again and I wasn't sure which bird was which unless I could see Mum's ring. Dad's tail is clearly blue again now and a few flecks of blue are just starting to appear adjacent to the wings.

Bubba has been very well tolerated by Dad although I've noticed of late he won't let it get close when he's feeding around the fly trap or in the bark around the trap. That's the main reason why I'm trying to sex it - so that I can move it on before any issues if it turns out to be a cock and Dad suddenly goes ballistic.