Sexing saint helenas...

Includes Species Profile
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mattymeischke
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Joined: 25 Jul 2011, 20:25
Location: Southern Tablelands of NSW

Thanks.
Avid amateur aviculturalist; I keep mostly australian and foreign finches.
The art is long, the life so short; the critical moment is fleeting and experience can be misleading, crisis is difficult....... (Hippocrates)
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toothlessjaws
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Joined: 25 Apr 2009, 09:54
Location: Melbourne, Victoria
Location: melbourne

I have purchased a new "hen" to pair with one of my cocks and whilst the "hen" does appear smaller, does have less pink on her breast and does have a shorter tail, I can't see any clear difference in the "blackness" of tail and i'm concerned the difference might just relate to age.

Might I have been shafted again?!!! If any one has any links to any images that show a distinct female i would really appreciate it!
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Craig52
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The black around the vent on a cock bird stands out like dogs ..... to the hens brown/dark brown. Are your saints normals or fawn? Craig
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E Orix
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Joined: 29 May 2009, 23:30
Location: Howlong on NSW/Vic Border 30km from Albury
Location: Howlong NSW

As Craig has stated the cock bird has BLACK feathers around the vent and under tail and the female has BROWN.
From my point of view this is the only way to sex them. The birds vary greatly in colour and size so it is not reliable to use those indicators.
The cock birds will display to the hen both vocally and in it's action while in the air.
Most of the time I can sex them while still in a holding cage.
People that breed Pintail Whydahs generally have a large number of Saints and have little trouble sexing them.
As for the Fawn Saint the black is changed to dark brown and the females are light washy brown once again easily sexed.
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Tiaris
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Location: Coffs Harbour

There is a very large degree of variation in the vent colour (and most other features) of Saints due to the large number of sub-species which comprised our original mix of imported birds from years ago. Some hens do have some black on the vent, but they usually not a high proportion of the vent area and if they do, they also have a brown band through the black right at the cloaca. Some cocks have less extensive black than others too, so you will need to compare the other features to be sure. Bill colour is always bright red in males, whereas most hens have slightly more orange bills compared to the redness of the eyebrow.
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toothlessjaws
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I'm not sure how useful these pics are but here goes - these are my three birds. the blackness of the tail/vent area is, to my eye, the about same on all three. however the bird with no band has no brown flecks around the vent, whereas the other two do.

three cocks? Any help appreciated.
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Craig52
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Yes,still say three cocks. Craig
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toothlessjaws
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Thanks craig, as i suspected. how frustrating. Twice now i've been sold a "hen" thats been a cockbird!
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Craig52
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toothlessjaws wrote:Thanks craig, as i suspected. how frustrating. Twice now i've been sold a "hen" thats been a cockbird!
Though i would say pink ring and blue ring are younger birds. Craig
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Tiaris
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I'd say based on those pics, they are probably all cocks. No ring and blue ring are definite cocks & pink rink is a bit iffy - either a duller cock or exceptional hen but cock is more likely. I'd also guess that no ring is the most impressive bird on the top end too with the better clarity of black vent, brighter red suffusion on the belly & outstanding feather quality on the tail.
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