Aussie Finch Forum

I've long suspected that most people who think they can sex longtails visually are up there with the plumbob sexing people. My latest foray in to them is point in case "2 pairs" have been DNA sexed as 3 females and 1 male, so now there's two more to be found, sexed and . Soon I'll have more longtails than all the rest put together just to try and get 1 true pair .

Anyhoo, as Deb would say, for all those pundits out there I just thought I'd pass on this article (inspired by the "what sex are my double bars" thread happening right now). I've known this article exists for years but have gone looking for it again for your enlightenment.

There's no visible morphology difference under visible or UV light. It seems that even longtails can't tell who's who sometimes.

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/ ... 6/1419/543

We've had birds where the female was a submissive male on more than one occasion I reckon .

natamambo wrote: I'll have more longtails than all the rest put together just to try and get 1 true pair

Pity you live sooooo far away, could swap bloodlines have them coming out my ears.

Can someone translate that article so us common folk can understand it.

(abstract translated in to Australian English) Some blokes reckon that when cocks and hens of a given bird look the same, it is so that the cocks don't fight so much. We tried it out in some longtails. We couldn't tell cocks from hens by how the looked or by UV and normal light shone onto their feathers and bills. The birds couldn't either, unless the other bird gave them a clue. They were as likely to flirt with and root unknown blokes as unknown sheilas, but rarely flirted with blokes they knew. We have the first good reason to believe the blokes referred to in my opening sentence. Blokes would reveal that they were blokes to one stranger, but wouldn't to a mob of strangers. When meeting an unfamiliar bloke who was tough, wussy blokes were less likely to be fair dinkum with them than tough blokes.

I could provide a translation into less Australian English if desired.
Great article, natamambo.

mattymeischke wrote:(abstract translated in to Australian English) Some blokes reckon that when cocks and hens of a given bird look the same, it is so that the cocks don't fight so much. We tried it out in some longtails. We couldn't tell cocks from hens by how the looked or by UV and normal light shone onto their feathers and bills. The birds couldn't either, unless the other bird gave them a clue. They were as likely to flirt with and root unknown blokes as unknown sheilas, but rarely flirted with blokes they knew. We have the first good reason to believe the blokes referred to in my opening sentence. Blokes would reveal that they were blokes to one stranger, but wouldn't to a mob of strangers. When meeting an unfamiliar bloke who was tough, wussy blokes were less likely to be fair dinkum with them than tough blokes.

I could provide a translation into less Australian English if desired.
Great article, natamambo.

ROFL! Nice translation

Sounds like my High School . Probably why I wagged so much .

Is Gundaroo near Loganlea by any chance. Priceless.

Sam Davis gave me a pair, visually sexed.
Judging by the loud cheeping coming out of a high box, he was right.

I wouldn't get too surprised at a researchers inability to sex visually. When I did my honours Zoology thesis on Silvereyes my supervisor indicated to me at the end that all animals had to be euthanased and post mortemed as that was the only way to sex them. He'd been working on the species for 27 years and hadn't noticed some very obvious differences, like males sing. I told him all were euthanased, and then took them home and let them go where I collected them.