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This message is in "follow-up" to a message entitled: Sexing Silverbills by Jim.

Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2001 8:12 PM

Subject: [FinchLovers] Sexing Silverbills and general update

 I agree with Jim in that sexing silverbills and bengalese is most accurate if you wait for the birds to sing. Colour band the birds, separate them out of hearing range for a week or two, then place the cages next to a known hen and they should sing. I find if you place two cocks together one will be dominant and will sing, the other often wont. So placing them next to a hen is better. I have heard one hen sing well, but when paired with a hen they layed eggs on the same day so found out it was a hen. However this is very unusual, the only bird out of about 500. If you cant wait then you can look under the beak and males tend to have rounder beaks (between the base of the bill and the feathers of the chin), females are more triangular. Also on the top of the beak of silverbills males have more bulbous beaks and thicker, hens are narrower, but these methods rely on having all birds related (ie from the same strain of birds) because different strains differ. Even if they are the same strain it is fairly inaccurate and I really suggest separation and waiting for singing.

Benj ( Benjamin.Whitworth@brs.gov.au )

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