A coworker of mine has a budgie.... he asked me to take a look at a picture of the bird's "nose" He says there seems to be a scab on it. Half of it fell off yesterday and the other half is falling off today.

Has anyone seen this before? My initial thoughts were dried discharge, or the bird was injured and it is a scab of some sort.

Bird was "off" and seemed sick for about 2 or 3 days last month, but seemed to get better before the visit... and is now happily acting normal with normal elimination and activities.

This is Kiwi. The discoloration is shown in the reflection, and the now clear side is shown better in the "near bird" that is posing for the relfection.

I will hazard a guess that it is the typical hormonal change the hen goes thru upon maturity. It comes & goes ~ it means she's ready to breed. The white pearly cere [nostril area] changes & gets tan, dry & crusty - then it fall off to reveal the pearl again.

The males also go thru a bit of a change as well, but not as pronounced. Laker currently has a deeper purple [not as blue as it is normally or as plump] cere - it is very dark near the beak & the nostrils are whiter.

I hope it isn't an infection. I don't have a female - I can only say what I've seen & heard from research.

This is a lovely hen by the way - & she looks really healthy. She's a yellow face- a Recessive pied as well & a Sky blue, I would say.

Thank you!!!!! I've never had a hen budgie before, I had no clue they did that!

Wow... can you tell me how you knew all that from one picture? I picked up on the sex, but how do you know the reessive and stuff. I'd love to learn more about colorings and mutations and stuff.

Jac is correct, a female can get even more crusty than that, keeping the rounded shape, and still be in good health. It is only when the cere grows outwards and looks like a horn that there is a problem with calcium shortage.

It does look like the start of the hormonal crustiness that the females get.

Winston has bruised his cere in the past and it looked kind of similar - he had a crash with a window when he got spooked and part of his cere bruised up a bit. But I'd say that this picture is more likely a female going through the hormones.

I wanted to make a quick note that I've done some moderating magic on this thread since it veered off-topic into a genetics discussion. The genetics discussion can be found here in the Budgie section:

Budgie genetics

lol, I had a hen that did that, if she was in breeding mode, her cere looked like it had a scab on it, then after breedeing season was done, it fell off. ?? it was pretty strange, and she wasn't sick a day in her life.

Never notice this thread before now.
My male budgies cere has changed from blue to looking like a female.
It is clear, no crust, no illness, well ballanced diet.
Any suggestions?

She's just beautiful!