Hi all, I put this question in "parrot chatter" as well but I just want to cover all my bases! LOL. I was wondering just for kicks and giggles, if you guys have an opinion of if you think Zakiya is a male or female by her shape? Just curious. Thanks!

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Sorry, but, you can't tell the sex of a Grey by it's shape.
Have you had it DNA'd?

It is said you can tell the sex by the coloring of the tail. I think ('ll double check) that the males have the darker tips on the tails. However, this is not really accurate because all baby greys have darked tipped tails, so you would have to wait until his/her first molt. If you want to find out now, you would have to DNA him/her.

Nope I haven't had her dna sexed yet. I had heard that some people can tell by the shape of the head. Just curious. Thanks all!

My breeder that you could tell by the shape of the head as well. But I can't really tell the difference, lol.

Hmmm, I've never heard that one. Ollie had very dark tipped tail feathers- she looked more like a TAG until she broke out all her tail feathers and grew in new ones. She's DNA'd female. Most people were surprised at how dark her tail feathers were, and stated that their babies had bright red tails from the very beginning. I attributed it to her ancestors being from a different part of africa than the typical 'congo' (based on this link: http://www.africanature.com/Project&.../wildgreys.htm). She's a little on the smaller side and her body is a fairly darker grey as well.

A pretty accurate way to sex is by looking at the underside of the tail around the vent. A female's vent feathers will be tipped in silver. However, I think it's only accurate after the first molt.

Another way is by the space between their legs. Females' legs will be further apart (to allow for room for egg laying). I'm assuming that only a person with a lot of practice would be able to sex in this manner.

There are a lot of people that claim that you can tell by the shape of the head, eyes, color of the tail... All sorts of things. But- You can't- Not with 100% accuracy. Sometimes, people will get it right MOST of the time, based on one or more of these methods, but DNA or surgical is the ONLY way to know for sure...

Get her/him DNA'd- It isnt that expensive.... We had Avian Biotech do the test. I did the feather test, which is about $24.00. If I had it to do over, I would have used blood- Poor little marlow just didnt understand why I was plucking feathers from her!!! I dont think it hurts THAT much, But she made me feel really bad about it none the less...

-Andrew

I am not sure about the accuracey of visual sexing. I agree that only DNA is 100% accurate.

However, our first Vet said he thought that Bubba was a boy from the shape of his head and Ziggy was a girl from the way that her "pelvic" area was shaped. After DNA results were in, he was right.

This site has a few pictures to show the different coloring under wings and on the under-tail coverts ;
Sexing African Greys