New member of my family.

[Monica]

Pinky and the brain???? LOL! He's gorgeous! And yes, he appears to be a normal *young* male. Although he doesn't have a pronounced *blue* brow, he does have extensive coloration to his stomach and wings - indications of male.

Beak coloration *DOES NOT* indicate sex.... dunno where they got that idea from...



Here's an older picture of my late hen - after having a bandage removed from her foot. (she had laser surgery to attempt to remove cancer - prior to knowing it was cancer) As you can see, she's not as colorful as a normal male (not that you can see her wrists...) and she has a dark beak. She was approximately 20 years old at the time of her passing (give or take a year), and she had surgery when she was around 14 years old....

Pre-surgery photo.... can better see her stomach colorations.

Even older photo... shows her blue wrists somewhat here...

And a photo of a "blue bellied" normal female and her younger brother. He was younger by a day and a half or 2 days, but he quickly outgrew his sister. Although I wasn't 100% sure on their sex, I had a good hunch on their genders before they feathered out simply by their growth rates. Males do tend to be slightly larger than hens, at least in my limited experience. (I no longer have bourkes, but deeply miss them!)

Oh, and I've also noticed that head shapes between sexes differ slightly. It can be hard to see it in photos at times, but something I found of interest.

 

[Brendajean71]

Thank you Monica for sharing your knowledge. What makes you say Pinky is 'young'? And is it primarily the blue above the nares and eyes that indicate the male? And the different shaped head? Your picture of the brother and sister look so much alike! Your late hen looks like she was a darling. 20 years - wow!! I really am loving my Bourke, he really is a sweetheart. He gets along with my two Turqs and they all share a large cage together now.

Here is all three of them sharing some salad together.




Thank you again for your reply and the info!!

Brenda

 

[Monica]

The lack of a full blue brow is why I'm saying a young male, and male due to some other clues.


If you compare my bourke siblings (photo taken when they were young, pre-adult molt), the female has less of a pink chest than the male does and no hints of a blue brow. Although it's a little hard to tell in these photos, the female also has less coloration to her wings as compared to her brother. The hen was also "blue bellied", which could have been a trait, a mutation, or something that could have eventually molted out with time. Something that her older sister and mother did not have.



Check out these photos of adult males. Compare the head coloration to yours.

Male Bourke's parakeet, Baby | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Madame Fluff | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
006 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[Brendajean71]

Thanks Monica. It will be interesting to see Pinky gain more blue coloring in his brow as the years pass.

 

[Coki]

Well, seems like I missed this thread, lol.

However, I wanted to say your bo6is beautiful! Hope you both are doing great