How to Determine the Sex of a Cockatiel

You have finally broken down and decided to buy a cockatiel. Congratulations on making the choice to bring one of these wonderful pets into your life! Many people have a particular preference on which sex they would like. Males tend to be the talkers. They are more vocal, and more independent. Females are more quiet and tend to be more affectionate. Visually sexing the birds is not 100% accurate. Many professionals will tell you the only way to know "for sure" is DNA sexing (or if she starts laying eggs), but there are some things that can help you determine the sex with some pretty accurate results.

Ask the breeder, store associate or owner how old the bird is. All cockatiels have female markings until their first molt. Some birds will not have all their adult colors until their second molt. That means if the bird is under six months old, it will be impossible to tell the sex visually. In some cases, it still might be hard until their second molt when they are about a year old.

Next, you will want to take a look at the bird's face and head. In normal grey cockatiels, the male's face is bright yellow. Female faces are more grey with maybe a little yellow in the crest. Males have bright orange cheek patches while females tend to have duller patches. This is also usually true of cinnamon and lutino mutations, but pieds are more tricky. Male pied cockatiels can have the bright yellow face and orange patches, or they can have a greyer face, duller patches and even grey in the crest. If you cannot tell by the colors alone, take a look at the crest. Males tend to have a taller crest than females.

Coloring in the cockatiel's body can also let us know if it male or female. In a normal grey cockatiel the male is primarily grey with white "bands" on each wing. Aside from the color differences in the face, females will have barring on the underside of their tail feathers and spots under their wings. This is a good way to determine sex of pieds and whitefaces. Sexing lutinos in the manner can be difficult because the bars and spots may be very light. If you have a pearl cockatiel, and it has already had its first molt and it kept its pearling, it is a girl. Male pearls lose their pearling after their first molt.