Sexing Lovebirds

This is Jenna & Jasper. They are different mutations of peach-faced lovebirds. Can you tell which is the boy?

There are nine species of lovebirds, all originating from Africa. Three species, Abyssinian, Madagascar and Red Faced, are sexually dimorphic, which means you can tell just by looking at the birds if they are male or female. Unfortunately, with the other species you can't. And just because you have a "pair" of lovebirds doesn't necessarily mean you have a true male and female. Same sex pairs will bond, preen, feed each other and mate like a real pair. The non-dimorphic species are the Peachfaced, Masked, Fischers, Black cheeked, Nyasa and Black Collared lovebirds. There is such a wealth of color mutations within each species that hybridizing or mating two different species together is not recommended. It ruins the gene pool for each species and sometimes can produce confused, timid, scared and frankly not very pretty birds when compared to pure lovebirds. There are many debates over whether the resulting off-spring is infertile.

So how do you know which are male and female lovebirds? Well obviously if one of a pair lays an egg it's a girl. If a baby hatches from that egg then the other is a boy. But you could have a female that never lays eggs, or a male that can't fertilize those eggs. Or maybe the pair has just not bonded to each other and need to be with new mates. And in lovebirds you need to wait until the birds are sexually mature before encouraging them to breed. Females can lay eggs starting at 10 or 12 months of age.

There are various unscientific methods breeders use to determine a lovebird's sex. There is head size or shape, or the way a bird perches with its feet wide apart or closer together. Pelvic bones are inspected for spacing. The shape of the tail feathers is checked. A lovebird's personality is often a good indicator. A typical hormonal hen becomes very aggressive and territorial and may attack if she feels her nesting area is threatened. But I have a 3-year-old female that is just the sweetest bird even when she is about to lay an egg. I have had her lying in the palm of my hand and several hours later lay an egg. Her name, of course, is Sweetie. A typical male is very gentle and laid back. Pretty much lets his mate do all the nest protecting. But, naturally, for my birds have not read the literature, I have a very aggressive male. He will charge me when I am cleaning food dishes. If I put my hand in the cage I have to make sure it is covered or he will attack my fingers. His cage doors have to be securely clamped down or he will get out and bother the other birds' cages. As I said, all unscientific methods. There are two ways to be completely sure of getting a male or female. One is having a DNA test done. This involves cutting a toenail and catching a few drops of blood on a blood collecting card or in a sample vial and sending the sample off to a lab that specializes in DNA testing. Another way to determine the sex of a bird is by surgically sexing it. A vet will put the bird to sleep and make a small incision in its left side. If it's a female the ovaries would be visible.

So, did you figure out which is the boy? Actually, neither! Susan in New Jersey found out the hard way. Jenna, a whiteface blue, and Jasper, a normal green, decided to lay eggs at the same time. Lovebirds usually lay four to six eggs in a clutch, laying one egg every other day. The girls had eight, in about eight days! In this situation it is best to just leave the eggs where they are. Lovebirds can count and removing the eggs will make the birds replace what has been lost. Both birds take turns sitting on the eggs. Once the girls know the eggs will not hatch they will give up sitting. When the eggs are ignored it is safe to remove them from the cage.

Written by Kathy Vozzo of KLM Aviary