# Please help tell me what sex are my canaries?



## sumaura (Mar 20, 2014)

I am located in Argentina. My family had purchased a young canary in late November 2013. We where told it was a male (pure orange color). Over the past months I have played many videos for teaching male canaries to sing, and so far our male has yet to cary a tune. Three days ago we bought a new canary hen, as we where told by the breeder that it was indeed female. They checked by blowing on the feathers around the genitalia. We only have a small cage at the moment and placed the two together until we purchase a separate cage. The original canary (male) was curious by the new addition and did little interaction with it. The new canary (hen) was and has been very active and jumps around the cage like crazy and chirping making constant sound, unlike the male we have had, is generally silent and only on the occasion when he was alone made little sounds and tunes but nothing like that the videos I have listened to of male canary singers. First off the new hen has been pretty dominant over the male and squaks and flaps her wings to the male opening beak and bullying the male around the cage most of the time. The male is pretty submissive and not showing the same aggression as the new hen. Today I placed the cage outside on a nice day and suddenly could hear a beautiful song and tune being carried out... when I looked it was not my male but the new hen. She is always making sounds but this was just like the tunes I heard from the videos of the males canary singers. Now I am extremely confused. Does this mean we have a female that we believed was a male and a male that was a female? or two males? I can tell that they fight a bit but its the new "hen" who shows the aggressive or domineering behavior and now singing when the other that is suppose to be a male and has around 8 months of age, is yet to carry a tune like this new hen. Can someone please give me hints on what to do? I do not trust the breeder to tell me of the sex anymore and I believe by the behavior it is obvious to any experienced canary breeder what I have now.


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## poohdog (May 16, 2010)

*Sounds like the old ones a hen and the new ones a cock.You'll soon find out if eggs appear...*


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## AlexArt (Apr 25, 2010)

You can't tell the sex of a bird simply by blowing the feathers away round it's bum!!!:laugh: Birds sexual organs are internal so unless you do a DNA test or surgery you can't tell which is which except by behaviour or if they lay eggs!! Sounds like you may have one of each anyway!


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## suewhite (Oct 31, 2009)

Totally the wrong way to introduce canaries they should be in seperate cages to get used to each other,you have a old male (as singing has proved)and maybe a very young hen who should'nt be in with the male as he will get very aggressive with her if she is not ready to breed which sounds to me she is'nt.I have had a male nearly kill one of my hens.


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## ALcatrazbirdman (Feb 27, 2014)

It does seem likely that Poohdog is correct ,and that they are the reverse of what you believed .Whilst the cock bird is normally a good singer it is not uncommon for some hens to make some sort of melodic twittering ,this can lead to confusion if you are not that familiar with canaries.As suewhite said in her post,the two birds shoud have been kept seperate in first instance, [if only for quarantine],this would have given the birds time to settle and if a pair they would make their readiness known in their own time.ALL BIRDS have a pecking order,placing a new bird in a cage with a bird that has already ''claimed the territory'' will always cause stress and bullying,sometimes with disasterous result.Regarding sexing A good breeder should know what he is selling ,birds will normally be rung , Pet shop staff ,can only tell you what they have been told ,or be honest and say they dont know . Breeders seem to have their own methods, The bite line of the beak/eye being one,[very difficult] others use a small weight on a thread [like a plumb line,]and watch which way the weight swings ,sounds a bit dodgy but some stand by that method.There is another method which is 100% reliable,and quite strange though.When all the eggs hatch [normally 4] if you go to the nest and tap the nest rim with your finger,any males will put their heads down hens will keep their heads up ,.


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## sumaura (Mar 20, 2014)

Thank you for your responses. I have bought a new larger cage and placed them both into it. They are very happy together and love their new cage. The new canary (Sugus) is a young male, has no more than 4 months of age. This means he is not looking to mate with my old hen, and so they love each others company and sleep next to each other every night. I know that it would have been better to wait on getting the new canary until I had a separate cage. I am glad that everything worked out in the end. I am looking into buying a nest in the next days and see what (Mogul) my hen will do. I will be separating them when it is needed. Thank you community for all the advice and support!


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## ALcatrazbirdman (Feb 27, 2014)

thats what the forum is all about  Hope all goes well,and you enjoy having your birds for a long time to come .


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