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.......get their white faces??

I have a young 4 month old whiteface called Shadow that was sold to me as female (not by visual sexing obviously but by the "magnet method" which I am sceptical about but apparently this guy and many others I have heard about, have a 100% success rate with it)
As soon as I put her in my aviary with my two boys a little while ago now the boys started fighting so I figured definitely a female
She is in with just one boy now (Mango, my pearl pied) and he preens her and sings to her and does his heartwing thing etc
Lately, Shadow has started singing though, she has completely picked up Mango's repertoire and sings like him She is very very loud
I have not seen her head bob or display heartwings but I am just wondering if she could be a male hence my question when do they start getting their white faces?

If it is a male, the face will start turning white when he goes through his first molt. If female she will look the same even after molting.
Dino at 10 weeks


Dino at 4 months


Dino at 5 months


Dino at 8 months



The owner of the bird store I frequent thinks he started getting his adult plumage early because he was sick when I bought him ( I didn't realize it at first ) He had 2 rounds of antibiotics between the first and 2nd pictures. He is on the small side at 80 gr. Luna was about 100 gr - yes I still miss her. Looking at her pictures tonight was the first time I didn't get choked up and teary eyed

Anyway, Dino doesn't head bob much and I rarely notice heart-wings unless I don't really recognize it as such. He does whistle - especially when we are out of the room or have him locked in the cage - he doesn't like that at all!

Hope this helps.

Jo

Jo, he is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!
Mine is now 4 months old, so I guess, if male, should start showing a little bit more white around her face in a little while.
She is going through a molt at the moment, I find little grey and white feathers everywhere at the moment
Fingers crossed I have one of those unique females that does sing
I really want to breed her when she is older with my pearl pied

I love the pic of Dino when he was 4 months old, he has little speckles on his chest

Thanks!! The picture with the speckles was from 10 weeks when we first got him and thought he was a she! He fooled everyone. He also had speckles on top of his head, and we had already picked out a name that fit beautifully - Stella - means star in Italian, since we had a moon (Luna), star was next. He was so quiet, and just sat on my arm in the store, I didn't realize he was sick - that was the reason he was so quiet!!

He's just about a year old now and his face is totally white. He still weighs about 80, no matter how much I feed him - I guess he is just a little one.

I hope yours keeps the color she (?) has and stays a female.

Jo

thanks guys and yeah Jo, I certainly hope she doesn't get a white face either, no matter how gorgeous they look
I reckon she's a little show off, she can get SOOOO loud

and more and more and more white is appearing on "her" face everyday
Ah well
Have actually decided that this breeding season was too stressful for me and will stick with just my 1 breeding pair (Coco, whiteface cinn. pearl and Saffron, pied split pearl + whiteface), they have 1 baby in the nest, nearly two weeks old, a very cute little whiteface
Mango, the pied pearl I "paired" with Shadow, this whiteface, gets along fine with Shadow, no fights at this stage so I reckon he is happy to just have a friend
I do not "need" to breed, they are hard enough to sell anyway if they are not handreared
Shame though, had I known Mango was carrying the cinnamon gene I would have most definitely paired him up with Coco instead of Saffron.
I only discovered the cinnamon gene in Noah and Meg's clutch this year, by then Saffron and Coco had already been paired up, ah well
I don't want to be a mean person and remove Saffron and put Mango in with Coco after this baby has fledged, though I am sure plenty of breeders would do so

The same happened with Dino - a little whiter over the weeks without noticing any feathers.

You could put them all together to see if she has an affair

I like the picture of Dino at 8 mos. He is a very handsome boy! Jo, when I first got Woody, remember how little he was?? He was only 77 grams I think? It took some time, but he gained weight, it was very slow, just a few grams here and there, but now he weighs in the 90's! He still appears to be small, but maybe that's because he's always right near Boss, who is huge! He always looks thin to me, but he's a nice healthy weight. He gained the weight mostly after one year of age, so Dino may still gain some. Dino doesn't look small in his pics......funny, Woody didn't either when he was so small.....guess they are right about the camera adding on ten grams!

MTW, how big is boss? Last I remember she was about 105-110 Are they still active with the recreational mating?

I weighed Dino again - it's been about 2 months since the last weigh-in. He's been eating a lot! And he looks so plump. So, I put him on the scale and the total is......80gm!!! Hasn't changed!!

He eats, sleeps, plays and sings - He's happy and healthy - we are not going to worry about it.

Jo

Ohhhh, Boss's weight is way up there now! at one point she was up to 140 grams! Yeah.....she's a big one. I was worried for a while about it, but she's so darn active and still appears so healthy. Her and Woody still mate! they go through phases where they will mate every day and then take a break for a while! Never any signs of egg laying, what a good girl! I can always tell when mating is going on, even if I don't see it happen, because Woody sings all the time! I love how they have their little squabbles over things like an old married couple! Neither is a huge eater....they seem to eat about the same, not eating tons of veggies these days, but they are always eating pellets at least. They seem to lose interest in the veggies pretty quick and eat them only for a short time.

140 !!!!!

No wonder Woody looks so small next to her!! I don't think I've ever seen one that size! Luna was 3 when she passed and she stayed steady at 100-105. Dino stays real steady at 80.

I wish I could whistle better for him to pick up more tunes, but the whistling he does do is very cute and sweet -especially when he wolf whistles while we are getting ready to shower

Jo

Wow! Boss is a load! Button is pretty heavy too at 125grams. I am wondering if lutinos tend to be large. I certainly wouldn't say Button is fat but she is large all around.
Twillinger on the other hand (budgie) is 78 grams! She is grossly obese. When she was born she was huge for budgie. Her mother( a rescue) was huge. The mom laid 12 eggs and Twill was the only baby that hatched therefore she got all the attention.To be honest I rarely see Twill eat! Her partner is a slim 32 gram budgie!She gets plenty of exercise too. She does nibble on veggies.It has to be hereditary (!?!)

I wanna see a piccie of that budgie
Mine is quite a large budgie, his daddy was a "show" budgie, my little boy (Dash is his name) weighs about 42 grams but that is nowhere near your little fatty