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As was already mentioned, can you sex conures by their eyes? If not, why so? They can in cockatoos, although it's not a 100% guarantee...

I've got a mitred, thought to be male, and he has light colored eyes (so to speak)...


And a cherry head... thought to be female... has the darker colored eyes...



Of course, there's also this image which I asked for... hope the owner doesn't mind me linking to it... but tis of a cherry head pair... proven? don't know, but one can obviously see the difference in eye color...
http://board.birdchannel.com/Uploads/Im ... 0-821c.JPG


So, what I'm asking is for pictures of other 'Christmas Conures', or rather a close up of their eyes, have they been DNA sexed or is it more of a guess as to their sex? I wouldn't know about other species of conures but it would be great to see some comparisons if there are any, in any of the other species!

My theory though, is that females have darker colored eyes, and a rounder shaped head, where-as males have lighter colored eyes and a flatter head.

The 4th topic below this one is a complete discussion on this subject.

viewtopic.php?t=24147

Yogi

Hi Yogi!

Yes, I realized that... but everyone is going as to WHY it's not possible... without ACTUALLY LOOKING!

i.e. http://www.birdsnways.com/cockatoo/sexing.htm

However, visual sexing of the lighter colored cockatoos is not as accurate. These birds fall into two groups (see table below). The larger species can often be sexed based upon the color of the birds' eyes. In these species, males have black or dark brown irises and females have lighter brown, reddish brown or burgandy colored irises. Females develop their eye color as they mature, so a bird may be 3 to 4 years old before this technique can be applied. Sexing by eye color works much of the time, but it is not completely accurate. Even experts have mistaken a dark eyed female or a lighter eyed male for the opposite sex.

Or to say in short, sexing some of the larger cockatoos by eyes is possible but not 100% accurate... thus we can say that the color of a birds eye could have something to do with their sex....

Well for example, lets look at Hugh (Shubie) Mango.... Mango is no doubt a female, and it does appear that Mango has a rounded head... however, her eyes appear to be lighter, thus making the theory about the eyes false, however because of the shape of her head, makes that theory at least accurate thus far.

There is somewhere that says you can sex quakers by head shape... how accurate it is, I couldn't tell you but probably not 100%. Still, who says they might not be little clues here and there?

Welllllllll------All I have to say is when I asked my avian vet to sex my Quaker she said she never does that anymore because her guesses weren't any more accurate than anyone else's. So I said how about bone structure. She said that's not accurate either . So there!! . After 16 years Mango's vet just absolutely thought it was male. This is one of the most respected avian vets in Canada . So if you come up with a theory ,let us know and we will be glad to help you test it out.

You know----I've always wondered about that pendulum bit. You dangle a pendulum over a bird and the way it spins is supposed to reveal the sex of the bird. A few people said it works.I havent heard any more about it for a few years so it probably wasnt that accurate either.

This is kind of a fun,debatable topic.------Yogi

In my experience eye color in birds is more an indicator of age than sex. Many many many types of parrots are born with dark eyes, usually so dark that the iris is indistinguishable from the pupil. As they mature the iris lightens, and this continues for years. I know this to be true of parrotlets, conures and macaws. The only bird that I've heard of eye color being linked to sex is the cockatoo, and as others have said it's not reliable.

Amigo

Indeed that is mostly true... The cherry head is older than the mitred by 4 years maybe, however she has darker eyes... Even at that though she (cherry head) was attacked by a ferret and more than likely suffered brain damage, and either due to old age or from falls (she can't fly) she's now also has cataracts in her eyes. Thankfully though she can still see (how much I'm not sure, but well enough to tell people apart).