Gender change from male to female?

[cheezenkwackers]

I thought the hen was the drake transformed. So he is the one without.

My girls outnumber their drake 9 to 1. At my house it's the male that goes crazy. He'll run around chasing one, then gets distracted by another and another until he just gets tired.

I like your numbers!

The drake in eclipse is in the front with the dark eye stripes.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

Sunday, 4 January 2015​

Intersex birds (and their confusion with hybrids)​

intersex Mallard, Malmoe (Sweden), 27th December 2008 - copyright Carl Gunnar Gustavsson
(photo ID: 1029)

Introduction

Intersex birds can look so different from normal examples of the species that observers often wonder whether they are seeing a hybrid. Some particularly share plumage features with specific hybrids, so this confusion is unsurprising.

I won't go in to much detail about what intersex means (mainly because I am not competent to do so) but with birds (and presumably many other life-forms) it's basically when a female bird begins to develop male features. I understand that this effects the genitalia but it is visibly manifest through changes in the bird's external appearance.

It's generally pretty rare, but not hugely so, and a careful observer is likely to find intersex birds from time to time.


How the external appearance changes

More study/research is required to fully understand this, and to that end please contribute any insights or experience you have that might help. However, based on what we have seen so far it seems that intersex female birds start off looking like females and gradually develop male features. It seems that the majority of the bird's plumage will change (assuming the species is sexually dimorphic) before the bare parts change, so a significant clue to the fact that we are dealing with an intersex is plumage that has clear male traits while the bill remains female-like, such as with the Mallards shown here.



intersex Mallard (same bird as in photo ID 1029 above), Malmoe (Sweden), 27th December 2008 - copyright Carl Gunnar Gustavsson
(photo IDs: 1030-1031)




intersex Mallard, Utah Pond, Aurora (Colorado, USA), 16th January 2015 - copyright Cathy Sheeter
(photo IDs: 1825-1827)

The next bird is more advanced, showing only traces of brown on the head but still sporting a fully female-like bill.

Yes, there are studies about female ducks turning into male ducks. It is thought that it happens when something happens to their ovary. But, never males becoming females.