Black Sumatra? Pullet or cockerel?

[Billyw84]

I’m not very experienced with Sumatra’s but I think that’s a cockerel. I have yet to see a hen with such flowy saddle feathers. Yes both male and female Sumatra’s do have long tail feathers but I haven’t seen a Sumatra hen with saddle feathers that long.

That's what's throwing me off. I looks like she/he has saddle feathers but from everthing I've researched a cockerel at this age should have longer and more flowing sickle feathers.

 

[Chickenhappy8708]

Yeah! Look how long that tail is! Is the breed supposed to have a long tail?

Sumartras of both genders have long tails. Yokohama chickens are actually descended from Sumartras, and both breeds are in the top 4 for longest tailed breeds, including the Phoenix, and Cubalaya.

 

[NatJ]

Sumatras are hard. Both genders have long tails, both genders have small comb and wattles, the comb and wattles are black so you can't see if they are getting red. And just to make it harder, they seem to mature slowly, so you're wondering longer!

I think it could be a pullet-- it reminds me strongly of a Yokohama hen I once had (different color, of course: but the big tail and small comb and overall silhouette are very familiar).

But a cockerel could look just the same at this age, because the tails that drag on the ground take months to grow

 

[CaliFarmsAR]

Sumartras of both genders have long tails. Yokohama chickens are actually descended from Sumartras, and both breeds are in the top 4 for longest tailed breeds, including the Phoenix, and Cubalaya.

Oh wow! I learn something new every day!!

 

[CaliFarmsAR]

That's what's throwing me off. I looks like she/he has saddle feathers but from everthing I've researched a cockerel at this age should have longer and more flowing sickle feathers.

If S/he has saddle feathers then it probably a rooster!

 

[NatJ]

I started looking for comparison photos of longtail chickens, and I may have overdone it

https://www.backyardchickens.com/reviews/yokohama.10879/
The photo labeled "Yokohama Hen" down near the bottom of the article: she's got long, curvy "saddle" feathers. (The roosters in some of the other photos have narrower, even longer feathers.)

https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/red_shouldered_yokohama.html
Yokohama: the photo that has a hen behind a rooster: she's got long, curvy "saddle" feathers.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chicken-breed-focus-phoenix.1107214/
Phoenix: the very first photo shows a hen with long upright tail and curved droopy "saddle" feathers.
Second post, same thread has some photos of gold/brown colored phoenix cockerels. They've got long tails but don't really have the pointy-ended long saddle feathers yet. So they look rather like "females" at that stage (going by plumage and comb size--in this case, their color makes the gender clear.)

Blue Sumatras, hatchery breeder flock. You can see that the mature roosters have really long feathers, and still have small combs; and some of the hens have tails that are really long for hens--nice example of why they're hard to sex when young!

Yokohamas, Phoenix, and Sumatras all have similar body type and feathering patterns--but it's easier to see feather shapes on chickens that are not black The roosters have narrow, pointy saddle feathers that get really long, but they take a while to grow. The hens have feathers as long as the saddle feathers on roosters of other breeds, but the hens' feathers have rounded ends. So at certain juvenile stages, they look a LOT alike!

 

[Gray Farms]

Its a cockerel.