Can a mature bird change their gender to become a male?

[ValerieJ]

I am doing a project on one of my quail, who appears to have changed to become a male.
He/she is approximitely 6 months old and made the transition at 4-5 months after producing a number of eggs and sporting the obvious female feather pattern of jumbo couturnix quail.
Now, he/she has the clear breast (male feather pattern) and produces the white foam from his vent along with the swelling. This includes mounting the hens.
This curious transition happened after I removed the dominant male from the avarey.
I have done a lot of reaserch, but would like to hear the opinions of other people.

When I had to cull the rooster I had a hen that took over his place in the flock. She acted like a rooster, mounting the other hens, but she was still a hen and still laid eggs. I think it's just a dominant behavior that she would never have thought of on her own, but once seeing it, equated it to being top hen.

 

[Gray Farms]

Not possible. I've seen birds change their feathering to look like the opposite sex. They can even change their behavior to act like the opposite sex. But they can not change their internal organs.

 

[tennesseequail]

Lol @ California quail

 

[ValerieJ]

It's not a male physically it's just identifying as one. It's the latest craze.

 

[Fishkeeper]

It's not a male physically it's just identifying as one. It's the latest craze.

Please don't make fun of transgender people. It's not a new thing, there have been people who are some variant of transgender for thousands of years. People get killed over this, over the "that's just someone pretending to be the other sex" thing.

 

[007Sean]

Not biologically possible. Hormonal changes can cause behavioral changes but not physical changes, unless there had been some developmental changes (mutation) in the DNA of particular cells. It would have been expressed at hatching and not later.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

first of all i have 13 coturnix quail. they started laying about 4 wks ago. we separated all the males but two out of the breeding pen. before that we were getting 6 eggs a day and for about a wk after we were getting 6 eggs. we also banded all of the males. after about 2 wks, another one started crowing that was not banded. then we started getting only 5 eggs. is it possible that one of the hens switched sexes? there were 6 hens and 2 males in the breeding pen after we separated the extra males out.

Sex reversal has been reported multiple times in chickens! If you google it you’ll find several interesting stories!

https://articles.extension.org/page...in-chickens-kept-in-small-and-backyard-flocks

https://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKChange.html

https://amp.livescience.com/13514-sex-change-chicken-gertie-hen-bertie-cockerel.html

I think that other BYC posters have also reported sex reversal in quail (see quote...)

 

[tennesseequail]

I dont come here for politics I'm out. Wanna make your stand

Please don't make fun of transgender people. It's not a new thing, there have been people who are some variant of transgender for thousands of years. People get killed over this, over the "that's just someone pretending to be the other sex" thing.

Birds and humans are not the same

I'm so out of here

 

[Chickengirl1223]

Sex reversal has been reported multiple times in chickens! If you google it you’ll find several interesting stories!

https://articles.extension.org/page...in-chickens-kept-in-small-and-backyard-flocks

https://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKChange.html

https://amp.livescience.com/13514-sex-change-chicken-gertie-hen-bertie-cockerel.html

I think that other BYC posters have also reported sex reversal in quail (see quote...)

Thank you very much for this, it is much appreciated!

 

[Fishkeeper]

I dont come here for politics I'm out. Wanna make your stand


Birds and humans are not the same

I'm so out of here

They are not the same, you're quite right.

But unless I very badly misread it, that joke was something along the lines of "this bird is like those people who pretend to be the other gender".