Can anyone help with button quail sexing. I have pictures

[gartmand]

1

2

3
4

The last picture, the grey one is cleaning the brown one. The seconds letter the brown one does it to the grey one. Then the tux does cleans the grey one and the white one. They all preen each other....kind of confusing.

 

[SeptemberQuail]

The only way to accurately check their genders would be to either observe their behaviours or vent sex (the latter is the better option) them because its rather difficult to tell the gender with these feather colourations. Button Quail are monogamous so once breeding season, and the right age hits, then they'll break off into breeding pairs or the males may fight over a female to the death, so be prepared to separate these guys if there turns about to be more than one male there.

#2 could be a male because of the 'bib'-like thing on their neck, but then again, it could also just be a random splotch so I believe it might be a she.
The others, I have no idea.

They could potentially be all female.
Just check their butts under the tail feathers. Females have a larger opening than males. If they recently laid any eggs, then it'll be easier to recognise the size difference.

 

[gartmand]

Thank you. I guess I'll be turning them over and looking today. I hope I don't make them too upset or scared. Any suggestions about viewing behavior.....what I should look out for that is male vs female behavior?

 

[SeptemberQuail]

Well there's the obvious one with the male's mounting the females (although there has been some cases where female's mount females). When there are treats, in-order to 'court' the female, the male would pick up a treat in his beak and make a noise to get the female's attention. Its pretty much his way of offering a treat to her.

Male's will make these sorts of noises:

When a female lays an egg, it might make this sound:

Annnd female's call like this:

(although I think male's can do this call as well)

If you see any form of pursuit or chasing going on, then you know one of the quail is getting territorial or grumpy, to which you'll need to be prepared to separate in-order to avoid bloodshed, but you can't distinguish gender from this. Keep an eye out for any eggs as well.

 

[gartmand]

Thank you for the post. I have heard one calling but every time I turn to look at them.....the one calling stops. Same goes with the hissing.

 

[gartmand]

ok the grey and black/white tux are males. The brown and the all white quail are the females. I just separated them today. The grey one was growling and the tux went after him. I separated them and saw the tux mating with the white one. The brown one gets low to the ground makes a weird sound like she wants the grey male to mate with her. I wish they would all be happy and not fight.