Female quail crowing?

[Birds1243]

Is it normal for a female quail to crow…? I have 2 female quails who live together. When L cannot see B, she crows maybe once or twice. Is this still normal behaviour in females?

 

[Nabiki]

If it's crowing, it's male. Do you have a video that you could post to YouTube or other file sharing site and link here?

 

[Birds1243]

If it's crowing, it's male. Do you have a video that you could post to YouTube or other file sharing site and link here?

I will try get a recording of it at some point. She was sold as a female to me they were vent sexed too so I’m so confused now

 

[catesquire]

Oh noooo yeah crowing is only done by the males. Girls usually sound like tribbles or crickets when you can hear them at all, they're such quiet ladies most of the time. Are you familiar with the crowing noise, aka have you had quail before? Fingers crossed one of your girls just decided to shout her cricket song and you mistook it for crowing, they will occasionally do that if really disturbed by something.

If they ARE male see if the buyer will do an exchange for an actual hen, since that's totally on them.

 

[farmer90]

A recording would be good as I have never seen a crowing hen. I tried to vent sex my celadons and unlike my Manchurian boys they never developed the bulge. I tried to press the vent area with no bulge to see foam and even used the magnifying glass. Still not a clue. Vent sexing is not always accurate or manageable. So instead of acting like a quail pervert I decided to wait. The males mature more quickly, you will recognise them by crowing or mounting the others.

 

[Birds1243]

Oh noooo yeah crowing is only done by the males. Girls usually sound like tribbles or crickets when you can hear them at all, they're such quiet ladies most of the time. Are you familiar with the crowing noise, aka have you had quail before? Fingers crossed one of your girls just decided to shout her cricket song and you mistook it for crowing, they will occasionally do that if really disturbed by something.

If they ARE male see if the buyer will do an exchange for an actual hen, since that's totally on them.

So I keep my quails as pets -
I’ve had a male and female - very quiet duo and male didn’t crow
Then had 3 females who were a bit more chaotic at times but really lovely.
I now have 3 ‘young’ quails - now 6 months old actually. 1 male who crows and is definitely a male. 1 female (who we can refer to as B) who is super shy, never heard her crow.
And then another ‘female’ (L) who is super calm but like I said before she sometimes makes a crowing sound (once or twice) in any occasion, when she loses sight of the others, specifically B. I’ve also noticed foam in her poos which is common in male quail poos I know.
I’m familiar with the noises the females make. And I do know a crowing noise. Also I know the girls sometimes make the high pitched noise - saw someone describing as a kettle whistle. The girls I used to have before tended to only do that when laying eggs and there were only a few times id ever heard them do that.
I’m definitely not a quail expert and always learning new things about the little ones
So any more advice from this info would be great

I got these 3 back in Nov 2025 and have grown attached so wouldn’t give them away/back. The person I got them from also doesn’t have quails anymore

 

[Susan Skylark]

If they are getting along does it matter? Obviously you won’t have eggs but if they aren’t fighting or over breeding the hen(s) I wouldn’t worry about it. I have a neutered male that crows sometimes and a probably infertile male that never has.

 

[Luckyhen006]

Like others have said, if it's crowing it's a male. But a recording would be helpful if you can get one.