Please help a button newbie with sexing and ID! (Photos)

[Friar_Tuck]

Hello,
This is my first venture into button Quail.
These quail were hatched March 28th, so they are almost 5 weeks old.
I have them in 4 different pens, but am curious on sexes and IDs so I can start splitting them further.
They seem to be getting a second set of feathers, these with more colors.

First is the one I am sure is a male.

Here he is with what I think is a Darth Vader female.
Also, there are two in that pen that are pretty solid dark, with a blue sheen chest/neck coming, neither has a white chinstrap, but one has red tint feathers near vent, could that be a male?

I have 5 beautiful, (in my eyes anyway) gray colored quail, but they are hard to tell sexes. Is the one facing left a male?

Here is what I think is a female in the gray pen.

And then we have a white one, going by size shape, I am guessing male, but I spose I will have to wait and see how he/she acts.

A couple misc shots of the oddballs:

I am extremely happy with the variety I have with just 20 birds.
Sorry for the fact that some of the pictures are a bit blurry, but short of valium spiked water, I am not sure how to get them to slow down for a photo.

Thank you for your time, hope you can shed some light for me.
Thanks,
Jim

 

[cpbirds407]

Hello Jim-

I am not sure how to start.

The first pic is definitely a male.

The second one... if it has REDDISH/Rusty tail/vent feathers, it is a male. That dark one is a Blue Faced Chinese Blue Breasted Quails (CBBQ) The one next to the dark one, is a male and the very first one in the picture (front) is a Red Breasted Female.

Third Pic...I think both are females unless...the white bib hasn't formed on the males yet. Normally, by the time they are 6-7 weeks, you should see the white bib on the Silver mutation if it is a male. It is a white (very noticeable) bib.

Fourth pic, definitely a female unless again, it has not molted into the adult plumage showing the white bib.

So, the general rule is that the males have the rusty reddish coloration around the vent/tail area as well as the bib. Now, on the silver mutation, it shows as a salmon pink coloration. The white ones, I vent sex once they are over 12 weeks old and generally, I get it right but still have made a few mistakes

I would strongly reccomend that you get a very good book called A closer look at Button Quail by Jodi McDonald. It is absolutely an awesome book.

I hope this helps!

Charlie

 

[MissCluck]

Beautiful quail!

The boys will start showing red bums at this age - easy to tell then!