Sexing my peafowl

[Tbonter101]

 

[Tbonter101]

So thats him!! Its so hard to believe he is a male. The other two in with him....his hens are so dominant over him! And he never puts his little fan up or makes any noise. If you are indeed thinking he is a male.....hopefully he will mature with time! I look forward to seeing a nice train on him!

 

[Birdrain92]

So thats him!! Its so hard to believe he is a male. The other two in with him....his hens are so dominant over him! And he never puts his little fan up or makes any noise. If you are indeed thinking he is a male.....hopefully he will mature with time! I look forward to seeing a nice train on him!

He's a male. Give him some time and the hierarchy may change. If you haven't seen an adult Opal peacock here's a picture from Rocking B-A-B Ranch of his Opal male strutting his stuff. http://rockingbabranch.com/peafowl/peafowl-photo-gallery/#jp-carousel-128

 

[Birdrain92]

Pretty sure you aren't nearly the only one wanting greens really badly, @Birdrain92 . I love looking at them, but owning them is not for me. However, you are in very good company -- the list of folks here on the peafowl forum that really, really want them is longer than the list of folks who don't, I suspect.

After college and vet school and get a large farm, I hope to own Green peafowl along with other varieties.

 

[barkerg]

I agree with @Dany12
that better pictures would be very helpful!

@barkerg
, if the bird is a spalding, what does that suggest about the barring on the tail feathers?  (I had to click on the image to get it large enough to see )

Im following you here but I'm still a little confused with the pics and yes if its a spalding it does change things, more pics needed for sure.

Gerald Barker

 

[Garden Peas]

Im following you here but I'm still a little confused with the pics and yes if its a spalding it does change things, more pics needed for sure.

Gerald Barker

So Gerald, it turns out that the bird @Tbonter101 is asking about is shown originally in posts #1 & 3 (but NOT in #2), and there are now additional photos of the bird in posts #18, 19, 20 & 21. (Hey Tbonter, you can put multiple photos in one post!).

Gerald, here's some questions:

First, do you think the bird may be a low percentage spalding? He looks a little spalding-ish to me, but not to @Birdrain92 -- I don't know how to quantify it, but it's something to me about the shape of the bird, his stance, head and crest. But maybe it's my imagination.

Second, do the new photos (posts #18-21) help you figure out if it's male or female?

Last, what other photos would help pin it down?

Tbonter, I still wanna hear about that cool-looking aviary, btw

 

[barkerg]

Im seeing a rooster, as for spalding, it could be a low % spalding but spaldings are very confusing when it comes to patterns and colors for sure. Just some observations I have made over the years, Ive had older IB hens and roosters (especially whites) that show some facial coloring such as light blue and yellow with age so trying to pin green blood to a bird for the face colors can be deceptive. The truth can be found in the feathers normally, having said that, the bird in question does appear to have a crest consistent with that of a spalding, facial markings (meaning the mascara) are that of an IB. Hes still got coloring up to do before you can tell for sure

.

Edit: I keep forgetting to mention, very impressive bird by the way.

Gerald Barker

 

[barkerg]

You know @garden peas, after taking a better look at him, he does have that Green build, tall and lean. You could very well be correct.

Gerald Barker

 

[barkerg]

Another observation, his young spurs are shaped like a male.

Gerald Barker

 

[Garden Peas]

Another observation, his young spurs are shaped like a male.

Gerald Barker

That's an interesting question, @barkerg , how do you tell the difference between the shape of spurs on a male versus the occasional spurs which occur on a female? Aside from the fact that a full grown male's spurs are bigger... Is there a different shape?

Here's an interesting picture I just took -- I didn't realize I got both birds until I came back inside. I've been looking at my 2 year-old purple pied spalding hen for... two years now

... and about once a month I go back through the "huh, I wonder if she could really be a he" checklist... I always convince myself she's a she, but I'm really starting to wonder again.

Check out the spurs on the feet closest to the camera (the young spalding hen) and the spurs on the full-grown opal silver pied across the gate from the 2 year-old spalding. (It took me a long time to figure out he's also a spalding, though a very low percentage.)



"Her" spurs are definitely growing...