How to Determine Your Bird’s Gender: Quick & Reliable Methods

It's not always so easy to tell a bird's gender, as not all species lend themselves to easy gender determination. In those cases, the best thing to do is take your bird to an avian veterinarian to determine the gender.

One easy way for the vet to determine a bird's gender is to analyze the bird's DNA using a PCR-based test. This test identifies a bird's gender based on its chromosome pair (ZW in females and ZZ in males). This test is non-invasive, requiring nothing more than a drop of blood or some plucked feathers, and can be performed for any age bird [source: Therion International].

Here's a list of some species that have obvious enough gender differences to easily tell the male from the female without resorting to medical testing: