How can you tell what gender a bird (pigeon) is?

Question

I found a sick baby pigeon a week ago, and I started taking care of him. Now he's grown a lot but he's not fully ready to go outside and fly away. But whn I do let him go, I just want to know if it was a female or male. How do I tell them apart?

Answer 1

this may sound gross but my mom has a [parrot and the vet said to check like this....feel where its you know what would be and if it feels like 2 hard tiny balls it is a boy.

Answer 2

1. Even when the baby is full grown, he may not want to fly away. Hand raised pigeons tend to become VERY tame and I actually had to go save a few that people have released because they often fly to the first person they see and want to come back inside. You might want to consider keeping it as a pet.

As to sex, that's a bit harder to tell on young birds, especially the wild ones. Hens have a somewhat more delicate look to the fact and head than do cock birds. A baby pigeon that tend to try to attack your hand a bit more in the nest is often a cock, while the hens tend to be a bit less agressive (though that ain't always true either).

Cock birds often tend to show a slight bit of iridesence on both sides of the neck, even in the nest, while hens seldom do.

As another person has said, pigeons tend to be much more easily sexed by behavior, and that behavior often doesn't really start strongly until it's about 4 months old. There are ways of telling before that, but it takes some experience and having been around the birds for 45 years, I can tell you that even the most experienced breeders are sometimes wrong with youngsters.

(This stupid censor can't tell the difference between a "nasty" word and one used in a context where it's been used for centuries -- simply put "male" into every place you see ****)

Answer 3

My dad had pigeon at one time and the only way we could tell was the males were bigger than the females. When you release him I`m thinking he will stay pretty close to your home.
Maybe try making him some sort of pen outside for a week or so before releasing him and he may come back to the pen or a near by tree to roost everynight...Until it finds a mate...then they may both come back everynight....

Good luck
I think its sweet that you have saved this bird

Answer 4

The only way to tell is by their behavior, and they don't act sexual until they mature at about 5 to 7 months old. Good luck.

Answer 5

check if he has a weener thinngy