# Sex determination in parrots

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-determination-in-parrots/101611>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 3, 2002, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-determination-in-parrots/101611 "2002-04-03T17:32:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sherlock100N](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@sherlock100N](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sherlock100N)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-determination-in-parrots/101611/1 "2002-04-03T17:32:25Z")

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Many species of parrots show no differences in plummage between sexes and it is difficult to see differences in genetalia in birds. So breeders have recently resorted to DNA typing for sex determination, which is pretty neat in itself. However my question comes from an ad I recently saw in Bird Talk magazine for a pendulum device that when swung in front of the bird causes a different reaction between males and females. This device sounds like it belongs in the same class of ‘snake oil’ as divining rods. Does this thing really work and if so, how?

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**Author:** ![Lyllyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@Lyllyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lyllyan)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-determination-in-parrots/101611/2 "2002-04-03T18:21:43Z")

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Hogwash, pure and simple BS. Waving something in front of a bird will do nothing more than aggitate the bird. This sounds like those “parlor tricks” to determine the sex of your unborn child. _Some_ people claim it works, but then _some_ people can also bend spoons with their mind.

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**Author:** ![Mike\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Mike\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_B)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-determination-in-parrots/101611/3 "2002-04-03T18:58:00Z")

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Yeah, complete and total BS.

I’m actually suprised BirdTalk allowed that in their magazine…I haven’t had a subsciption for a while because I got tired of the same articles over and over…

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**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-determination-in-parrots/101611/4 "2002-04-03T19:48:00Z")

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Well, parrots are at least as determined to have sex as, well, teenage boys.

Does that help? 😉😃