Gender and age?

[thejimmy]

Hello. I asked on a subreddit about gender and age but i didn't get clear result. It probably is male but they told me that my budgie is at least one year old. My grandfather is a breeder, he gave me this budgie and told me that it was very young, that it just stopped being fed by its mother. My grandfather would lie to me about it's age. What is the truth? (i know that this is talk about gender but i didn't find forum about age.)

[tweetiepiesmom]

I'm not an expert and the experts will be on shortly. Very cute little boy. How about if I guess and we'll see if I got it correct? Definitely a boy. I'd say based on the color of his cere and the pin feathers on his head which indicate that he is molting and he bands on his head, that he's maybe around 6 months old.

[thejimmy]

May 23, 2020 15:20:01 GMT tweetiepiesmom said:

I'm not an expert and the experts will be on shortly. Very cute little boy. How about if I guess and we'll see if I got it correct? Definitely a boy. I'd say based on the color of his cere and the pin feathers on his head which indicate that he is molting and he bands on his head, that he's maybe around 6 months old.

Well I asked grandfather today. He is positive that the budgie left nest 10 days before I got him. I got him on 29th of March, 2020. I did my research about young budgies and by my calculations my budgie was born in the middle of January. That means he should be around 4 months old.

[charmastas]

he looks 5-6 months old, looks like a male to me

[Hezz]

Four-five months fit with how he looks to me. Seems we don't have an issue with gender (male as everyone has stated). He still has some barring on his forehead so I doubt he would be any older. He is just starting to develop his iris rings as well, but it is possible that you can't see them yourself - photos often show them up clearer than they actually are. Believe your grandfather. Anyone saying this boy is at least a year old really doesn't have a clue. Once a budgie has fully developed iris rings, the latter half of its first year, there is nothing to give clues as to age, which is why there is no section regarding this.

[thejimmy]

May 24, 2020 0:48:42 GMT Hezz said:

Four-five months fit with how he looks to me. Seems we don't have an issue with gender (male as everyone has stated). He still has some barring on his forehead so I doubt he would be any older. He is just starting to develop his iris rings as well, but it is possible that you can't see them yourself - photos often show them up clearer than they actually are. Believe your grandfather. Anyone saying this boy is at least a year old really doesn't have a clue. Once a budgie has fully developed iris rings, the latter half of its first year, there is nothing to give clues as to age, which is why there is no section regarding this.

Thanks for your explanation. I couldn't argue with them because I don't know anything about budgies growing up and their anatomy. I still don't know what iris rings are. When I wrote them what my granddad said, they just told me that he messed up and gave me older budgie then he thought. Your comment is relieving. Thank you very much.

[Hezz]

If you have a look at this enlarged version of your photo, paying attention to his eyes, you can see the dark circle (pupil) which takes up most of his eye, and you can just make out a lighter ring showing up around the pupil. This is his iris ring. It's possible that you can't see it easily on the bird himself; as I mentioned before, they seem to show up more in photos than they appear in real life.