With regard to sexing young budgies, we have often seen information being passed on that while well said with intentions, can in reality cause quite a bit of confusion and incorrectly sexed young budgies.

What are some of these common misconceptions? What are some things to keep in mind when trying to determine the 

true gender of the young budgie in question? We hope this article will help to answer these very important questions.

While this saying might be true of picking out your colors for a baby shower, it could not be farther from the truth most times when trying to sex a young budgie.

It is actually quite the opposite, and it is important to know what you are really looking for when trying to pick out a specific sex unless you intend on coming home with the opposite.

To the right are pictures of 2 young males. They both have a usual young male color for most mutations of pink/purple.

As they mature (with the exception of the males here) this pink/purple will change to a deep blue.

The 2 pictures on the left are both typical young female budgie cere colors. They have a light blue/white cere.

They will keep this same cere color their whole life, with the exception of when they are in breeding condition and it is a light tan to deep brown.

The age and condition of a budgie will have a great impact on the cere color in both males and females, so be sure to take these into account when trying to determine their gender.

Behavior is NOT a reliable way to know the sex of a budgie. Anyone that tells you this has had limited experience with both sexes, and has not see the variety of behavior that both sexes will reliably show. 

When you have raised these birds for a reasonable amount of time will realize that both sexes can, and will, behave
in the exact same ways.

Females will feed other males and females, they will mount males in a mating gesture, they will sing, head bob and flirt with other males and females.

Males will accept food from other males and other females, they will allow other males and females to mount them in a mating gesture, chew up everything, and can be much more quiet than females.

If you want to actually know the gender your budgie is look at the cere color, not behavior, as it will be reliably and consistently wrong and you will only be confused when their behavior does not match what you are expecting.

If the above statement is one you have trusted previously, please note that the above pictures are all with out a shadow of a doubt males.

While most females do have lighter coloring around the nostrils when they are not in breeding condition, females are not the only ones that can have this. It is important to always take into consideration the color of the cere as a whole, and the mutation and age of your budgie when trying to determine the correct gender.

Especially with (but not limited to) mutations that remove pigment including dominant pied, clearflight pied, recessive pied, ino, fallow etc many males will have a lighter color around the nostrils. The shade of color of the cere as a whole however is usually quite different. 

A female will typically have a lighter shade of blue with white around the edges, while a male will have a deeper pink/purple or blue around the outside of the cere.