How to tell if canary is a male or a female?
A visitor, Sabrina, emailed this question:
“HOW DO YOU TELL IF THE CANARY IS FEMALE OR MALE? I BOUGHT A YELLOW CANARY AND IT’S HARD TO TELL IF IT’S A BOY OR GIRL. SHE DOESN’T SING LIKE A MALE DOES.”
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Hi, Sabrina!
Usually, the males sing and not the females. However, we’ve had females that sound like they were singing. They would trill and tweet kind of like a male canary. It’s really difficult to tell a male from a female until breeding season.
To check, and if you’re feeling brave enough to hold your canary, gently blow on its vent to move the feathers so you can see it’s underbelly. The male will have a penis like a very small swelling next to the vent. If the vent is smooth and round, torpedo-shaped, then it is female.
More experienced breeders can tell just by looking at their birds if they have other canaries of same type and colour to compare it to. It may be more difficult to sex younger canaries. Hope this helps!
If you liked that post, then try these...
"Blue Canary". Театр Лицедеи by Editor on September 14th, 2011
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"Mango" the Red Factor Canary (red lipochrome) by Editor on January 22nd, 2008
[youtube:http://www.
"Monfrague" Jarrettalane's photos around Cáceres, Spain and Canary Islands (vaughantown blogs) by Editor on September 2nd, 2011
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"The rain in Spain" Oldagetraveller's photos around Vilanova i la Geltru, Spain and Canary Islands by Editor on August 18th, 2011
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(part2) singing canary cd" canari "chant du canariتغريد الكناري " by Editor on October 14th, 2011
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10 Responses so far
April 24th, 2009
6:32 am
if you went to buy a male canary that sings and bought home a female canary, can you bring it back to exchange it for a male? or are you just stuck with it after paying so much money for it. also if the canary is young first should they have a band on it’s leg to say when it was born and second how long does it take a young canary to sing?
July 28th, 2009
5:21 pm
we thought our canary was a boy because he sings but… he is building nests and nesting in his food dish but he is not laying eggs, I though he was sick but was he was nesting soo… is he okay??
September 6th, 2009
10:42 am
i whant to breed bronz canarys exclusively but can not find detail on the cenetics and photos of good examples
September 17th, 2009
9:08 pm
Saya masih belun tahu perbedaan burung kenari jantan dan betina.
bagai mana ciri ciri burung kenari jantan kalau dilihat dalam bentuk tubuhnya?
December 23rd, 2009
12:08 pm
its a nice website and i am Dr.of vet medicine and i have a clinic for cage birds. i ask if you can help me
March 20th, 2010
1:13 am
how I do tell a male from framile????????
June 29th, 2010
10:52 am
i have two canarys one is yellow with white and its a male and i have a yellow with brown female canary.
Every time when the male wants to mate the female it flys away WHAT should I DO????…..
February 24th, 2011
8:58 pm
i had a cockatiel once it was a female and a male but when the female wanted to mate she tried but the male refused and started screaming like hell
July 19th, 2011
7:30 am
hi bird lovers!
Nat,
This is probalby too late but anyways..I’ll share my experience.
I had 2 canaris which mated-bred very fast (had 3 babies).
I’d say that the main reason was LIGHT.
Sure there was the mating period (singing and chasing around each other ) and a little bit of quarelling.
before,while and after,try to make them FLY, the female needs strong legs muscles for hatching and after half covering the fast growing babies in the nest.
The male just sang more and got stronger and feeds here and the babies as well!
The process is a very beautifull experience!
trust nature!
August 27th, 2011
4:26 am
i got two canarys lady said one was a female it go to the nest and sit in it but not long will male go in nest the other one is a male it has bump under tail like penis but the two fight all the time will not let the other eat all the time could they be both male they don.t sing
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