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Ask the Peregrine Chick - How it Works
The Peregrine Chick:
--- Quote from: Leana on June 15, 2011, 13:14 ---OK... I'm going to ask a dumb question... I read the "Ask TPC" and didn't find an answer so here goes... When you band the chicks how do you tell if they are male or female? I don't know a lot about birds (obviously) so I'm asking straight up (although I might feel like an idiot when I hear the answer)...
--- End quote ---
Nothing wrong with the question Leana and though I'm sure its been answered somewhere, you looked in all the right places so no worries. We sex the birds based on the size of their feet. At 21-25 days of age, the chicks' feet and legs are full grown and because female peregrines are 1/3 larger than the males, their feet at banding age are larger too. Usually you just have to glance at their feet to be able to tell which gender they are but in the last couple of years with Trey and Princess, there have been a female or two who we banded as females based on their foot/leg size - even when we measured them! Hurricane in Brandon is one of those chicks - she measured easily as a male but she was obviously fooling us. When birds that are sexed incorrectly at banding turn up to nesting somewhere or are sexed after injury or death, we take care to make sure everyone's records are corrected as well.
Does that help?
TPC
Leana:
OK... I'm going to ask a dumb question... I read the "Ask TPC" and didn't find an answer so here goes... When you band the chicks how do you tell if they are male or female? I don't know a lot about birds (obviously) so I'm asking straight up (although I might feel like an idiot when I hear the answer)...
The Peregrine Chick:
If you have a question that doesn't seem to go somewhere else OR you don't know the Forum well enough to find the proper place a question, feel free to post it here.
How?
If you are new to the Forum click on the "Reply" button on the right side of your screen. When the text box opens, type in your question then click on the "Save" button below. It's just that simple.
If you are familiar with posting on the Forum, post your question as a "New Topic" and please make the "subject" self-explanatory.
PLEASE
check to see if the question has already been asked and answered. If you have a follow-up question for an existing question/answer, feel free to post your question on the original post.
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