urgent gender problem

[fresh]

Hi all, this is my first post here and my 4th day as a bird owner...

I bought 2 zebra finches 4 days ago and would like to know if I have the same sex or opposite sexes.

One of the birds is the regular zebra finch with the brown/black/white colouring and has the black chest, dark patches on the cheeks and the reddish beak. Well, I kind of figured that this one is a male

However, the problem lies in the second one... It is a full white body with only 2 black lines coming down from his/her eyes. It has a lighter beak (closer to orange).

Both birds keep on fighting and the brown male one is bleading from both sides of the beak just under the eyes, and every time he heals, the other bird goes and re-injers him in the same exact spot.

I have seperated them, and when I did, they kept on talking to each other.

Well I would like to sex my finches and have decided to keep the white one, but I would like to figure out if I should get a male or a female? A pet store by my house agreed to accept my male finch and give me another one instead, but I want to know if I should get a male or a female.

PLEASE HELP.

Thanks in advance

Fresh.

[Laura05]

Finding a "pair".
Zebra Finches are pretty easy to sex. You can distinguish males from females by just looking at them. Male Zebra Finches have a black breast bar, chestnut flanks specked with white, orange cheek patches, a scale like pattern under the chin, and of course the red beak. Females on the other hand are totally lacking in any of the before mentioned male markings and their beaks are a lighter, more orangish color.

There are Zebra Finch color mutations that have less defined sex markings so if you really can not see any distinguishing markings on your bird, look at the beak color. In all but one Zebra Finch color mutation the beak colors will still be red or orange depending on sex.



http://www.seffera.net/birds/f-bzebra.html


I hope this helps you!

[charmedagain]

The easiest way to sex finches is the cheek patches females do not have these only the male this is literally in all mutations the colour mutations like the white or albino you go by the beak colour the birghter more vibrant orange is male the lighter paler orange is female.

Its very unusal for finches to fight like that as i have kep alot of finches before same sex in one cage is fine too but finches get one really well uless its breeding time and the female becomes very agressive towards the males and any other females around her.

The normal grey Zebra is the easiest of them all to sex this is due to the cheeck patches and bright orange beak...

Here is links to different colour mutations and you will notice that there is usually always a female at the side of the male. The first link it shows you the different colours in pairs so that you can tell the sex of the birds hope these are of help if you would like any more help or info please feel free to send private message or email and i will help you out..

mike

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/7134/photos.html

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww39eiii.htm

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww41eiii.htm

[fresh]

thank you very much guys
I think I can figure it out now