Lavender Waxbills - cock calls & sounds

Many say that the easiest way to sex Lavender Waxbill finches is by their calls

This page presents some of their calls/ sounds

Three of the WFS's most respected members helped put calls and gender together

As a test, the gender of a number of birds was then determined from their calls.   Each bird's gender was then confirmed by DNA testing

The indentification from the calls was 100% right

The purpose of this page is to help others in gender determination

Click on the 3 players below (play triangle) in turn to hear each of the calls - the players work in most browsers)

(If the players don't work, please try clicking on the text links to the left of each player)

The text links tend to work well with older browsers

Location or simple contact calls given by cocks or hens, (recording from an aviary of paired birds)

This is a frequently heard call which is often loud, presumably depending on how far birds are apart

The calls were fairly irregular.   The regularity has been produced by my editing.   Note that if they were more frequent and regular they might qualify as a hen call

Thanks to Alice Mourisot (WFS) for the ID

The most useful identifying call.   Loud 2-part call of cock repeated four times, (from cage of 4 unpaired birds)

Cock emitted this pair of 2-part calls in this time scale.   No editing here

Cocks call much more than hens and much less often when caged as a pair

 
Thanks to Dinah and John (WFS) for the ID

Quiet twitter mixed with very quiet call.   Almost like a quiet 'tchee'.   Once heard you can't mistake this 'tchee' for another quiet 'pip' call or more normal bird-like twitter

'Tchee' answered immediately by the mate.   This quiet call hasn't recorded well

It seems is a close contact call.   More importantly, almost always emitted between bonded pairs

Recording from aviary of paired birds

Firstly, cocks can be suppressed in the company of a more dominant cock

Remove the dominant cock and another may well burst into 'song'.  I have direct experience of this

So, identify a cock bird, remove him and wait a week or so to see if another declares himself

Secondly, there are variations

Some cocks make it harder by only doing the first of the two part call.   But will come out of their shell if are the only cock in the cage

Thirdly, cocks in a settled pair, housed alone, call very infrequently (if at all)

Finally, some cocks seem to be shy/ quiet (but will come out of their shell if are the only cock in the cage)

In essence, solution to determining gender from calls involves moving birds around

Cage dividers make it easy.   It's not difficult