There are also laboratory tests nased on cell cultures, karyotype, biochemical and immunological assays, and ELISA techniques.

All this technology is wonderful, but unhappily it is not always available promptly, at the right time and place. Thus, many times we are obligated to resort to a more archaic method, subject to errors , but which will in experienced hands be more than 90% trustworthy. We are talking about the digital palpation of the pelvic bones. The female agapornids have iliac bones longer and less curved than those of males. this enlarges the distance between these and the posterior wall of the pelvis and external border. Males have more curved, shorter iliacs, which results in a short space between them and a very small pelvis.

The method consists of gentle palpation of the structures just mentioned, assessing the differences. Practice is fundamental: only after extensive training can you use digital palpation confidently. There are individual variations, especially related to age, which increases the incidence of error when sexing young birds. It might be said that you should palpate about a thousand birds to gain suffcient experience that you can trust it.

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