Male and female pearls look alike when they are babies; however for
those who are buying the bird only for the color may wish to go with a female. This is
because males will lose all that fancy coloring when they go through their first molting
at 6 months of age. Females will always keep the coloring they are born with, there is
really a great variety of shades and markings with Pearl females, I have very rarely
ever seen two that are the same,I will soon post another picture of a female from the back so you can get a good view at the pearl markings. It is possible for the male to molt and maintain white spots such as the male in the picture above..however this is more common with a good strong gene of pearl; In many cases the male will look no different than a Normal Grey cockatiel after he has molted.
