# Behaviour: Is Corny a girl or a boy?



## Lonelybadger (May 1, 2010)

Our young visitor (though looking like a permanent tenant), Corny, is between three and four months old. Corny stopped squealing two weeks ago and now has a pleasing baritone coo. 

He/she hoots, pecks hard, puffs up and spins when we invade his/her "home" (the broom closet), and sometimes gets similarly uppity when I try to stoke him/her. This led me to think Corny is a boy, though he is physically rather petite. I'm sure I saw him trying to hump my slipper this afternoon, too. But when Corny is in a good mood, I can pet him, and he goes all acquiescent, crouching down with his bum up in the air. In chickens I associate this with lordosis ie. a hen "assuming the position". At most other times Corny is decidedly romantic towards me, with playful nibbling and gentle grooming. 

Pidge-o-philes: boy or girl? What do you reckon? Do females do the spinning puffing dance on occasion, or is this a solely masculine province? Do boys sometimes act suggestively submissive?

PS. Corny won't go through these love/hate theatrics for my husband- only for me.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

I think you have a little hen, there.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

I would guess hen also, she should lay an egg or two for you at some point as she sees you as her mate.. then you will know for sure. "Corny", what a funny cute name...lol..


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## Lonelybadger (May 1, 2010)

*Yes- Corny is a girl! The bones say so.*

I compromised her dignity just now and did the pelvis test, which wasn't tricky at all (I'm not sure why I didn't try it sooner). There's a generous highway for eggs there! So she's a hen, and a hen with a very assertive personality. Like me! Good for Corny (thus named because that's all she would eat at one stage). She also seems to be trying to build a nest. In the laundry hamper. I have some rearranging to do. 

Thanks, everyone, for your arcane and accurate distance pigeon-scrying. 
_
...wavy lines...._

OK, I've rearranged the pigeon house with a new lovely nesting cave. She was alarmed at first but now seems utterly delighted. There is also now a genuine slate "dance floor" below... where she is cutting a rug like a boy, dragging her tail, hooting, doing 360s at me and everything. But I guess I can't argue with the pelvis.

Can't help humming Bowie's "Rebel Rebel'. Does anyone know where I could get a miniature mirror-ball?


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