SPECIALIZING 

Specializing has many obvious advantages.  You can have uniform cages and nest boxes, concentrated knowledge, the ability to switch partners, and behavior patterns become apparent.  When I had only three or four breeding pairs, I would find a pair didn’t feed their young any corn-on-the-cob for one day.  When I had 15 pairs of Greys all feeding babies, it became very apparent that this happened on the seventh or eighth day.  This shows a particular pattern, the significance, is still unknown to me. After a few years of observing your birds, behavior patterns slowly emerge. I have come to realize the two most important things for successful breeding are TERRITORY and COMPATIBILITY!

I believe if two birds are compatible they will be good solid producers and feed their babies well.  If they routinely abandon eggs or mutilate and kill chicks, either they are insecure or incompatible.  You may have an occasional weak chick, or the breeders may have a disease brewing, causing mutilation or killing.  Under no circumstances should that be a continuing problem.  In my situation, I feel I have established a very secure environment in raising all Africans and performing yearly preventative veterinary care.  Infertility in my aviary only means one thing - incompatibility.

VISUAL SEXING 

This is to be used only as a quick guide, and is not meant to replace DNA or surgical sexing. Most aviculturists are aware of the males being darker in color.  This can only be based on the fact both birds originated in the same region of Africa, or they are chicks are from the same clutch.  Also hens usually have a gradual dark to light transition of grey, from neck to belly, while males have a more uniform grey in the same area.  Importers used the under-tail coverts as the guide for sexing.  This should not be termed "vent area" or "ventral feathers".  The under tail coverts are directly under the tail feathers and consist of about eight feathers.  Feathers of the hens will be edged in grey, while males will be solid red.  Males will occasionally have a "hairline" of white on the edge. 

Observe your birds from about five to ten feet away, while on a perch or hanging upside down from the cage top, and flapping their wings.  With this action you are able to distinguish three bands of grey on the underside of the wing.  The top band is the feathers making up the ventral antebrachial coverts.  The band directly below is the feathers of the minor ventral wing coverts. The last band consists of the primary remiges.  In a hen these bands respectively "appear" grey, white and dark grey.  The male "appears" grey, grey and dark grey.  If you hold a bird, rather than viewing from five to ten feet away, and study this, your eyes "see" the actual different bands and you cannot easily distinguish male from female.