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W IN G FEATH ERS
Observe the birds from about 5 to 10 feet away while they are on a perch or hanging upside down from the cage top and flapping their wings. With this action, three bands of gray can be seen 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" gray, white and
black. The male "appears" to have only two bands of gray and black. If you hold a bird, rather than viewing from 5 to 10 feet away and study this, your eyes "see" the actual different bands, and you cannot easily distinguish males from females.