Why can’t I just look and tell if I have a male or female pet bird?
Many birds are not what is known as sexually dimorphic. This means that the characteristics of the birds are so similar that you cannot tell the difference in sexing the birds without scientific intervention. The most frequently used procedure to determine a male vs a female pet bird is through DNA testing.

Why do you need to know if your pet bird is a male or a female?
Aside from the obvious, wanting to know if your pet bird is male or female for personal reasons; DNA testing your bird is used as an aide to better care for your pet bird. Some diseases along with egg binding are unique to specific sexes of birds. Knowing the gender of a sick bird in advance helps guide your veterinary in narrowing down diagnosis in moments of medical concern. Often when a medical concern is happening time is of the essence, knowing your bird’s sex through DNA testing ahead of time may allow your veterinarian to make quicker maneuvers in diagnosis, in a time of need when time is critical. The last thing you want to be doing in an emergency is ruling out if your pet bird is a male or female. Those instances often are critical and knowing this information is truly valuable.
 

How can having a DNA test done on my Pet Bird help prevent egg binding in a female pet bird?
Knowing if you have a female pet bird can help you to administer the best foods and products for your pet birds. For example female pet birds utilize a great deal of calcium to produce an egg. The aide of supplements and calcium can greatly improve your bird’s health while she goes through this.

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Breeding purposes
If you plan to have your pet bird become part of a Mating pair it is essential to verify the sex of each bird in the pair. Any breeder in the country can give you a list of stories where they purchased birds that were said to be a pair and were in fact two birds of the same sex; often wondering why their birds were producing countless amounts of infertile eggs. Experienced breeders will all tell you DNA sexing a pair of birds is the first step to success!