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Cloacal protuberance of Riparia chinensis (1 Viewer)

SteveMM

Well-known member
This might not be the right place to post this question, but I'm hoping an answer will be here.

Attached is an image of a dead Riparia chinensis picked up as a roadside corpse. Can the sex of the bird be determined by the cloacal protuberance in this instance? It both looked and looks quite tubular, so I'm assuming it to be male.

(I haven't done the best of jobs of getting the feathers out of the way due to operating with only one hand in a strong wind, but the protuberance in question can be seen, I think).

Thanks in advance,

Steve
 

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  • Riparia chinensis (01).jpg
    Riparia chinensis (01).jpg
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Can't help with the sexing, but worth remembering that fermentation gas pressure inside dead animals can cause items like this to swell up (beached whales - pic - are famous for it, since at least 1577!).
 
Can't help with the sexing, but worth remembering that fermentation gas pressure inside dead animals can cause items like this to swell up (beached whales - pic - are famous for it, since at least 1577!).

Thanks, Nutcracker. I was completely unaware of that!

I guess, then, that these gases could cause the CP of a female to expand to such an extent that it might resemble that of a male, which would mean that there's no way of being completely certain from the external features of this bird which sex it is.
 
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