Sexing Greater Flamingo chicks from feather bulb DNA

Adult Greater Flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus) are sexually dimorphic, with males being on average larger and heavier than females. However, there is no practical way to sex the chicks by their morphology. Here we describe a method relying on quick and easy DNA extraction from feathers. A PCR test employing primers to amplify introns whose lengths usually differ between the CHD-W and the CHD-Z genes allow sex discrimination. This method is thus a fast, accurate and inexpensive protocol to sex flamingo chicks from feathers bulbs sampled in the field