after looking through pictures of juvenile male plum heads, it seems you really can't tell their gender while their young. They don't get the red patches until after they've gone through a juvenile molt.
I found this website that was selling a couple of male juvenile plum heads. They don't look any different from females to me, aside from the one that's facing the camera, which seems to start getting lighter color.
http://www.postadsuk.com/2-beautiful-ba ... 5-100.htmlIt also seems that adult females too have the yellow ring separating their face from their green body, just like juvenile males.
If you look closely, you can see the yellow around the neck on that bird. It's just not as bright due to the lighting.
So chances are it is a juvenile male, if you also take into consideration that the bird's name is max and the description refers to the bird as a he.
And if you look in the comments, you can see the owner post this:
plumheadbird wrote:
Thanks - HE is very lovely and cute.
HE is also a juvenile plum-headed parakeet.
All plumheads are born with features resembling the females of the species (along with almost all parakeet species of the Psittacula family - including the popular Indian ringneck and alexandrine parakeets).
As males mature at 2 1/2 years of age they develop the red feathers on their heads and shoulders of their wings
Max was DNA tested when I purchased him from a knowledgable breeder and is a male