With the common gray cockatiel, males and females can be distinguished. Males have deeper gray body feathers and brighter orange cheek feathers than females, who are more muted orangish gray. Females also have gray barring (horizontal stripes) on the undersides of their tails. Barring is present in both genders until six months of age; after that, only females retain it. Males also have solid-colored gray feathers on the underside of wings, versus the gray with white or yellow spots in females.