A very easy species to sex visually.

The cocks have virtually the entire front blotched in deep purple on a reddish chocolate background. The hen is spotted with white dots on a rusty background.

Cocks also have purple around the eyes where the hen has white spotting. In young fledglings they all resemble the ground colour of the hen, but the cocks will show a faint ring of purple around the eye (cock left)

Cocks also have longer tails than the hens and the blue on the rump is deeper royal blue and more extensive.