Bird Identification Q&A: Can you use an ordinary compound microscope to see the sex chromosomes from the DNA of a bird?

Question by R.T.G (really tall guy): Can you use an ordinary compound microscope to see the sex chromosomes from the DNA of a bird?
I’m only going into my second year of genetics this year. I would like to know what equipment to use to determine the sex of a bird? I don’t know the sex of my African grey parrot and I would like to do it myself. Can someone tell me how to do it?

Best answer:

Answer by gribbling
The method of microscopic gender-determination in humans is identification of the Barr body. Female humans have two X chromosomes in their cells, but one of them is inactivated as a “Barr Body”, which is visible to microscopes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barr_body

Human males only have one x chromosome, so do not have a Barr body.

Birds use a similar sex-determining system, but with different chromosomes: males have two Z chromosomes (ZZ), while females have one Z and one W chromosome (ZW):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZW_sex-determination_system

I do not know if male birds have an equivalent Barr body to human females, but it is possible.

Alternatively, it might be possible to examine the karyotype of the cells, assuming enough is known about the structure of the Z and W chromosomes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karyotype

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Tags:bird, chromosomes, Compound, from, Identification, Microscope, ordinary