Red eared Firetail information please

Hello All, Cherilyn Corker and myself were down at Cheynes Beach from the 20 to 24th Feb and we were lucky to see Red-eared Firetail at very close range. Cherilyn has posted photos on the West Aust Facebook page and also Bird Photography Aust Facebook page. In the field we observed what we thought were males with brillent scarlet ear coverts and identical birds but without any colour ed ear coverts, that we assumed to be female. Later when we checked the Pizzy and Knight field guide we discovered that adult males are supposed to have deep scarlet ear coverts and adult females orange scarlet with juveniles with black bills and no colour on ear coverts. Our experience in the field was that juveniles were quite plain and mostly greenish. Is the bird without coloured ear coverts but identical in every other way a stage just before full adulthood? Or is Pizzy a bit inaccurate? Thanks, Patrick Scully Sent from my iPhone