unspecified noun gender questions

Question

How do native Spanish speakers typically handle the following situations:

Case 1:

You look up and see some birds (either los pájaros or las aves). Which are typical to say?

¡Mira! ¡Qué bonitos!

¡Mira! ¡Qué bonitas!

or would you be more specific?

¡Mira! ¡Qué bonitos los pájaros!

¡Mira! ¡Qué bonitas las aves!

Case 2:

Your friend is holding something in his/her hands. You can't see for sure but you are certain it is one of the following:

a lizard (un largato)

a salamander (una salamandra)

a toad (un sapo)

a frog (una rana)

Or maybe you think of it simply as una cosa or un animalito or un bicho, un monstruo, una bestia, etc.

What might you typically say:

¿Qué tienes? Tráemelo.

¿Qué tienes? Tráemela.

Thanks.

Accepted Answer

Hola MarkIn Case 1, I'd say most of us would go for ¡Qué bonitos! as we'd probably think of them as "pájaros! - aves is more formal. ¡Qué bonitos los pájaros! would also be OK, or even ¡Qué pájaros tan bonitos! ¡Qué pájaros más bonitos! ¡Qué bonitos esos pájaros!In Case 2, if we don't know exactly what it is, we'd go for the masculine as it is the default gender that we use, so ¿Qué tienes? Tráemelo - If you use the feminine ¿Qué tienes? Tráemela, this indicates that you know/suspect it is something that is female. SaludosInma