Conures as Pets

Green Cheek Conures ... color mutations

When I got Bibo, I was warned that sun conures have a reputation of being the screechiest of the conures. There is no doubt that Bibo is really a screamer, and when he was undisciplined and screeching constantly throughout the day I thought I was going to be making conure soup for dinner sometime soon. (Thank you, Guide to a Well Behaved Parrot, for helping me with that problem!) But the warnings of the breeder who advised against a conure were unnecessary: it's the personality that attracts me to these birds, and morning and evening calling is just something I've grown to expect. Screeching should not be a problem provided you accept and expect that your bird will do it at certain times and take steps to ensure you do not encourage or foster inappropriate screeching. If you want a really quiet bird, get a Pionus.

Screeching is normal for most parrots. It's how they say hi to each other and how they announce that they're happy. So in the morning and the evening, your bird will say "I'm here! I'm here! I'm here!" for ten minutes to half an hour. Your bird will also greet you when you have been away by screeching hello. And when your bird is in his cage, happily hanging by one foot while he tries to rip the clapper out of a bell, he'll screech because he is happy. So there are a lot of normal reasons for a parrot to screech, and conures tend to be especially noisy members of the family.

It is true, however, that for their size conures can be quite loud. I will warn you to be careful about putting your bird on your shoulder: I have lost hearing in my right ear because of my ignorance as to the damaging effect of having a jungle animal call to its mates across the forest that is my eardrum.

Does this mean as an apartment dweller that you should not consider a conure? I would say no, because while the sun conure is earsplittingly loud, this is not true of the green cheek conure and members of its family (the Pyrrhuras). I found Opal, a peach-front, was considerably more quiet than Bibo, but she was quite a bit louder still than the green cheeks. They are just little peepers in the parrot world!

If you would like to see some cute little conures in action, you might want to check out the movie Paulie (Paulie==Polly, a parrot, get it?). It stars a blue crowned conure (they're rumored to be the most talkative of the conures-- I saw a two month old at a parrot shop that could already say "hello!") and many mechanical stand-ins, and there is a cute little Sun conure that plays Paulie's girlfriend. It's a really fun family movie, kind of like Babe, and if you like parrots, especially conures, it's a must see.

Although I will be adding more information to this page as time goes by, let me recommend you check out the conure page of
Flying Colors Aviary. They specialize in Quakers, but their conure information is excellent!

If you would like more information about conure species, turn your browser toward the Pet Bird Page. They have pages devoted to each species, and lots of information on other birds as well.

To hear a talking conure, look at Little Sucker's Web Page.

For a great list of Conure links, try Riley's Page.

Would you like to read Bibo's Guestbook?

Bibo's diary
Parrot care: general
Parrot care: food
Parrot care: bird psychology (just like for kids!)
Teach your bird tricks
Make your own bird toys!