Category: Birds

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Sun Conures

Visually, sun conures may be one of the most eye-catching and recognizable of the parrots. Although they are primarily yellow and orange, they have a bright red face, with green and dark blue feathers on the wings and tail. As babies, they may fool you! Their predominant color is green until they approach 4-5 months and the yellow starts to brighten up. It will usually take over a year to color out into their mature plumage. Sun conures can typically live 25 – 30 years.

In the wild they are found in areas of Northeast South America. Males and females will look very similar, and are often difficult to tell apart unless tested.

As pets, sun conures are curious, playful, and affectionate. What is most notable about sun conures may be their love for tents. You can usually find sun conures playing in them, on them, or putting themselves to bed at night. The best ones for conures are open at both ends to allow room for their long tail. When being handled or out of the cage, snuggly sun conures may find their way under their owner’s shirts, into sleeves, and even under the blankets. Like most other conures they are loud and have high pitched ‘screech’ vocalizations. While they are not known to be the best talkers, many can pick up a small vocabulary.

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Noise Level

Simply put, parrots can be loud. Sometimes noise is relative- what sounds like normal twittering, chirping, and calling to some bird owners may be shrill or intolerable for others. An important consideration to make before purchasing a bird is your living space, and in some cases, your neighbors, other house hold members, or restrictions of your building if you are in a condo or an apartment. (Many rentable locations are now increasingly pet-friendly!)

This list takes into consideration both noise volume and the frequency of vocalizations. It is not comprehensive, and will not apply to all birds as each bird is an individual! Some male cockatiels may whistle non-stop while an amazon sits in silence. A pair of lovebirds may be more gregarious than a single conure.

Generally Suitable in  Pet-Friendly Apartments

Depends

Generally Not Suitable in Apartments

Finch

Large Parakeets

Large Conure

Canary

Pionus

Amazon

Budgerigar

Senegal

Cockatoo

Grass Parakeet

Ringneck

Macaw

Lovebird

Jardine

Parrotlet

Caique

Lineolated

Eclectus

Cockatiel

African Grey

Greencheek Conure

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Double Yellow-headed Amazons

Double Yellow Heads, also known as Yellow-headed amazons, are one of the most popular amazons in aviculture. They are known for their brilliant yellow head feathers, vivid green body, and red and yellow shoulder patches. These parrots are indigenous to Mexico and Northern Central America, and are currently classified as endangered due to their illegal capture and habitat loss.

Much of their popularity is due to their talented vocal abilities. Not only are they very raucous talkers, but many can be taught to sing quite well- particularly opera-like melodies. It is common for them to obtain a large vocabulary as these amazons can live upwards of 40 years. This is a conservative number, and can be greater with proper nutrition and exercise. These large, stocky amazons can be prone to being overweight, so be sure to save those peanuts for a special treat! Like most parrots, fresh vegetables and pellets are recommend as part of a varied diet.

Like other species of amazons, Double Yellow Heads may prefer just one or two people. Socialization is very important to help prevent aggressive tendencies towards strangers or other members of the household. This primarily occurs seasonally during breeding months when there’s an increase of hormones.

Double Yellow Heads can liven up any room with their color and boisterous personalities. Just like people, they have a wide range of individual traits and quirks: some that love their head scratched, others that enjoy frequent bathing, and some that are independent and spend all day climbing and swinging from toys. A generous sized cage is important to allow them room for these activities and exercise to help them stay in shape.

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Cockatiel Colorations

Cockatiels are one of the top rated birds kept as pets due to their reasonable temperaments, whistling ability, and small size. Because of their popularity, breeders have produced different color and pattern varieties from the standard grey. Recognizing these different mutation combinations can be confusing, so here is a simple guide to start out with:

GREY: The dark grey is the natural, standard cockatiel coloration. The body and tail feathers are all grey with white bars on their wings. Males have the notable bright yellow heads and orange cheek circles. The colors of the female are muted, and they retain horizontal stripes on the underside of their tail feathers.

CINNAMON: The cinnamon coloration is like that of the normal grey, but lighter in color and can contain a light brown tint.

PEARL: This “polka dot” pattern is usually very symmetrical and pronounced in female cockatiels. Young male pearl cockatiels tend to lose much of the spotted pattern as they molt and more pigmented grey feathers grow in.

PIED: Many animals can be “pied”, which is defined as having patches of 2 or more colors. Cockatiels with this color pattern will have random areas of yellow on their body and sometimes yellow wing and tail feathers mixed with the grey.

LUTINO: Lutino cockatiels are all yellow with orange cheek patches. Their color can range from strong yellow to almost white. Lutinos may also be patterned pearl or pied, but it is more difficult to notice because it appears as yellow-on-yellow.

ALBINO: These cockatiels are all white with pink eyes, and are actually a combination of white-face and lutino! White-faced mutations have white coloration where any yellow would normally be, and no orange cheeks.

Sometimes a cockatiel with a pattern like pearl or pied will have light grey instead of dark grey, resulting in a cinnamon pearl or cinnamon pied. White-faced cockatiels can also be pearl, pied, and/or cinnamon, leading to white and grey birds with no cheek patches! Genetics can be very complicated, and there are many other combinations and mutations, like pastel and olive, but they are less commonly seen.