A Pet's View / July 2005
For the Birds
Conures are small to medium sized parrots, remarkable for their beauty and intelligence. Easily tamed, playful and affectionate, conures love to learn tricks. They aren’t notable talkers, but most can learn a few words. They are hardy birds that generally live 15 to 35 years.
Conures are more rambunctious than cockatiels, and demand more attention than a parakeet, but they’re not as prone to behavior problems as the larger parrots, or as expensive. Conure prices generally range from $200-$500.
In the wild, in South and Central America, conures are friendly, peaceful birds, who live together in groups of twenty or more and feed on seeds, fruits, and insects. As pets, they are social, active clowns and happy companions. The one trait conure owners- and their neighbors- find disconcerting is the bird’s ear splitting screech.
Conures range from about 9 to 19 inches in colors from lush greens to brilliant yellow, reds and oranges, and into whites and browns.
The strikingly beautiful Sun conures (Aratinga solstitialis) are a popular choice because of their vivid, bright-yellow body washed in orange and red. About 12 inches long, sun conures tend to be the most strident of their species.
Relatively quiet, but able to speak quite well, the blue-crowned conure (Aratinga acuticaudata), mostly green with a slight yellow and paler green on its under parts, and a bluish color head, is gaining stature as a wonderful family pet. Especially affectionate and friendly, blue-crowned conures are quick learners. They are about 14½ inches in length.
At only about ten inches, Maroon Belly (Pyrrhura frontalis) and Green Cheek (P. molinae) look very similar. Both of these conures are quiet, gentle birds.
Gold-Capped (Aratinga auricapilla) conures are twelve inches long, predominantly green and distinguished by an orangish-red forehead and some yellow head feathers. Also twelve inches, Jenday (Aratinga jandaya) has physical traits of both the gold cap, with reddish-orange breast and green wings, and the sun conure, with yellow and yellow-orange coloring.
Nanday (Nandayus nenday) is a striking bird with a green body, bluish green throat and chest, black head and red leg feathers, dramatically accented with a black bill and white eye ring. Nandays are approximately 11½ inches long. One experienced conure handler and former owner in Parkersburg calls them “Gorgeous, but noisy-and ornery!”
There seem to be fifteen to twenty species in the most common of the five conure genera, Aratinga. The scientific name Aratinga is from their similarity to a macaw. “Tinga” is a diminutive and the macaw genus is Ara.
Besides the Jenday, sun and blue crowned conure, birds in this genus include the Sharp-
tailed Conure, Mexican Green Conure, Red-throated Conure, Brown-throated Conure, Finsch’s Conure, Mitred Conure, Dusky Conure and Queen of Bavaria. Another is the ten inch Peach-fronted conure (Aratinga aurea) or half moon conure. It has bright green plumage with an orange forehead surrounded by blue color and a low-pitched sound, better suited for apartment living.
Birds of the genus Pyrrhura, like the Green-Cheeked Conure, Blue-Throated Conure, Painted Conure, White-Eared Conure, Crimson-bellied Conure, Black-Capped Conure and Maroon-bellied Conure are also beautiful and said to be quieter than the Aratinga.
Conures aren’t picky about food. Curious and playful, they like a diverse diet and should be provided with pellets and foods that offer a wide variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and textures.
Their cage must be large enough so the bird’s head doesn’t touch the top, it’s tail doesn’t touch the bottom, and it has enough room for unrestricted movements. For a small conure, a minimum cage is 24”x16”x20”. The larger species should have at least 44”x26”x40”. Conures enjoy a large play stand and lots of toys, which they destroy with gusto.
Their diet should include fresh water daily, a good, small-parrot mix supplemented with fruits, vegetables, millet spray, and occasionally, mealworms. Owners often offer grape or apple treats.
Conures are very bright but they need lots of exercise, and they are all chewers. Distractions like gnawing and chewing keep them from becoming too bored and lonely. They will chew anything wooden, especially fresh twigs, and love bells, ropes, mirrors and shiny unbreakable objects.
Fortunately for their devoted owners, conures also need 10 - 12 hours of rest each day. PL
Copyright © 2005-2006 A Woman's View. All rights reserved.
Femme Fair 2006
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