Sun Conure: Parrot Species Profile 2023

If you like wonderfully bright colors, the Sun Conure will leave you in awe. The stupendous mixture of fiery yellow and orange are accented perfectly by splashes of blue and green on this gorgeous bird. This bird is, without a doubt, one of the most eye catching birds in captivity. The male and female have no outer physical differences except that there is a bit more green plumage on the female than on the male. Both have color template involving green, blue, yellow, and red. The green and blue coloring is mostly on the tail and wing area. Most of the body and head is covered in a brilliant orange and yellow. The beak is a nicely contrasting black.

A good way to know if the bird is less then a year old is to take a look at the amount of green feathering. Juveniles have almost no yellow and orange as a defense mechanism in the wild. Less bright color means the young birds will not attract attention. Attracting attention is bad when one is young and clumsy in a world full of predators. The mature feathers slowly appear after about 6 months of age and continue to come in until the bird is about one year old. At full length, both males and females reach about 12 inches from head to tip of the tail.

The Sun Conure is native to Northeastern South America. They live in flocks of around 30 birds. That being said, no wonder they are so loud! They have to have shrill voices to be heard in their big “families”. All jokes aside, this bird really is a loud one. They have high pitched “birdy” voices and, though they can talk, won’t have the distinct human-like sounds as some of the talking champs, such as the African Grey. They love to use their voices, as most birds do, in the early morning when they wake up and late evening when they are ready for bed. These are normal times for “I’m happy to be alive” type bird sounds. When a bird starts incessantly screaming all day is when you know there is a big problem that needs addressing. These type of birds are good for people that don’t feel that a bit of noise is a big deal