One of the more popular species of the conure family, the sun conure is liked by everyone for his vibrant colors and enthusiasm for life. Known for their liveliness and playful nature, they are an equivalent of a large parrot encased in a small frame.
Sun Conure Size
With a big beak, sun conures are approximately 12 inches in size from head to tail. Distinguishable from afar with their bright yellow and orange color, this small-sized member of the conure family weighs anywhere between 110 to 130 grams. A healthy conure will always have a good body proportion without being stout or slim. This South American conure has a wingspan of 18 inches and can fly many miles in a single day despite being a small-sized parrot.
Behavior Comparison with Other Parrots
With such a profile, they are fast becoming a preferred bird pet beating some other already established names in the pet world. Everyone wants to know more about their behavior apart from the fact they are loud. Here are some more behavioral traits of sun conures contrasting or matching with their other famous cousins.
Sun Conure vs Green Cheek Conure
Though both the sun and green cheek belong to the conure family, both have contrasting personalities There are many differences between their behavior with a few similarities.
Dependent
A behavioral trait common to both members of the conure family is their dependency on their human owners. They are quite social beings and love to be the center of attraction. If ignored, they resort to their usual screaming and noisy behavior out of frustration of being left alone.
Playful
Both sun and green cheeked conure are known for their playful behavior. Both of them carry traits of big parrots in their small bodies. They are quite chirpy throughout the day. They are always excited about life and they make sure to let others know this around them.
Talking ability
Unlike a few of their cousins like African Grey or Quaker, the conure family isn’t known to be great at their speech abilities. Though few of them may learn a word or a few like ‘Hello’, ‘bye-bye’, but it needs a lot of training on their owner’s part. Moreover, the words spoken are usually difficult to understand.
Loud
The major difference between both species is the level of noise they make. Green cheek conures are known to be shier than other conure families. The noise they make is very low and not as high-pitched to pierce the ears. But sun conures are infamous for being louder than an airplane’s noise when measured in decibels. They produce an extremely high pitched shrill. The non-stop screaming makes it heavy on the ears for few.
Sun Conure vs Quaker Parrot
Popularly known as the monk parakeet, the Quaker parrot is an intelligent species of the parrot family and have quite different characteristics than that of a sun conure.
Talking abilities
Known to be a tough competition to the best talker of the parrot kingdom, the African Grey, the Quakers can learn quite an impressive number of words and phrases. They have their name registered among some of the best talking parrot species, unlike the sun conures. But sun conures aren’t known to be the talker of the species. The most they can manage is a bunch of few words which are difficult to comprehend.
Intelligent
Not only Quakers can mug up a long list of vocabulary, they also are famed to use them at the most appropriate time in a manner that fits the context well.
They can also be taught to identify various things in their surroundings like fruits, vegetables, furniture items, etc. Contrary to that, a sun conure isn’t your super-intelligent pet.
Nesting
Quaker parrots are known to be the only parrot species, among the existing 400 of them, who shows extreme nesting behavior. Making a home-like place inside the drawer of the owner’s bedroom can be a common nesting trait to a few of the species. But building elaborate apartment-like structures with precision to hold tens of pounds is a behavioral trait exclusive to the Quakers. On the other hand, the sun conures do not make any elaborate nests beforehand and prefer their given cages only.
Social
Here comes a similarity between both the species. Quakers and sun conures are both known to be extremely social and they thrive well where they get a chance to interact with their human flock a lot.
Territorial
Owning the cage comes naturally to Quakers. And they are known to guard their territory fiercely. Arranging their belongings like toys and placing the thing back to its original place if moved, is a part of their possessive nature. But with a sun conure, territory is not an issue. They do like a place of their own but aren’t particular about how things should be arranged therein.
Sun Conure vs Budgie
Besides the basic physical differentiation, sun conures and budgies have a difference in their behaviors too. And about the similarities, they both are from the parrot kingdom.
Loud
Unlike sun conures, budgies aren’t known to possess a screaming and screeching voice. Due to their small size, they cannot shout at the top of their lungs. Whereas, a sun conure does it like an expert without putting in much effort.
Cuddly
Sun conures are big fans of cuddles. Their ideal day would include snuggling up to the owner and being cuddled and patted by him. If the owner can fulfill this demanding cuddle behavior of his sun conure, he experiences a calm and pacified sun conure. On the other hand, budgies don’t demand much beyond a few occasional head scratches. A budgie might like to cuddle but in general he won’t make a fuss about it.
Energetic
Talking about the levels of energy, budgies have a clear edge over sun conures. Their energy levels are much higher with some sudden occasional bouts of excitement. That said, sun conures are also quite lively and energetic and will keep the owner on his toes with their antics but comparatively a little less than little budgies.
Bonding
Budgies and sun conures have a contrasting bonding behavior. Budgies are generally scared of human interaction as whether parent-raised or hand-held, they never get the chance to make positive contact with humans in the mass breeding process. Bonding with budgies takes months of patience and attention. But sun conures aren’t the most popular pet around the world like budgies and hence aren’t bred on a scale that they feel traumatized for being mishandled. They aren’t scared of humans and start bonding with the owner organically. It takes them a few days to a few weeks to get fully comfortable around humans but they won’t hide in a corner of the cage while seeing a human approaching.
Sun Conure vs Cockatiel
Not only physically, but a sun conure and a cockatiel also differ from each other behaviorally too. Though being from the same kingdom, you might find some underlying basic similarities.
Playful
Being playful is common to most of the parrot species. But each of them is on a different level of the spectrum. Sun conures are extremely playful and would want something or the other to keep them entertained. Give them toys and they’d immediately chew them all down in their playful behavior before you buy them some more. But Cockatiels are like calm infants who love to play at their generally slow pace. Unlike, sun conures, they wouldn’t let everyone in the vicinity know that they are super excited today, yet again.
Aggressive
A sun conure is extremely demanding and gets pissed if not given adequate time and attention. And the situation makes them aggressive than ever which can get difficult to handle. All one experiences is screaming and biting sun conure. On the contrary, Cockatiels are a calmer species and don’t get angry at the level of a sun conure. A few cuddles a day and they are more than happy. And if that can’t be possible, they wouldn’t turn the house upside down with their aggression.
Loud
With the amount of noise a sun conure can give off, he’s never been a choice for apartment dwellers. Keep him in a condo and you’ll hear constant complaints from neighbors about the disturbance they are experiencing because of the bird. But a Cockatiel is not capable to scream at a level to disturb the neighbors of an apartment dweller owner.
Final Words
Having a pet of a particular species is always a decision best left to the person who has to take care of him. Though all the suggestions based on experiences of closed ones are preferred but life is not constant. A thing which has suited someone else may not suit us and vice versa. So, bringing a parrot home of a particular species must be done after considering various facets of life: of our’s and them, for the well being of both.
