The Black-cap is one of the Pyrrhura conures, which is the half of the conure family most buyers do not know exists. If your experience of conures is a Sun or a Jenday screaming across a room, a Black-cap is a different proposition: the same comic, affectionate, pocket-parrot character at a fraction of the volume.
Quiet for a conure, not quiet
The honest version is that a Pyrrhura chatters and squeaks all day and has a sharp alarm call it uses when startled, but it has nothing like the carrying shriek of the Aratinga conures. Many people keep them in flats successfully. It is still a parrot, and a neighbour with thin walls will know it is there.
What they are like
Busy, curious, fond of burrowing into pockets and sleeves, and physical in their play. They are brave for their size and will take on birds much larger than themselves. Most keepers describe them as the personality of a big parrot in a body that fits a spare room.
Talking
A few words at most, in a small rough voice. Pyrrhuras are not bought for speech.
Compared with a Green-cheek
The Green-cheek is the Pyrrhura everybody knows and the Black-cap keeps almost identically - same size, same cage, same voice, same lifespan. Keepers tend to describe the Black-cap as a shade more independent and a shade less cuddly, but the difference between two individual birds is larger than the difference between the two species. Choose on the bird.
Living with one
Twenty to twenty-five years. A cage with room to fly across, a pelleted base with fresh vegetables, something to shred, and a tent or hide to sleep in - Pyrrhuras like to sleep enclosed and a bird without somewhere to tuck into will make do with somewhere worse.
Buying one
Ask whether it was hand-raised and how recently it has been handled. Ask about disease testing. If you are choosing between Pyrrhura species, go and meet both rather than deciding from a description. The breeders listed on this page raise Black-cap Conures and can be contacted directly through the site.