The Sun Conure is one of the most recognisable parrots kept as a pet: a small, brilliantly coloured bird with an outsized personality and a voice to match. They are affectionate, comic, endlessly busy, and completely bonded to the people who raise them. They are also, by common consent of the people who breed them, among the loudest birds you can bring into a house.
What they are like
Sun Conures want to be with you. They will ride on a shoulder, burrow into a shirt, lie on their backs in your hand, and follow you from room to room. For somebody who wants a bird that is genuinely interactive rather than ornamental, there are few better. That same need for company is the catch: a Sun Conure left alone all day is a bird that becomes loud, destructive, or feather-plucked. They are not a bird to buy for a house that is empty from eight until six.
The noise
This is the part worth being blunt about, because it is the reason most Sun Conures change homes. Their contact call is a piercing, repeated screech that carries through walls and across gardens. They are not constant screamers, but when they call, it is loud enough to be heard several houses away, and no amount of training removes it - it is how the species talks.
If you live in a flat, a terrace, a shared house, or anywhere with a noise-sensitive neighbour, think hard. People who love their Sun Conure and people who rehome one within a year usually describe exactly the same bird. The difference is almost always the living situation.
Talking
Sun Conures can learn words, but they are poor talkers next to an African Grey or an Amazon - expect a handful of words, often indistinct, and no guarantee of any. If talking is the reason you want a parrot, this is the wrong species. Buy a Sun Conure for the company, not the conversation.
Colour and age
Young Sun Conures are mostly green, and colour up gradually over the first couple of years into the orange and yellow the species is known for. A green juvenile is not a different bird, a sick bird, or a hybrid - it is a Sun Conure that has not finished. Breeders price and describe birds accordingly, so if you are comparing a vividly coloured adult with a greener youngster, you are usually looking at an age difference rather than a quality one.
Living with one
Expect a bird that lives twenty to thirty years with good care - this is a decades-long commitment, not a few years. They need a cage wide enough to move across rather than merely tall, several hours a day out of it, a varied diet built on pellets with fresh vegetables and limited fruit, and something to destroy that you do not mind losing. Toys are not an extra for this species. A bored Sun Conure finds its own entertainment, and you will not like the choice it makes.
Buying one
Sun Conures are widely bred, which is good news for choice and bad news for care: the species attracts volume sellers as well as serious breeders. Ask how the bird was weaned and at what age, ask to see it interact with the person selling it, and ask what it eats now so you can continue it. A breeder who raises these birds properly will have plenty to say about the noise before you have to raise it - if nobody mentions it, that tells you something.
The breeders listed on this page raise Sun Conures and can be contacted directly through the site. Their prices, and what the species has sold for over the years, are shown above.