I'm thinking bout getting another bird.. I need suggestions

Im thinking of staying in the conure family for the simple fact that I keep hearing conures prefer their own. I'm looking for a bird bigger than a green cheek, and a bird that wont break the bank. I am not looking to spend a grand or anything. No more than $500 but prefer alot cheaper. I've always liked black capped conures, but open to other suggestions.

i've always thought nandays were so beautiful. but hey, i'm just going off looks hah.

white eye conure

Gold capped! Not like I'm biased

Pinkstiletto66 said:

Im thinking of staying in the conure family for the simple fact that I keep hearing conures prefer their own. I'm looking for a bird bigger than a green cheek, and a bird that wont break the bank. I am not looking to spend a grand or anything. No more than $500 but prefer alot cheaper. I've always liked black capped conures, but open to other suggestions.

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I have 3 GCCs. I used to have 2, but bought one just to get it out an abused home. Of the first two, one likes and the other dislikes the third, but none of them screams in a jealous rage...

Noting that, when I had 2 GCCs, I had 2 parrotlets. The GCCs would SCREAM IN UTTER RAGE when I went to play with the parrotlets. Rusty definitely did, but the otherwise cool and calm Scooter was VERY angry as well. How dare I try to pamper the pacific blue puffball...

I gave up the parrotlets for adoption. It was the lesser of two evils.

From a distance, I held my newcomer Tybbi so they could all see the interaction - they all saw me and gawked, but did not scream in rage or anything approaching that.

So, my story - summed up - basically says you're right - conures prefer their own... it's definitely safe with other conures (within reason and to observe and respect each bird's likes and dislikes), but with other species the GCCs might get very obstreperous and jealous. I'd probably stick with another GCC or Pyrrhura, but Blue Crowns - thankfully - are one of the more quiet Aratingas, usually making medium-volume chirps, even at dusk and dawn... they have their LOUD moments but do seem to be more consistently quiet compared to Sun Conures... which reminds me about that conure book I want pick up... it had a good table of conure types and vocal levels pertinent to dwelling (of which Blue Crown was one of two Aratinga types to be given "OK" status for apartments; the others all said "NO"... but my blue crown doesn't get as loud as a vacuum, or as loud (or as often) as the human toddler two doors down when it cries... and all Pyrrhuras are definitely YES for apartments! )

taylor_ said:

i've always thought nandays were so beautiful. but hey, i'm just going off looks hah.

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I can vouch for Nanday's beautifulness, both looks and personality wise.

Nandays are amazing birds, so cuddly, funny, friendly, smart and playful. Their only con is that they're loud, like a sun or Jenday conure. They have a very shrill screech which can be annoying for some people. I don't find it that bad, but some people think it's worst then a cockatoo or macaw, even though it's not as loud. I personally think they're over reacting...

Just be ready in case they don't along, you may have to separate cages and have individual out-of-cage time.

I was lucky with my conures, they both adore each other, but some conures just don't want to mix.

If you're bird shows any signs of aggressiveness or teratorial behaviours, he may not get along or willingly accept a new bird in the "flock".

Didn't like the Alexandrine, so out of the nandays, black capped, gold capped, and jendays, who are the biggest? Like they say a GCC is about ten inches and mine appears to be that (he/she is one year old.) Are they significantly louder than GCCs? I left out suns because I hear they are REALLY loud.

I'm leaning towards the Nanday, he/she is beautiful. Like for those who have GCC's and other conures rate the level of loudness from a 1-5, 5 being the loudest and rate the other birds. Thanks in advance.

Pinkstiletto66 said:

Didn't like the Alexandrine, so out of the nandays, black capped, gold capped, and jendays, who are the biggest? Like they say a GCC is about ten inches and mine appears to be that (he/she is one year old.) Are they significantly louder than GCCs? I left out suns because I hear they are REALLY loud.

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Nandays are one of the bigger conures, they are larger then sun conures.

Here is a pic of mine with Lola the Sun conure;



If you are not looking at sun conures because of the noise factor, do NOT get a nanday conure. They are just as loud if not louder. They are amazing birds, but their call is not something a lot of people seem to be able to handle. I would call my conures quiet conures, because they only scream in the morning when the sun comes up and we're getting ready for work and making breakfast, they get all excited... and when we get home from work. When they do go off, it's loud. If they go off on your shoulder, you actually lose your hearing for a few seconds and it literally causes a bit of pain. Away from your shoulder, I find it tolerable. I have found my girls to be a bit quieter then others.

But yeah... if you're worried about noise, a nanday is not for you.

I would suggest another pyrrhura conure.

I think Im going to youtube a nanday call. I never heard any other yell/call beside my GCC's. I am only going based on my GCC.

Pinkstiletto66 said:

I'm leaning towards the Nanday, he/she is beautiful. Like for those who have GCC's and other conures rate the level of loudness from a 1-5, 5 being the loudest and rate the other birds. Thanks in advance.

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Rating quiet birds from 1~5, I would rate something like a Budgie a 1, I would rate a Green Cheek a 3 and a bird like a Cockatoo or Macaw at a 5 or 7. I would give a Sun, Jenday or Nanday Conure a 4 or 5.

Green Cheeks are considered quiet CONURES, not quiet birds. They do not usually make the shrill, high pitched, grating "screech" the Aratinga (sun, jenday, nanday) Conures can make. I think that Sun and Nanday Conures are greatly exaggerated when it comes to volume, but I think people find their sound more annoying then "loud". I personally find Cockatoos to have the most annoying, loud and ear-bursting scream there is, while some people would argue a Sun Conure is much worse. I don't really see how, but a lot of people think this.

The problem with Sun and Nanday Conures is the pitch, while they may not be as loud, the pitch of their call can be very irritating to a lot of people and can hurt your ears if they're right next to you or on your shoulder. Again, I don't find it THAT bad, and I really think people exaggerate it, but it is loud and high pitched, I won't deny that. When we get home at night, you can barely hear yourself think, lol. They get so excited that they're really loud and don't calm down for about 5-10mins. It can be quite a loud experience and I can imagine if this went on during the day or you had sensitive neighbours or family, they would get annoyed by it.

I am lucky (or perhaps my birds are well trained) that my birds do not scream for no reason and do not scream while we are gone. If you had a Sun Conure or Nanday Conure screaming for 10-15mins non-stop, 5-10 times through out the day, this is when it becomes unbearable for people to deal with and makes people around you unhappy.

Nanday Conures are AMAZING birds... amazing, totally underrated and I would recommend one to people in a heartbeat, but you have to understand and appreciate how loud these birds can be. They are nothing compared to a Green Cheek Conure in terms of pitch or volume.

If you are really set on a Nanday Conure, I would recommend going and meeting them in real life, you can see and hear what they are like. I have some good quality sound files of my two being noisy (and making other cute noises), if you would like to listen to them. There aren't a lot of videos of Nanday Conures screaming on youtube, and it really doesn't compare to what they're like in real life.

Thanks.. I think I will take a trip to a petsmart and see.

Id like to hear your files please.

I'm actually out of the house at the moment, but as soon as I get home I'll upload them for you.

Here is another pic for size comparison if you're interested, too;

She looks pretty big in that pic, but she's not really. You can see in my sig that she fits into my hand, and my hands are pretty normal size... but I may just have a small sun conure. :09:

bumblebec said:

Rating quiet birds from 1~5, I would rate something like a Budgie a 1, I would rate a Green Cheek a 3 and a bird like a Cockatoo or Macaw at a 5 or 7. I would give a Sun, Jenday or Nanday Conure a 4 or 5.

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A bit of an OT post.

I remember the warm breezy Australian summer afternoons when I would look over to the tops of the tall, softly swaying trees about 250 metres away and spot a small group of sulphur crested 'toos.
They would start screaming, the ear-piercing sound drowning out the noise of the traffic on the nearby main road. I could even hear them from deep inside my house behind many closed doors with my head under a pillow.

I would then hear a response call from a massive flock of incoming cockatoos that were beyond my vision over the distant horizon. I can't yet see them, but I can hear they're getting closer...

Some years later I moved to a house next to Melbourne International Airport for some piece and quiet.

You can train your nanday to have set times for screeching and getting out all that noisy energy. Pepper talks too so a lot of the time I hear, "What are you doing? What? What? Bless you," between screeches. His bursts never go over 2 minutes. After that he growls to signal that he's ready for cuddles. I think I got a confused bird; he doesn't know what growling is for.

Awwww... My Birdie usually screams in the morning, and when he hears other birds tweeting.

bumblebec said:

Pinkstiletto66 said:

I'm leaning towards the Nanday, he/she is beautiful. Like for those who have GCC's and other conures rate the level of loudness from a 1-5, 5 being the loudest and rate the other birds. Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

Rating quiet birds from 1~5, I would rate something like a Budgie a 1, I would rate a Green Cheek a 3 and a bird like a Cockatoo or Macaw at a 5 or 7. I would give a Sun, Jenday or Nanday Conure a 4 or 5.

Green Cheeks are considered quiet CONURES, not quiet birds. They do not usually make the shrill, high pitched, grating "screech" the Aratinga (sun, jenday, nanday) Conures can make. I think that Sun and Nanday Conures are greatly exaggerated when it comes to volume, but I think people find their sound more annoying then "loud". I personally find Cockatoos to have the most annoying, loud and ear-bursting scream there is, while some people would argue a Sun Conure is much worse. I don't really see how, but a lot of people think this.

The problem with Sun and Nanday Conures is the pitch, while they may not be as loud, the pitch of their call can be very irritating to a lot of people and can hurt your ears if they're right next to you or on your shoulder. Again, I don't find it THAT bad, and I really think people exaggerate it, but it is loud and high pitched, I won't deny that. When we get home at night, you can barely hear yourself think, lol. They get so excited that they're really loud and don't calm down for about 5-10mins. It can be quite a loud experience and I can imagine if this went on during the day or you had sensitive neighbours or family, they would get annoyed by it.

I am lucky (or perhaps my birds are well trained) that my birds do not scream for no reason and do not scream while we are gone. If you had a Sun Conure or Nanday Conure screaming for 10-15mins non-stop, 5-10 times through out the day, this is when it becomes unbearable for people to deal with and makes people around you unhappy.

Nanday Conures are AMAZING birds... amazing, totally underrated and I would recommend one to people in a heartbeat, but you have to understand and appreciate how loud these birds can be. They are nothing compared to a Green Cheek Conure in terms of pitch or volume.

If you are really set on a Nanday Conure, I would recommend going and meeting them in real life, you can see and hear what they are like. I have some good quality sound files of my two being noisy (and making other cute noises), if you would like to listen to them. There aren't a lot of videos of Nanday Conures screaming on youtube, and it really doesn't compare to what they're like in real life.

Click to expand...

Were you able to find the files?