What kind of bird is this

thats a Mitred Conure. http://www.avianweb.com/mitredconures.html

Looks like a cherry headed conure.

Check out "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" for a really moving documentary about some of these guys (and girls).

That's what I thought someone is trying to sell him as an amazon
And I had to make sure that he wasn't just to inform the owner if they don't know

its not a cherry headed cause if it was it would have a more solid and large red patch on its head and red on the shoulders.

Appears to be a Mitred Conure to me.

I stand corrected. I think also the lack of the bits of red on the "shoulder" make it look more like a mitred as well.

Still, the movie is well worth watching

I agree that movie was great!!! I watched it with my fids

I watched it as well, very good documentary!!! I followed him for quite sometime until not much news on it....

The worst part of that movie was the Red Tail Hawk at the end.But i guess that's the way it is , living in the "wild".

Looks like a possible mitred x cherry head hybrid to me... but I would need more photos of the bird... clearer photos... and more detailed... also, age of bird and weight.

Looks like there's too much red for a mitred, and too little for a cherry head....


I have seen mitred x blue front amazon hybrid and have heard of other conure x amazon hybrids.... but definitely not an amazon! LOL Maybe because this bird comes from the same general region that amazons come from? Therefore it's an amazon?

Granted, the green cheek conure makes for one very tiny "grey breasted macaw"....

Could it be a young cherry head? Just reading Mark Bittner's book at the moment and he talks about the young birds starting out green and the red gradually comes in as the bird matures.

Unlikely, Jayy.

Judging from the photo, this bird is larger than a cherry head. There are no red feathers at the bend of the wing. It probably has a dark red line right above the nares. I'll provide some photo comparisons....




Cherry Head - notice the red in the wings!




vs (Northern) Mitred - notice the lack of red!





Cherry head - uniform red coloring






Mitred - darker red right at the nares








And together....







Another interesting difference between the two.... in cherry heads with the full coloring, the red extends past the eye from the nose. In mitreds, the red *should not* extend past the eye on top of the head at all (which you can go back and look at Charlie's head!).

Now, there *ARE* 3 different subspecies of mitred conures, which means that the amount of red can vary between birds... and Charlie so happens to have the least amount of red of all the subspecies! The other two subspecies have a lot more red in the cheek area, with one having full red cheeks - similar to the bird pictured here.

However, I am not quite set on the idea that the mitred conure (first post) is a pure. He might be, but I'm a little skeptical.