Baby parrot, novice owner

[LoriP]

About 6 weeks ago I was given a baby parrot. Someone visiting from the states saw her (we have arbitrarily designated it female, not wanting to refer to our baby as "it") and thinks she may be a Conure. (would love to know for sure.) She seems to be doing well, and my husband and I (we are an older retired couple) are nuts about her. But we are complete beginners and obviously have a lot of questions. Is this a place where we can ask them, or find answers?

BTW I am also a complete novice regarding forums. Not sure if I did this right (what are "tags"?). Hopefully I will be able to figure out how to access a reply if I get one

Lori in Honduras

 

[LoriP]

That was supposed to be "Baby Parrot, novice owner"!

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Welcome to the forums Lori,

This is certainly the place to ask questions. Hopefully we will be able to give good answers. With all the experienced parrot owners on here I think we usually do pretty well.

In regards to using the forum you seem to have it down. I fixed the typo in the title. As for 'tags' those are just used for searching the forums. If you, for example, tagged a conversation with the word "conure" then that conversation would come up in search results if someone searched for the word "conure."

If your new baby is a conure you are quite lucky - though I'm a bit biased as a conure-lover myself. They are wonderful birds, but despite their general medium/small size they can be quite a handful. Most conures can be VERY loud when they want to be and they can bite VERY hard when they want to.

If you haven't experienced it yet odds are you will get a few nasty bites throughout the relationship with your bird. Such behaviors are inevitable (at some point) with a conure, but those behaviors need not be the norm. For reference my Auggie can take a good chunk out of my finger if he gets mad/startled/moody/etc. We have gone through our phases where I was getting bit two to three times a day. But with a bit of patience and a little training for him - and a lot for me - the last real bite is a fading memory.

Anyways, you think it's a conure but your not sure? Do you have any pictures of him you could show?

 

[LoriP]

Wow! thanks for the quick response (though it took me a while to figure out how to get to it.) I have some pics of when I first got her, which was the end of May. At that time my vet (NOT an avian vet but practicing in Central America so some experience)estimated she was about two months. She was not yet feeding herself but started to about two weeks later. I will take current pictures and post them later or tomorrow. should I post them in the Q&A section, or to this correspondence?
Thanks again
Lori

 

[Auggie's Dad]

You can post them right in the discussion if you want - or there is also a photo gallery section (see the "Photo Gallery" button above this discussion).

 

[LoriP]

Hello,
I was going to send you some pictures. some things came up over the weekend -- when I cam back to the site I could not figure out how to get back to this conversation. So I decided to post the pics on the question and answer section -- spent considerable time trying to do so, unsecusfully. I have house guests currently, and one of them has told me that my problem is my pictures (taken directly from the camera) are larger than the file size the forum will accept. Hopefully at some point I will figure out how to re size them and then can try again. From what I have seen and read about conures I am tentatively assuming that is what she is although I have not seen her exact coloring in the pics I have seen. Can any of her coloration be expected to change as she matures? (she has a large, somewhat irregular patch behind her beak and between her eyes which is mostly white but with some tinges of yellow and a couple of dark spots, which I have not seen in any of the pictures.)
I really thank you for your interest, and will be exploring the site as time allows (and I am sure posting questions) I did not want you to think I had just dropped out fo sight!

LoriP

PS what you said about biting was not very encouraging, but I am sure we will manage to cope!

 

[Auggie's Dad]

There are MANY species of conure, so I can't say about the color changing. Some species certainly do change as they age (sun conures being one example).

What does she look like? Or what pictures have you found online that she resembles?

 

[LoriP]

Again I thank you for your interest. And again I apologize for the delay in responding. I probably should explain that I live in Honduras. The majority of my online time the last 3 weeks has been devoted to keeping up with events here and trying to get the word out to the world regarding the true situation, which has been badly misrepresented especially in the media. My internet connection is quite slow, and I am a slow typist!
Besides the opinion of the people I mentioned who saw her as a baby, I guess I am thinking Conure based on her general size and shape. I have not found her coloring in the pictures I have seen. (On the other hand I checked a conure site and saw how many species there are...) I will try a bit of a description:
If our vet was correct re her age when we got her, she should be around 4 months old at this point. Near as I can tell (she's not crazy about the tape measure) she is about 7 1/2 inches heed to tail -- the tail is about 2 1/2 inches of that length and appears to be still growing. She weighs about 5 oz. She has a rather large, irregular light area above her beak (which is shades of ivory) and between her eyes. This was mostly white but seems to have more and more light yellow feathers, along with a few dark flecks. Her eyes are large and very dark, with a light colored naked ring around them. Her head (behind the light area) is dark -- charcoal would be best to describe. The leading edges of her wings are also dark. Her back, wings and tail are green, but the feathers have a very dark edging making her look a darker green than she actually is. Her chest is more of a light olive green, but with some dark streaks. (She also still has quite a lot of down showing through the feathers.) The flight feathers were lovely shades of blue. The underside of her tail has red blue and teal feathers, which can be seen from the top only when she flares her tail.
She seems quite sociable. She is very vocal, especially when there is anyone around. Her favorite place is on a shoulder, where she will sit making periodic "contented" sounds for as long as we can let her. If I put her on the floor to explore, she follows me around and at the first opportunity climbs onto my foot.

I know this is very long, but wanted to give you as much info as possible. Any ideas? Or should I just wait till a) she is older and/or b) I can figure out how to send pictures?

Thanks for putting up with me!

LoriP

 

[TexDot33]

OH, I think I know what this is ... wait a second ... let me see if I can come up with something ... I love ID's and I think I have this one too ... but in the mean time, let me ask this one question ... are his/her feathers really really soft, almost SILK-like??

******* time passes *******
I think you might have a Patagonian Conure on your hands. There are a few things about the identification that don't fit, right now, the white spot on the crown of the head (lead me to think you actually might have had a Bronzewing Pionous) and the size ... Patagonian Conures tend to be almost 12 inches from beak to tail ... BUT, this could change as this little one is still young ... I have included a picture, COULD this be your little one?

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Is it sounding like a GCC to you?

Does she by chance have .... green cheeks?

Some things don't QUITE match, but that would be a starting point or frame of reference.

 

[TexDot33]

Is it sounding like a GCC to you?

Does she by chance have .... green cheeks?

Some things don't QUITE match, but that would be a starting point or frame of reference.

No white on a GCC ... I was thinking more along the lines of a Painted Conure, but the chest is BLACK on a painted ... I think it's a Patagonian ...

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Do patagonians have white on the head, the ones I've seen were black there.

Some GCCs have white, such as the cinnamon GCC. But they're lighter in general which might not fit other characteristics.

 

[TexDot33]

An immature one might ... I haven't ever seen a baby ... this would be a lot easier with a picture ... the only bird I can think of with that fits a lot of these descriptions is a Bronzewing ... better put up a picture of that too, just in case ...

Upon further review, bronzewings have a blue chest ... not black ... forgot that detail ... we really need a picture for an accurate ID

 

[LoriP]

Hello again,--been traveling.
Definite no to TEXDOT33, but thanks for the suggestion. With the exception to head, flight feathers and underside of tail (and the dark edging on the wing and tail feathers I mentioned) this bird is basically green, but with a lot of different shadings. To Auggie's dad, yes, it is very subtle but under strong light I can see green cheeks. Hadn’t' noticed that before. Also under light there is some of the same green behind the light patch on her head.

NOW... since I can't figure out how to resize my pictures to fit your site, I have managed to upload them to a "web album" The URL is http://picasaweb.google.com/HFPollard If you can view them I am sure it will help.

FYI The first was taken June 20 -- I included it to show the flight feathers which have since been clipped. The rest were taken July 18th. I think her tail has grown a little longer even since then.
LP

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Huh, another ivory beak on what otherwise looks like a conure. I'm stumped.

It's certainly not a cinnamon GCC, but it still does have many GCC traits. That beak and head patch are certainly NOT GCC.

I'm completely stumped. Either it's a hybrid ... or ... or ... well heck I dunno what else. If you ever figure it out be sure to tell us.

She is adorable though.

Judging my her size and body shape I'd recommend looking towards foods/products for small conures such as GCCs.

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Wait, she's still really young right. The big eyes have got my attention - she still has to grow into them. Any chance she could just be a really young amazon? A white fronted would match most of the characteristics.

 

[LoriP]

I assume you were able to view the pictures? If the vet was right about his estimate of her age when I got her, she would now be about 4 months old.
I don't know if I made this clear before, but she comes from north central Honduras.
Do you think there would be any point in posting the link to her pictures on the Q&A forum of this site? Maybe more exposure? Or shall I just give it up and decide I have "some kind" of small Central American green parrot. (I guess it is not really essential to know exactly what kind!)
Thanks once again for all your help.

LP

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Yup, can see the pictures. Each time I look I notice different things though. Those are amazon nares.

I'm not sure how fast amazons grow, I figured she'd be bigger by now if she was an amazon, but that seems the most likely.

If she was wild caught then she almost certainly isn't a hybrid and the location narrows it down greatly.

If we figure she may be small yet she'd be a dead on match for a St Vincent Amazon, but they are not found naturally in Honduras. Could also be a Mealy Amazon.

You could try the Q&A section, but I think most members check out most of the new threads regardless of topic their under.

 

[LoriP]

Nares?
99% certain it is yes to wild caught but will try to verify. Will check back if anything changes as she matures. Meanwhile most of the questions I have are I think pretty generic to parrots in general.

 

[TexDot33]

Not a conure, lacking a long "cone-like" tail ... this one's little tail is a little stumpy ... this one is probably a Pionous maybe, a blue headed Pionous .... but I would bet a few bucks this guy's in that family.