The conure is one of the most diverse commonly kept companion birds—with forty-two distinct species and numerous subspecies, there’s a conure for everyone. The most popular conures are the most free-breeding of the family—the green-cheeked and the maroon-bellied, the sun and jenday, and the nanday—for obvious reasons: supply for these birds equals or exceeds the demand and them affordable for the average bird owner who wants an affectionate bird with a huge personality and plenty of love for everyone in the family.

The movie, “Paulie,” about an exceptionally intelligent talking blue-crowned conure made that bird popular for many years and explained why a previously overlooked species suddenly became more available in the marketplace. “Paulie” showed the general public how much fun a conure could be. But conure enthusiasts knew that already. Despite the tendency to wake up the neighbors and to chew their way down the new mahogany banister, conures have remained an unwavering favorite for many years.

Conures are beautiful and various, but it’s their personality and intelligence that makes them a favorite of novices and bird experts alike—from the giant Patagonian conure to the little maroon-bellied, conures are amiable, highly trainable pets, easy going in general (with the proper socialization) and bond fiercely with their owners. Who could ask for more?

There are several new interests on the horizon for conure enthusiasts. No, scientists haven’t discovered a new species of conure, and no one has figured out how to stop conures from leaving “presents” on your shoulder yet, but there are several new ideas about conure ownership springing up among fanciers, and new mutations have conure breeders bustling to keep up with the demand for new conure colors.

How to Choose the “Right” Conure

The buzzword is going to be “responsibility” when it comes to bird guardianship. Conures have a reputation for being noisy, which can lead an owner to rethink its quality as a pet. Persistent attention-getting squawk and chatter often gets a conure less attention and more owners. Conures, like cockatoos and Amazons, are quite frequently given up because of their volume, especially when the owner’s lifestyle changes, such as moving to a condo or having a baby needing to sleep in peace and quiet.

You can guess the volume of a conure based on its size. The smaller the conure, the smaller the noise, and vice versa. A green-cheeked conure will be less noisy than a Patagonian conure. But volume doesn’t have anything to do with persistence.

Conures, especially the aratinga group, will continue their shrill calls until their owners are searching the Web for bird adoption agencies. Nandays are especially notorious for noise, though they make up for it with a dazzling personality.

Conures are also known for chewing anything that comes into their path. Nothing is sacred. Everything wooden, plastic, drywall, or paper is fair chewing material. Again, the size of the bird will match the size of the destruction to your home (should you be so silly as to turn your back). However, what the little conures lack in beak-size they make up for in slipperiness, and will find a way to chomp things you had no idea they could get to.

In terms of personality, a hand raised and well-socialized conure of any species can make a great pet if you take the time to interact appropriately with it. Basically, your choice comes down to availability, budget, visual preference, room in your home, and how much noise and chewing you can stand. And be sure that you’re going to keep your conure for the duration of its life, which can be over 30 years.

How about two? “One conure could be too many for the average pet owner if they select the wrong species of conure, one with traits they cannot tolerate such as loudness, destructiveness, nippiness, and even one that’s too demanding,” said Ray Dorge, co-author of A Guide to Popular Conures. Dorge recommends becoming familiar with your species of choice before buying—whether it be one, two, or more.

How to Keep Your Conure Quiet Some of the Time

You have to allow your conure some vocalization. Keeping a conure quiet 24 hours a day is an unrealistic goal. Use your bird’s natural instincts to help keep your space squawk-free some of the time. Birds thrive on routine. Most will vocalize heavily at dawn and at dusk—just like roosters. No, it’s not nice to wake up at dawn to a sun conure screeching its little orange head off. Simply cover the cage with a heavy, dark cloth (or several) and let your bird scream when you remove it. He’ll think it’s time to crow and you’ll get your sleep. It’s best if you do this regularly and start when your bird is young—birds have great internal clocks and may not let the dark cloth hinder their morning vocalizations.

Make a “squawking schedule” setting down times when you—and your neighbors—won’t mind the noise. A few hours out of the day should do the trick. During the times when you want your bird to be quiet, you will have to either interact with it, or find something it likes to do, like tear apart a wadded up ball of tissue paper with a nut inside, or dissemble Popsicle sticks you’ve glued together (with a small dab of non-toxic glue). You can make these things in advance and offer them to your bird at the same time each day. It will begin to look forward to the treat. But you will hear some squawking if you’re late with it!

How To Soundproof Your Home Against Conure Cacophony

If you can’t get your precious baby to stop its infernal screeching, think about soundproofing your home before you drive him to the local shelter. Take a look at he acoustics of the room where your conure lives. A room with a linoleum or tile floor, hardwood or metal cabinetry and furniture and four empty walls will not absorb the sound as would a carpeted room with plush furniture and drapery.

There are two issues to conure noise: owner disturbance and neighbor disturbance, both of which can be solved with soundproofing. B.J. Nash, technical director for Super Soundproofing Company, San Diego, California (soundproofing.org), suggests hearing-protection headsets for the conure owner, as well as simple home soundproofing anyone can do. “We’ve had a number of customers that have soundproof areas they put the bird into,” said Nash. “We have a super soundproofing absorbent mat. It’s a unique foam that doesn’t absorb odor or moisture and it can be washed.

Placating the neighbors is a little more involved. “The average person needing to protect the neighbors can block sound from going out of their windows with soundproofing foam cut to the size of the window and pushed in place,” suggested Nash. “This reduces the sound level 50% to 60%. Or, they can put up acoustical curtains over the walls and windows to help block sound. We also have some clear heavy plastic they can put over the window to block the sound and still let light in.”

Nash warns that a 50% sound reduction might not be enough. “Generally speaking, birds make loud discordant cries that are hard to predict, unlike traffic sounds that are at a low level,” Nash said. “Because bird cries are at a high frequency, passive sound control like the mat, foam, and barrier materials work very well. If you use the proper materials in the proper way, you can cut down a lot of the sound. If you reduce the sound by 50% you will detect a difference, but the sound itself is still quite loud. Every time you reduce it a few percentage points, it goes down another 50%. The best way to understand this is to think about turning the dial on your radio—every time you move it a smidgen, you’ve actually increased the volume 50%. A reduction of 70%, 80%, 90% is going to be a level you can live with.”

How to Keep Your Conure Entertained

Conures are busy birds. In the wild, a conure would have plenty to do. In the average home, a conure is not going to be nearly as busy as it would be flying through the rainforest looking for food, nesting sites, and watching out for predators. Your conure lives a life of leisure in comparison, but it still has all the energy and get-up-and-go as its wild cousins. Keeping your conure entertained is one of the keys to keeping it happy, quiet (some of the time!), and keeping it physically fit.

Standard wooden toys are a must for the conure, which is a bird that lives to chew, but there are several new types of toys on the market that will draw your conure’s interest. “Jukebox” toys that play a song are becoming popular as more song titles are available—your sun conure might like playing “You are my sunshine.”

Build-your-own commercial bird toys are making their way into the mainstream, and are as fun for your conure as they are for you. Of course, you can always knot some sisal rope around an empty toilet paper roll and watch your conure try to take it apart. Sometimes the most entertaining toys are the least expensive.

Food can be fun too. String a few seckel pears on to some sisal rope and hang it in the cage. Or you can use lady apples, kiwis, or large grapes—any kind of whole fruit that your bird will have to work at to eat. Popcorn and nuts wrapped in tissue paper and tied like a bon-bon with sisal rope is a rewarding toy. An almond can keep a smaller conure quiet for at least ten minutes—enough time for a squawk-free phone call!

How To Keep Your Conure From Chewing Your Antiques

Keeping your conure from chewing your furniture and antiques is a two-fold proposition. First, you have to keep on eye on your bird. It’s that simple. Or, have custom made furniture of acrylic and steel! Bird proofing your home is essential to keeping your conure safe and your dwelling unharmed.

Second, and most important, give your conure something to do in its own fun space. If your conure has a spacious and intricate place to play it will be less likely to roam over to your Picasso and use it as a beak sharpener. Conures are mischievous, but if they have a comfortable, entertaining spot and are taught to stay there, you have a better chance of keeping your valuables intact.

Make a play area particularly for your conure. This can be a combination of a couple of playgyms, a few tiered shelves, some rope, a couple of open cages, and some well-placed perches. You can make a conure Disneyland for very little investment. Some untreated plywood, shelving materials, and a drill are about all you need to get started.

How to Keep Up With Conure News

Keeping up with “conure news” is as easy as clicking a mouse. Conure breeders and fanciers are happy to share their successes with breeding rare conures and mutations, and a simple Web search will keep you up to date on this species. Most of the news regarding conures in the near future will be related to importation of rare species and the breeding of new mutations.

Recently, the Fish and Wildlife Service approved a breeding consortium to import some of the rarest conures. Many conure species are not available in the United States, and are quite coveted by breeders here. The group had some success, but recently ran into a red-tape roadblock. “We’re having difficulty bringing in the blue-throated conure and rose headed conure because there was no real legal exportation of these birds and we have to prove where they came from originally,” said Judi Robben, treasurer, assistant newsletter editor of the Pyrrhura Breeders Association and a member of the consortium. “Even though I can buy birds from in Africa, there’s no documentation of where they legally came from so I can’t bring them in. There has to be a long paper trail.”

Richard Cusick, also a member of the breeding consortium and the owner of Outback Aviaries in Fallbrook, California (www.outbackaviaries.com) has recently bred the first Roseifrons (subspecies of the painted conure) ever to be documented as having been bred in the United States, a huge victory for conure fanciers and for the rare species. Cusick also breeds conure mutations, mainly in the Pyrrhura family, which boasts the most mutations in the conure family thus far. Many of these are becoming popular in the pet trade, including the cinnamon and the yellow-sided green cheeks.

“The only other conure mutation common enough to be kept as a pet is the yellow-sided or ‘Voren’ black-capped conure,” said Cusick. “These birds are reasonably priced now that they are abundant. There are quite a few conure mutations that are very rare and quite expensive. The beautiful turquoise mutation of the green-cheek conure is one of these. This year I hope to produce one and I can't wait to see what it looks like.”

According to Cusick, other conure mutations being worked with in the U.S. include cinnamon Patagonians and Waglers, pied and lutino suns, lutino duskys, mitreds and nandays, turquoise half moon and peach-fronted conures. Howard Voren, expert breeder and namesake of the “Voren strain” black-capped conure, breeds the blue mutation of both the orange fronted (half moon conure) and the dusky, which he sells for $5000 a bird. Save your pennies conure lovers—there are more mutations on the way!