The sun conure is bold in both appearance and in personality. Suns are known for their vocalizing, which can be loud a times, as well as their playfulness and adventurous nature.
Color: orange, yellow
Size: small
Lifespan Up to 20 years
Sounds: Vocal communicator
Interaction: Social
The sun conure is one of the more popular conures of its size due to its stunning plumage, its extraordinary disposition, and its exceptional quality as a companion bird. Sun conures are lively, vocal, and expressive; this is a bird best known for its beauty and its big mouth. The sun conure is approximately 12 inches long, and is most recognizable by its bright orange and yellow coloring, often mottled here and there with splotches of green.
The sun conure has a black beak, white rings around its eyes, and a long, tapering tail. The sunny’s striking coloration and sweet temperament makes it a favorite among pet owners and a darling with experienced aviculturists because it is easily bred. Immature birds do not reach their full coloration for about two years. Though the coloration between the sexes is very similar, the males are said to be slightly brighter. Males are also said to have a squarer, flatter head and females a rounder, smaller head, though only experienced breeders are good at eyeing the birds and making an educated guess. Certainly there’s no difference in pet quality.
Care & Feeding
The sun conure is no messier than smaller birds and loves to be outside of the cage for playtime. A sunny will revel in its owner’s attentions and isn’t a bird that enjoys being left alone. It will appreciate another sun conure as a “comrade” and will not lose its pet quality if the owners are attentive to both birds. Because it’s in the Aratinga family, it can be paired with a jenday, mitred, nanday, gold-capped, blue crowned, or another Aratinga, but not for breeding purposes. These birds should be exclusively platonic pals. Some breeders create “Sundays” or “Jensuns” but this is not recommended because hybridization taints the already limited gene pool.
A sun conure should be offered a nutritionally balanced manufactured diet, as well as a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Conures have busy beaks, which makes Lafeber foods a conure favorite. Lafeber’s Avi-Cakes, Pellet-Berries and Nutri-Berries offer balanced nutrition that appeals to a conure’s chewing needs.
A sun conure can live between 15 to 25 years with proper nutrition, exercise, and regular veterinary visits. Breeding females or pets laying eggs without a mate are prone to egg binding and calcium deficiency. Sun conures that are confined to a small cage are prone to becoming overweight as well.