- Hey everybody.
Jamieleigh here from BirdTricks
and today's video is, well,
you probably guessed it from the title,
sun conures versus African greys.
Which one should you choose?
(slow mood music)
So it might be a little bit obvious
that I have both of these species in my flock.
I actually have three sun conures and they're all related.
They're all little sisters.
And I just have one Congo African grey.
This is Cressi over here.
And this is Phoebe over here.
Now there's a lot of differences in these two species.
So let me kind of talk about both.
Are you just wanting to be pet?
Oh, I was gonna take you down.
Guess not.
You want to come down now?
With a treat?
Here we go.
Good girl, Cressi.
Hi Phoebes.
(wings flap)
Ooh, Cressi.
So the main difference between these two species
is their size.
I consider sun conures small parrots
and I would consider the African grey a medium sized parrot.
The other big difference between the two
is the lifespan.
Your African grey is gonna live a lot longer
than your conure, probably double or triple
the amount of time as your sun conure
if given the right diet and proper environment to thrive.
So, but that's kind of said with both of them.
Another huge difference I would say is noise level,
but not in every aspect that you think.
Most people know that sun conures are incredibly noisy
and they have this scream
that seems like it can just go on forever
and never, ever, ever end.
Whereas African greys tend to be quite talkative.
Cressi knows how to whistle.
She has kind of a robotic voice sometimes.
She mimics our other birds
and she can make lots of fun little sounds.
Now one of my sun conures does talk,
which is pretty darn cute,
but Cressi is definitely better vocally, I would say,
than the sun conures.
You just pooped on my chair.
You just pooped.
Can I get a little wave?
A little wave?
Or is that just Lily?
Or Detka.
Okay.
Are you Detka, and I thought you were Phoebe?
You are Detka!
You know the spin?
Spin!
You are Detka.
Phoebe doesn't know that.
My bad, I thought you were Phoebe this whole time.
I thought she was Phoebe.
Obviously I can't tell my own sun conures apart.
All right, Cressi, you can come back if you want.
(wings flap)
Ooh, all good?
Okay, let me clean up this poop real quick.
What was the last thing I was talking about?
Oh, vocalizations.
So I will say, while the sun conures can be loud
and do kind of a repetitive scream that happens quite a lot.
African greys have the ability to get loud too.
And Cressi has a very high pitched kind of sentinel call,
is what we call it, when she's nervous about something
or she's warning the flock and it is ear piercing.
So I will say, even though sun conures
are bashed quite hard for their consistent scream,
African greys can definitely be obnoxious too
when it comes to vocals.
I know that this part won't pertain to everybody,
but when it comes to their flying ability,
I find that the smaller the bird,
the easier it is to condition flight training skills.
Also based on the bird's body condition and body type,
Cressi's a little bit more hefty
and just how her body is built,
she flies a little bit heavier.
We're getting hormonal.
We're gonna go over there until we are not.
And she's probably gonna come back.
But Cressi's built more like a fighter jet
where she just isn't as elegant or graceful of a flyer
as our other birds, like our sun conures,
who are just, get around a lot easier.
The other thing is the contact call.
African greys tend to go silent
where sun conures are definitely gonna contact with you.
African greys are much more hormonal.
Just saying.
Okay, the other part of the flying thing
is that there's a lot of things about the sun conures
that make them safer, actually, to free fly
than African greys.
Even though they're smaller, and you'd think
that they were less safe to fly,
I would prefer flying my sun conures
and actually fly them more
than I'm able to fly my grey, Cressi.
So I know that's kind of backwards thinking
where most people would think because the sun conure's
so much smaller, it would be less safe to fly.
But actually I find safety,
and the fact that I have three of them,
I find that I fly them a lot more often
and a lot more safely than I do Cressi.
I'm a lot more picky about where we fly you.
She's harder to see, she's harder to hear,
and she's not as skilled of a flyer just naturally.
She's not as agile and nice of a flyer
as the sun conures are.
They can really do some super amazing maneuvers.
And although she's incredibly skilled in her flight,
it's just not as easy for her to pick up and go
as it is the sun conures.
So I would say for free flight,
I definitely prefer the sun conure.
For everyday living and trainability
and just having a companion parrot,
I would probably have to go with Cressi, the African grey,
just because I find the company of greys
to be a little bit more, how do I say this?
It's just a little bit more enjoyable
because of that noise level.
So even though Cressi has some vocalizations
that I don't necessarily like,
it's not as constant as the sun conure,
which has been totally disproven in this video,
because you have been so quiet.
Actually you both been pretty quiet.
So noise level, you're not really getting
a clear comparison on.
But, does exist, I promise.
The other thing I found is just temperament.
Now this is quite the same, actually.
Cressi gets quite irritated from other birds,
especially the sun conures.
She's actually more likely to get along with my cockatoo
than she is with the conures.
So the fact that they're getting along so well right now
is probably 'cause I only have one in
and not all three and probably 'cause this one's not Lily.
But Cressi tends to get quite agitated
with the presence of other birds.
Whereas my sun conures tend to be
a little bit more manageable and not care as much
about other birds being around.
So I would say temperament wise,
they both can get quite agitated
with the presence of other birds,
but the one that's most likely to
is probably my African grey.
She's a little less easygoing compared to the conures.
As far as socialization goes and introducing these birds
to new people or friends or family,
I much prefer doing it with Cressi
than I do my sun conures.
My sun conures are overly friendly when free flying
and completely antisocial when indoors.
So it's kind of the opposite there,
and they can get set off quite easily.
So non-bird people who maybe want to allow them
to cuddle into their hair,
it turns into nesting quite quickly.
And so I see things going south
a lot easier with sun conures than I do with Cressi,
the grey, who's just a lot more easygoing with humans
than she is with parrots.
I will say as well,
I find the African grey personality
to be just a little bit more mellow
than I do find sun conure personality.
Sun conures tend to be a little bit more full of energy,
up to no good quite often,
and just looking for things to constantly get into,
whereas Cressi, she's either mellow,
or yes, she's all in looking for all the good things of food
because she's definitely a foodie.
So I would love to hear from you guys
in the comments,
those of you that have conures already,
or those of you that have African greys.
What do you like about your African grey
and what would you consider not a dislike,
but just maybe a not-so-great trait of theirs?
And are you happy that you went with the choice
that you did?
So if you're on the fence between conure and grey,
you kind of need to weigh your lifestyle options
of what will work best for you.
Do you live in an apartment or do you live in a home?
(bird squawks)
Can you handle the noise?
And kind of think worst case scenario with each species.
If you can handle them at their worst,
then you definitely deserve them at their best.
But if you can't,
then don't expect to ask a neighbor to do the same.
The last question I'm gonna cover
as far as African greys versus conures,
is I saw this a lot come up
about socializing the two of them.
As you've seen in this video,
my two have done okay together,
but that's not always the case.
I've showed over on Patreon
hormone season that we went through
where I swear every single bird of mine
wanted to eat another bird of mine.
(wings flap)
Well, of course.
(bird loudly chirps)
(wings flap)
Detka!
(kissing noise)
Baby girl, come on!
So Cressi, I don't know if you could hear her click,
yeah, come on, Cressi.
(Cressi whistles)
You chased her away, you did.
So that was something where you saw Cressi
get totally set off.
And now you're expecting a pet.
How about this?
Cressi, you do this one?
Nope, this one, there you go.
You got to put your foot down, though.
Put your foot down.
Just this, good.
So what happened was Detka came over,
and she wasn't trying to make Cressi mad
or do anything bad, but it spooked Cressi enough
that she ended up on my head
and then she flew after Detka and chased her away.
So Detka, or not Detka, yeah, Detka,
is on the other side of the room
knowing that she can't come over here
because Cressi will likely chase her.
So that's kinda what I'm talking about,
where she can be easily set off by other birds.
Whereas if she would have been a conure,
and another bird would have come over,
the conure probably would've cared less.
But she's a little bit more easily heightened
by other birds, which is something I don't prefer as much.
I would rather her to be a little bit more easygoing,
kind of like you are with humans,
but you're just not like that with birds.
Not so much.
Not so much like that with birds.
Okay, let's see if Detka is allowed back.
Detka.
(kissing noises)
(bird squawks)
Detka.
She is too nervous.
She started to come and then Cressi kind of postured,
but, Detka!
(bird squawks)
Come on, baby!
(Cressi's wings flap)
No, you're being so possessive.
So Cressi is just coming over
because she knows I'm calling Detka
and she doesn't want Detka to be able to come over.
You're very rude.
So I'm gonna go ahead and put Cressi away.
So that Detka can be a part of this last part of this video
but at least you got to see some not so great traits
of my African grey, Cressi,
because as easygoing as she always seems,
she's not that easygoing.
(bird squawks twice)
You come here?
And you're finally getting that noise level.
No more Cressi to chase you away.
No more Cressi.
Okay?
What a bully.
So I think just me personally,
I prefer a little bit larger birds
to the small sun conures.
I can still hold them and hold their feet and everything,
but I just kind of prefer it
to do it with medium and large birds.
I find medium and large a little bit easier to read
as far as body language, because they're a little bit slower
in their body language
where it tends to go smaller the bird,
the faster they move, and the faster they show everything
and they go through their movements.
And so it can be a little bit more confusing.
Sun conures though, they tend to be pretty obvious
with their body language
as far as they'll really fluff up and be super obvious
about some of the things they're feeling.
But I think overall I prefer the less flighty,
the more mellow temperament, and the less extreme
(bird squawks)
vocals, because these vocals, they're not so fun.
I think one more thing that I prefer
about the African grey versus the sun conure
is the way that they bite.
And I know that sounds ridiculous.
But the sun conures tend to really nip or pinch you.
And it tends to take us by surprise
because they're so little
they wedge their ways into,
they wedge their way into, like, little areas,
especially under the neck or under your hair by your neck
and things like that.
And it just drives me crazy to be bit by surprise
because I can't see the little bird,
than an African grey
who is not gonna be burrowing like that
and is gonna be a lot more obvious
about its intention to bite you.
So I think that's a big difference that I prefer as well.
All right, I don't want this to feel like
a total conure bash.
So if it's about free flight, the conure definitely wins.
And if it's about being more easily handleable,
the conure definitely wins.
If it's about noise though, not so much.
(wings flap)
And if it's about flight skills, the conure definitely wins.
So let me know which species you prefer.
The thing is, is that I do see people do a lot better job
with conures and captivity overall than African greys.
Are you coming?
Thinking about it?
(kissing sounds)
Detka.
So there has to be something to say for that
is that I do think that people may
maybe find the smaller beaks
and the smaller bodies a little bit more manageable.
No, you're avoiding the hand.
Come here.
What do you think?
Do you prefer sun conure or African grey?
(wings flap)
Detka.
Come here, baby.
Come on.
You're about to see some company.
(birds chirp in background)
Good girl.
Hey! - [Visitor] Hi.
All right, everybody,
so thank you so much for watching this video.
Let me know in a comment below
if you prefer conures or African greys.
(soft guitar music)