Blue Crowned Conures in the Wild: Natural History of a Popular Pet

[findi]

Hi All,
The Blue-Crowned Conure (a/k/a Blue-Crowned Parakeet, Sharp-Tailed Conure, Aratinga acuticaudata) has always had fans among parrot enthusiasts, but its popularity exploded in 1998 with the release of Paulie, a movie that featured one as the main “actor”. More recently, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, a documentary, also highlighted this species. Unfortunately, this type of publicity is not always ideal, as pets are often purchased for the wrong reasons – for example, owl sales soared in some places after Harry Potter was released!). I’d appreciate your thoughts on this. Blue-Crowned Conures are little studied in the wild. I’ve had the good fortune of observing both free-living and captive individuals, and today will focus on their natural history, and summarize their care needs. Please post your observations and impressions. Read article here: http://bitly.com/OiwnYl.
Comments and questions appreciated. As I do not place notices here each time I post a new article on That Bird Blog, you may wish to check in periodically or subscribe; you can do so here That Bird Blog. Please also check out my posts on Twitter Twitter.

Thanks, Frank

My Bio That Bird Blog Authors | That Bird Blog

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[ann]

interesting post, thanks for sharing. its sad that people buy pets for attention or as novelty "items". They are intelligent loving creatures that deserve time and care just like people. I have always wanted to visit telegraph hill and see the parrots there

 

[findi]

interesting post, thanks for sharing. its sad that people buy pets for attention or as novelty "items". They are intelligent loving creatures that deserve time and care just like people. I have always wanted to visit telegraph hill and see the parrots there

Hi,

Thanks for the kind words and your feedback, Best, Frank

 

[Lintini]

Hey I stumbled upon this the other day when I was thinking of adopting my bcc! It was very helpful to me and interesting! Thank you!!!

 

[findi]

Lintini,

Thanks for the kind words! Good luck with your new bird, best, Frank

 

[LauraT]

Great article and blog. Thanks for sharing.

Laura

 

[findi]

Great article and blog. Thanks for sharing.

Laura

Hi laura,

Thanks so much for taking the time to write in with your kind words. let me know if you need links to articles on any specific topics/birds, Enjoy, Best, Frank

 

[Lovelyloribeth]

Thank you so much for posting that Frank. Very interesting. Also, I added you to Facebook, followed you on twitter and enjoyed your biography very much. I hope to see you around the parrot forum more often! I would love to see some articles on Green Cheeks, since so many of us have them.

 

[findi]

Thank you so much for posting that Frank. Very interesting. Also, I added you to Facebook, followed you on twitter and enjoyed your biography very much. I hope to see you around the parrot forum more often! I would love to see some articles on Green Cheeks, since so many of us have them.

Thanks for the kind words, much appreciated. here's an article I wrote on Green Cheeks; Green-Cheeked Conures - Captive Care and Natural History | That Bird Blog. Please let me know if you need other links (blog search engine not always accurate). I don't use Facebook too much, so please post a note here or on a blog article if you'd like to reach me.

Enjoy, best, Frank

 

[WannaBeAParrot]

Hello Frank, Nice to meet you. I enjoyed the article. I have recently become intrigued by Blue Crown Conures and want to learn more about them.

I have a 30 year old cherry-headed (red-masked) conure and would love to read an article with a unique perspective or hard-to-come by information about them. Do you have a link? If not, perhaps you would consider writing an article in the future.

Thanks for what you do.

 

[findi]

Hello Frank, Nice to meet you. I enjoyed the article. I have recently become intrigued by Blue Crown Conures and want to learn more about them.

I have a 30 year old cherry-headed (red-masked) conure and would love to read an article with a unique perspective or hard-to-come by information about them. Do you have a link? If not, perhaps you would consider writing an article in the future.

Thanks for what you do.

Thanks so much for the kind words, pleasure to meet you. I've met people who have kept Cherry-Heads as free-ranging pets, within their natural range; have been planning to write this up. In meantime, this article provides an odd bit of natural history that might interest you - interactions between Half Moons and False Vampire Bats, not often mentioned in texts:
Drama in Central American Rainforests: The Half Moon, Orange-Fronted or Petz enjoy, best, Frank

 

[ruffledfeathers]

Good blog post. I think it is the strangest thing when people buy a pet after some kind of media explosion, a movie, etc. I have had chihuahuas for many years and they went through one of those explosions in probably the late 90's.

I had never even seen the movie Paulie until i put my deposit on my BCC and it certainly wouldn't have influenced my decision. Parrots are a lot of work to keep happy and healthy, as we all know. I am always glad that are relatively expensive because i hope it works as a deterrent to less serious people. (My lament about budgies--"throwaway" /novelty items because they are cute and cheap. So unfair to them. They are wonderful creatures. But that's another post......)

 

[findi]

Good blog post. I think it is the strangest thing when people buy a pet after some kind of media explosion, a movie, etc. I have had chihuahuas for many years and they went through one of those explosions in probably the late 90's.

I had never even seen the movie Paulie until i put my deposit on my BCC and it certainly wouldn't have influenced my decision. Parrots are a lot of work to keep happy and healthy, as we all know. I am always glad that are relatively expensive because i hope it works as a deterrent to less serious people. (My lament about budgies--"throwaway" /novelty items because they are cute and cheap. So unfair to them. They are wonderful creatures. But that's another post......)

Thanks for the kind words and thoughtful post; good points. Many parrots remain relatively expensive here, although declining somewhat in price as breeding advances - we saw he same with many reptiles; helps prevent collecting, but as you mention also causes problems. Australian readers report that the prices of many large native [parrots are dropping quickly, Eclectus are now a very-common;y kept species there...

Best, Frank