Pictures from the Book: Page 13 (Forte Soleil)

Stephen had not been exposed to birds as companions much before he met me. But he's made up for lost time - and now enjoys interacting with our own birds and the wild ones that visit us every day. This is one of my favorite photos of him, taken when we were still living in Ohio:

Forte Soleil is a female sun conure. She was a very tame, sweet little thing, and quickly selected Stephen as her "preferred human". She loved to climb around inside his sweater, poking her head out and looking around before diving back down in. I am pretty sure she thought his sweater was a nest box - as she would defend the territory quite fiercely.

We loved her and hated to give her up, but are in agreement on one thing: we'll never own another sun conure. Why? If you ever get to hear one screeching, oh.... lordy... it's bad. She didn't have the volume of a macaw, of course, but her scream was piercing in it's own way.

One of my favorite bird books is "Birds Off the Perch" by Grindol, Lachman, and Kocher. In their book, the authors have a table comparing the traits of various birds. The table includes a "Loudness" rating, and here's what they say about sun conures and macaws:

LOUDNESS
Blue and Gold Macaw: Loud
Sun Conure: Extremely Loud