How Do Conures Show Affection? [9 Signs]

If you own or are looking into owning a conure you must be wondering how they show affection and appreciation. I was wondering the same thing since I saw my neighbor’s conure jump around the cage with excitement when he entered his house. Below are the results of the research I did on the topic.

Conures show affection through kissing, preening, eye pinning, cuddling, singing, cooing, and purring, love bites, Regurgitation, Falling asleep on their owner, Flapping, and fluffing, and wagging their tails.

Some types of conures may show affections in ways that we have not mentioned above. The key to learning how your conure shows affection to you is to be keen especially when you have been separated for a while and happens to walk into the room.

How do conures show affection?

Regurgitating food

I know it sounds disgusting that a bird will want to regurgitate partially digested food just to show you how much they love you.

Well, this behavior is very common among parrots and other birds. It is even more profound during the courtship period.

In the wild when male birds are approaching their mating partners most of the time you will find them regurgitating partially digested food for the partner.

Regurgitating is also used to feed their young ones. When your conure regurgitates it’s food on you, or when it sees you.

Do not get disgusted, he or she is just trying to show some affection.

Cuddling

Do conures like to cuddle? Definitely, conures fall into the category of parrots that like to cuddle. During cuddle time conures will even poke their head out of the collar. Cuddling is one of the easiest and best ways for conures to show affection.

In fact, if a conure is used to you, they will even try to climb under your shirt. Conures love to interact with around, this trait makes conures one of the best birds for people with family or children.

Children should be taught how to deal with the pet conure to avoid misunderstanding.

The best time to bond with your conure is during the feeding time and cuddle time. You can also take advantage of the moment and teach the conure some tricks.

Kisses

Do conures kiss their owners? Yes, conures like to kiss their owners as a show of affection. While they will not kiss as we humans do, conures kiss by bringing their beaks close to your cheeks, lips, or face.

To some extent, conures will even try to imitate the sound of real human kiss.

Sometimes a conure kiss will involve nibbling, some may even stick their tongue out and try to lick the person they are showing affection to.

Birds normally learn this behavior from their parents when they are young. This behavior is then carried along to their adulthood and helps to cement relationship especially during courtship and mating.

Some parrots are better at it than others.

Contact Calls

When a conure wants attention from you or they are excited to see you. They will produce their high-pitched screech, it can a bit complicated especially when owners rush to the cage when conures make this sound.

For instance, if your conure wants attention and it happens to make that high-pitched screech and then you show up. It will never stop screeching until you show up.

Therefore, you should try to give your conure a cue, to stop the excessive screeching when seeking attention.

For instance, you can whistle back to your conure when they screech to let them know you are around and can hear them.

However, the problem with this cue comes when you are not around to whistle back and your conure is screeching. They will screech until they hear your cue which can be quite annoying to neighbors.

A trait that makes conures bad pet birds for appartments.

cooing, singing, or purring

As mentioned above conures can be quite noisy, sometimes too noisy for the liking of some people. That why we recommend doing extensive research before choosing a pet bird.

This will prepare you before hand of what to expect.

That said, conures will make a plethora of sounds, sing, coo, and even purr in the presence of a person they like to show affection to.

While not all conures will purr like a cat, when your conure does, do not be afraid they are just trying to show you how much they love you.

In fact, some conures can even imitate your movement.

Sleeping on the owner

In the wild conures literally sleep with one eye open. Always ready to fly away incase of any impeding danger.

So, when a conure sleeps on your lap or shoulder it shows how much it trusts you. This means it is comfortable enough around you to let its guard down.

The best way to encourage this behavior is to remain calm, do not make sudden movement or wear clothes that will snugg its claws.

Fluffing Feathers

Apart from singing, cooing and making all sort of noises when you walk in the room where your conure is.

They also like to fluff their feathers mostly near the head and neck region to show excitement and affection.

Feather fluffing can also be accompanied by the waggling of its tail feather, do not be alarmed that a sign of affection.

Some conures will even dance on the perch while wagging their tail feathers just to show affection.

Preening

Preening is one of the techniques birds use to keep their feathers clean. In the wild, it is not uncommon to find birds preening each other.

When it comes to their human owners, conures will show the same affection by trying to preen your hair or beard. While it can be fun, some conures can go overboard and may end up inflicting pain since they use their beaks.

On the other hand it advisable to discourage this behavior since you might have applied some chemicals or beauty products that may end up hurting your conure.

Eye pinning and Flashing

Conures are able to change the size of their pupils to show affection. Eye pinning means narrowing of the conure pupil while flashing means widening the pupil of the conure.

When you notice that your conure is pinning and flashing its pupil, accompanied with a relaxed posture. That a sign of affection.

Flapping wings

Some conures will flap their wings as if they want to fly when they see a person they are affectionate to. Just like a child will raise his/her hands when they see a person they like as they prepare to be lifted.

Love bites

In the wild birds will give their partners friendly and hurtless bites known as love bites and their partners will reciprocate the same.

However, while they will do the same to the person they love, these love bites can be painfull to humans. The best way is to discourage this as a sign of affection.

Related questions

How to tell if your bird is bonded to you You can tell if your bird is bonded to you if they kissing, preening, eye pinning, cuddling, singing, cooing and purring, love bites, Regurgitation, Falling asleep on their owner, Flapping, and fluffing and wagging their tails.

Do conures get attached to one person? Yes, in some circumstances conures can be attached or bonded to one person especially if it’s only one person who takes care of them. This does not, however, mean that conures cannot be bonded to more than one person. Conures can even be bonded to the whole family members.

How long can you leave a conure alone? You can leave a conure alone for a period of 6 to 8 hours especially when they have enough toys in the cage to keep them busy and entartained. However, you should devot about 2 hours a day to play and bond with your conure.

Why do conures lick me? Conures lick their owners as a sign of affection. They may also give love bites or even kisses while at it.

Summary

If you are a new owner to a conure or you are looking forward to owning one, you can try to observe the above signs and behavior or even more behavior that we have not listed above to get an idea if your conure loves you. With time you will be able to tell how your conure feels about you.