Romy, where are you located? Being around birds in person and actually being able to connect with them helps. We rescued our first bird, my profile photo, and he's a Parakeet. We were hoping for a more hands-on bird, but he's still pretty skiddish. After spending a lot of time at pet expos that had bird rescues, spending time with our friend who has a farm sanctuary that includes rescued birds of all kinds, watching YouTube videos and scouring around here on Avian Avenue, we were leaning towards Cockatiels, but fell in love with a 2-month-old hand-raised green cheek conure. We're not experts--I still post questions here on various forums, but our Westley is very affectionate. He actually was hand-trained TOO well: he expects to be out of his cage and with us all day. He goes in reluctantly, sometimes with a tantrum. He will sit on top of his cage when the parakeets are singing and mimic their songs. Conures don't sing like tiels and parakeets, but they mimic best they can. They have a sort of garbled/scratchy sounding speaking voice. My guy can definitely let out some ear piercing notes, but they are essentially when someone first comes home or he first sees someone after a while. Then he's actually pretty quiet. He makes this hilarious Mallard-type grunt when you're giving him scritches or petting him, or if he's walking to get to you. He'll call out (Westley's "hey, come get me" or "hi there!" is "Hey Baby") but if he's on/with us, he's quiet. I've taught him to give a kiss on my chin when I say "kiss kiss" and then sometimes he'll make the smooch sound. He is definitely mouthy/nippy, but conures just have busy beaks. Imagine a toddler running around a room touching everything at least once and then going back to the good toy to sit and play with is. Westley will hop down to my desk, put his beak on everything, then settle for a favorite to chew on, so I make sure it's good for him. Even in his biggest moment of anger he's not drawn blood. He has us belly laughing daily. He's really quite fun and also super sweet. He'll fall asleep either perched on a warm shoulder or lying on his belly nuzzled under a chin.
