Bird of the Week: Starfire the Blue Crown Conure

Starfire.

Blue Crown Conure (Aratinga acuticaudata.)

Female

14 weeks.

Starfire's dad, Donnie, says that her favorite food is definitely grapes. "I take one and chop it up into many small pieces." he says. "That way, she thinks she's getting to eat a lot of them!"

So far, Starfire's favorite toys is a wooden duck that has ropes and beads strung from it. "She will sit for ages, preening the rope and chewing on the wood and beads" Donnie says. "I've given her other toys to play with, but right now this is the only one that she cares anything about."

Starfire enjoys several different types of perches in her cage, including a rope perch, a manzanita perch, and a lava rock perch. According to Donnie, most of her time is spent on the manzanita perch, where she loves to chew the wood and hang upside down.

Donnie says that there are two things that Starfire definitely doesn't like: bananas, and wing clipping. "She's only had her wings trimmed a couple of times" Donnie says, "but she already knows that when the towel comes out, she's in for a trim."

Even at her young age, Starfire is beginning to talk. So far, the only word she has mastered is "hello", but Donnie predicts that she will be saying several words before very long. "I knew from the start that she would be a talker" he says. "She has always responded vocally to things that I say to her. I know it's just a matter of time before she will be repeating things back to me."

Donnie got Starfire when she was 8 weeks old from a local bird specialty shop. After visiting the store and spending time with Starfire and her brothers and sisters, he knew right away that Starfire was the one for him. "She came right up to me and started to snuggle." he says. "I knew that it was her way of telling me to take her home."

Donnie spends a lot of time practicing amateur astronomy, and looked to the heavens for inspiration when choosing his new pet's name. "I didn't want to name her after a star or planet" he says, "but I certainly wanted her to have a cool 'space' name. I settled on 'Starfire' after viewing a brilliant blue-colored meteor one night. It reminded me of her blue crown, so I started calling her 'Starfire' and the name just stuck. Plus, I didn't know whether she was male or female at that point, and the name seemed to fit either one."

Starfire spends most of her time either on Donnie or listening to music on her playstand. "I set up a nice little radio next to her perch" Donnie says. "Now and then I will walk by and catch her dancing to a tune on the radio. She loves music."

Who knows, with her incredible speaking talents, this little bird could be singing top 40 hits before long! Congratulations, Starfire, for being chosen as this week's "Bird of the Week!"

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