Slender Billed Conure
Slender Billed Conure
enicognathus leptorhynchus
Length: 40cm/16 inches
Weight: +/- 240 grams
Life span: 30+ years
Incubation: 26 days
Age at weaning: 14 weeks
Age at maturity: 2 years
Natural habitat: Central Chile
Slender Billed Conures are predominantly forest birds, although during the winter months they can be found in open countryside and farmland but, as the weather improves, they soon return to the mountainous forest areas. They are noisy birds and very gregarious and they are almost always seen in flocks, even during the breeding season.
Several hundred birds will roost together at night and the noise they make is deafening. Whilst the flocks feed a sentinel bird will perch high in a neighbouring tree keeping watch for approaching danger, they are wary birds and as soon as they see something they aren't happy with they rise, screeching from the tree tops.
Their diet consists of seeds, berries, nuts, fruits, leaf buds and varying roots. Araucaria araucana, better known to us a the Monkey Puzzle Tree, seems to be one of their favourites and with their elongated bills they can easily extract the nuts. When they come to the ground to forage for grass seeds and roots they cause considerable damage to farmers crops, and in the orchards they tear the fruits apart to get at the seeds discarding the farmers fruit crops to the ground, destroyed.
They nest in unlined shallow hollows in trees, if they can only find a deep hollow they fill the bottom with twigs until it is at the perfect height for them. Sometimes several pairs of birds will use one tree to nest in and this is a wonderful sight. A normal clutch is 2-5 eggs and one parent will always be nearby until all the young have left the nest.
The plumage of the Slender Billed Conure is mostly a dull green, the feathers on their head are a lighter green tipped with light brown, and their feathers surrounding their crown are a greyish black. Their forehead and lores are dull red, their lower abdomen is brownish red. Their primary coverts are a bluish green and the outer webs of their primarys are a greenish blue towards the tips. Their tail is brownish red tipped, faintly, with green. Their beak is brownish grey, their iris's red and the skin surrounding their eyes grey, and their legs are a brownish colour. Immature birds are duller in colour than the adults and the skin around their eyes is white.
Interesting fact: Unfortunately the Slender Billed Conure is near threatened due to de-forestation, shooting and Newcastle disease.
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