Baby Mitred, White Eyed, Cherry Head, Red Front and Finsch's Conures start out totally green, having no red on the head at all. Some may have slightly brownish feathers on the forehead. With each successive molt, the red feathers replace the green ones, and each species has a different pattern of replacement. Like many other species, the adult coloration becomes evident after a few molts. I hope that these photos will assist in proper identification of these species in both juvenile and adult birds.

When identifying the adult Finsch's Conure the key is to note the red triangular patch on the head and pay particular attention that the red does not touch the eye ring and is only over and slightly behind the cere.

The adult Mitred Conure is not often confused with the Finsch's Conure due to it's much larger size and the wider distribution of red feathering on the head and body.

The juvenile Mitred Conure can be confused with an adult Finsch's conure due to the smaller patch of red. The larger size of the Mitred should help to determine the difference.

An adult Red Fronted Conure, also known as Wagleri or Wagler's Conure, can easily be misidentified as an adult Finsch's Conure. When the red touches the eye ring however, that is a clear indication it is not a Finsch's Conure. On ocassion, misidentification can occur when the Red Fronted Conure's head color does not touch the eye ring, but determination can be made by the fact that the red patch is larger and not as clearly defined as in the Finsch's

As seen in this photo of a young Finsch's Conure, it could very easily be confused with either an adult or juvenile White Eye Conure and with most of the juveniles of all these red headed species of conures. It has been my experience that the juvenile Finsch's can go as long as a year and a half before even slight red feathering appears over the cere.

This adult White Eye Conure appears to look like a juvenile Finsch's but when viewing the full body, the wing coloration shows that it is an adult White Eye. When the White Eye is a juvenile it can look exactly like the Finsch's Conure. Both species can look very similiar for quite a long time.

This juvenile Red Mask Conure at three months of age can also be mistaken for a Finsch's Conure. The Red Mask Conure however, will begin to color up much younger than the Finsch's. The red on the cheeks and behind the eye ring will start to appear at about five to six months of age.