Best bird choice

My daughter has been asking for a bird for quite some time and I have decided to get her one for Christmas.

Now for the hard part.
Which to get.

I had a B&G macaw once before but do not want to go that route again since work hours are crazy and you cannot "ignore" a macaw.

I am looking for something that is smaller, will tame down, not too loud, and be able to be alright if there is no interaction for a few days at a time.

My choices so far are below.

Parakeet (kinda loud though)
Love birds (very loud)
Society finches (not that colorful but a pair would be nice)
Canaries
Dove
Cockatoo

Any other suggestions would be great. There is not much of a selection locally and the ones here that I have looked at of all these types were not tame at all.

I would much rather buy a weaned baby from a breeder and pay the extra for airline shipping to ensure I get a healthy, socialized bird.

What type of bird would you suggest?

I would suggest a hand fed baby cockatiel, the whiteface pieds are beautiful.
They are pleasant birds, easy to handle, easy to care for by an older child, and some can even learn a couple words and many can learn to whistle a song or two.
They are a dust feather bird so think twice if your child is prone to allergies, but other than that, they are terrific birds.

Oops. Sorry Lucille. I meant to type cockatiel and wrote cockatoo. Big difference LOL.

I saw the pieds, normals, and an all white with orange cheeks locally. The all white was beautiful but VERY afraid of people and the others were biters.

My daughter is prone to allergies (the whole family is actually with pollen, dust, animal dander) so this type may not be a good choice although like you said, they are pretty.

Finches are a headache; As the animal lover at work, I am responsible for taking care of the birds there. They have two finches, two parakeets, and two cockatiels. The finches are the biggest chore; their cage always looks messy starting from five minutes after I finish; they poop every other second, and are just generally very busy little mess makers. The parakeets aren't as bad, but overall the cockatiels make the smallest mess.
I concur with Lucille; we had a cockatiel at home for about 20 years, (Toby was 8 and I was 16 or 17 when he was given to us) and he wasn't too loud (though they like to greet the morning like any other bird), you could ignore him without having him disrupt your whole day trying to get your attention, and he would even call the cat when he saw it go by (which is always a hit if you can teach your bird that) He died just last year; it was like having a member of the family get sick and die; they can live up to 35 years. Hand fed ones make wonderful companions, you can't even compare them to finches or parakeets.
Conures are nice, but they are LOUD.
I have also had doves as a kid. They are alright; tame down okay, but are POWERFUL fliers; you can clip their wings down to nubbins and they still can fly (typical of pigeons; those and ducks have a lot of power) but will never talk. They are the quietest, and will suffer the least if left alone a lot, but if you have a male and female they WILL breed. They just had ringneck doves out when I was young, but now they have gorgeous, smaller, exotic varieties.
Cockatoos can be handled like a dog, you can rough house with them and everything, but are highly intelligent and gregarious; if you cannot give it enough attention on a daily basis the bird will quickly get lonesome and will start plucking or will develop other bad habits.
In my humble opinion, it's between a cockatiel and a dove as far as the best out of that group...depends on how much time you have to spend with the bird; doves suffer loneliness the least, as they only form social groups when migrating. Cockatiels spend their entire lives in a social group (they come from Australia, and fly in great flocks over there), so you really shouldn't ignore them for days on end.

The dust feather birds (cockatoos, cockatiels) are difficult when the family has allergies as they have feathers below the wing whose purpose is to disintegrate over time into dust which the bird uses to preen itself. This differs from oil feather birds (canaries, parakeets, amazons etc.) who have an oil gland located near the tail and use that oil to preen and waterproof themselves.
One oil feather bird which I think is particularly nice are the birds in the pionus family. Quiet birds and if hand fed make good pets. The bronze and white cap can be found for more reasonable, the blue headed is more spectacular but more costly.
Check out the classifieds at www.upatsix.com, they usually have a good selection of different kinds of birds as well as great bird info.

Originally Posted by SPJ

Oops. Sorry Lucille. I meant to type cockatiel and wrote cockatoo. Big difference LOL.

I saw the pieds, normals, and an all white with orange cheeks locally. The all white was beautiful but VERY afraid of people and the others were biters.

My daughter is prone to allergies (the whole family is actually with pollen, dust, animal dander) so this type may not be a good choice although like you said, they are pretty.

Birds have two types of feathers; Cockatiels have the kind that are worse for allergy sufferers because they flake a lot. Lovebirds have feathers that are less allergenic, but there is no such thing as a hypoallergenic bird.
Maybe a herp would suit her fancy? Leopard geckos are great for beginners who are willing to devote a few minutes a day to them...

Originally Posted by lucille

The dust feather birds (cockatoos, cockatiels) are difficult when the family has allergies as they have feathers below the wing whose purpose is to disintegrate over time into dust which the bird uses to preen itself. This differs from oil feather birds (canaries, parakeets, amazons etc.) who have an oil gland located near the tail and use that oil to preen and waterproof themselves.
One oil feather bird which I think is particularly nice are the birds in the pionus family. Quiet birds and if hand fed make good pets. The bronze and white cap can be found for more reasonable, the blue headed is more spectacular but more costly.
Check out the classifieds at www.upatsix.com, they usually have a good selection of different kinds of birds as well as great bird info.

Lucille! Wow, I didn't see your post when I posted! I didn't know you liked birds too!

Are conures louder than lovebirds?

Just wondering because I heard that conures have personalities (unlike some of the ones I listed before).

Conures, like one of my ex husbands, are shrill, loud and unpleasantly so for hours on end.
On the other hand, unlike this ex, they do have great personalities....

IF you can find one, I'd suggest a Bourke's Parakeet. They're about the size of an English budgie, are VERY quite (they sound more like finches than anything else) and are LOW on dander. They don't talk, but the males especially are very social. Some people think of them as mini-rosellas, which I think is pretty appropriate. Fortunately, a normal is usually less than the price of a cockatiel (unlike rosellas). You'd probably have to attend a bird show/fair to find one.

For the doves, I'd suggest a diamond dove, not a ringneck. Diamond doves aren't much bigger than a canary with a long tail. They're not exactly hand-tame, but they aren't as skittish as you might think either.

If you decide on a cockatiel, I'd avoid the lutinos (Yellow & white feathers, red eyes, orange cheeks) because many of them apparently lack the ability to lock their leg and foot muscles while sleeping, and tend to fall off the perch. Lacking melanin in their feathers also seems to make the feather structure weaker, and in my experience, they are much more prone to blood feathers. The pieds, pearls and pearly-pieds, all available in normal, cinnamon and whiteface, are attractive birds. My favorite is the whiteface cinnamon pied--very cool.

Lovebirds can be LOUD and high-pitched. So if noise is a factor, I'd probably avoid one of them.

Just my two cents, hope it helps.