Lovie or Conure?

[Honeycomb]

So I’m new to bird keeping. I have done a ton of painstaking research, found which shops sell tame parrots, made a list of items I’ll need etc. After several weeks of switching between birds, I’ve narrowed it down to these two: Lovebirds and Green Cheek Conures.
Some info:
This will be my first bird, though I have some experience as i took care of a friend’s bird for a while.
There are children younger than 10 in out house, however they will be taught to respect the bird and the door to the bird’s room will be locked when I’m not home.
I have school from 8 to 4, but can give the bird my undivided attention for at least 4 hours a day.
I would like a bird who is relatively cuddly, very trainable and ok with being an only bird.
Volume is not a huge issue, but we do have neighbours so anything above Sun Conure levels is too loud.
So which of the two is more suitable? If there’s any others that match some of my criteria please let me know!

[Pajarita]

Hi, Honeycomb, and welcome to the forum.

As to a reply to your question of which of the two species you mention is good with being an only bird, easily trained and cuddly... well, I am afraid that neither. Let me explain. A single lovebird can (but, most likely, will not) be cuddly, it will be very difficult to train (it is an aviary species) and will be miserable by itself (again, this is an aviary species and the reason why they are called lovebirds is that they are ALWAYS together and ALWAYS loving each other -in Spanish, Italian and French, this species is called 'inseparable'). Now, GCCs are almost always cuddly, relatively easy to train and would be OK as an only bird BUT ONLY if its human is always there (which you will not be) because they are as needy as cockatoos. GCCs do not do well spending all day long by themselves and, with your 8 am to 4 pm schedule, the bird would not be able to see you the entire week because birds require being kept at a strict solar schedule and that means winter days that start at 9 and end at 3 pm (because they also need to be exposed to dawn and dusk) or the poor thing will be producing sexual hormones all day long which translates into health issues (please do research on avian photoperiodism, avian endocrine system and avian reproductive system - birds are not like mammals when it comes to reproduction).

In your situation: out all day long, children, school, house, etc. I would recommend you get a male/female pair of cockatiels. They are beautiful, smart, they do very well when kept in a large flight cage in pairs (keeps them happy, healthy and quiet) and they can be trained (but you would have to limit it to simple things because training for aviary species is very stressful). They will not be really cuddly but all species that are cuddly require an inordinate amount of time spent with them every single day of their lives. And, in my personal opinion, the most outstanding and attractive characteristic of them is that they have, by far, the sweetest temperament of all parrot species.